dim sum – Don't hold your breath

Dim sum central

The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question ‘How can we eat?’ the second by the question ‘Why do we eat?’ and the third by the question ‘Where shall we have lunch?
Douglas Adams (Restaurant at the End of the Universe)

As a tax-paying member of our galactic civilization, we faced the where question after descending from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. Since our intention was to saunter through parts of the island before lunch, we decided we would eat at Hong Kong station, otherwise known as Central station. Finding your way in Hong Kong is not easy, we found. You have to know the names of roads to follow signs. Maps are confusing too, because there are corridors and roads at different levels. We knew we generally had to head down, so it wasn’t too bad. But we worked up a bit of an appetite by the time we came to Central.

The place that caught our eye was a very popular dim sum place. We took a ticket: tenth in queue. But the queue moved fast, and we could order as we stood there. We tried, and then decided that we would look at what neighbours ordered before we decided. We sat facing each other on a long table. On one side was a big family sharing food. On the other there were two office goers who read while eating: one on the phone, the other a book. The food was terrific, in the Guangdong style.

Cantonese but different

The name Lei Garden stuck in my head when I looked through the Michelin starred restaurants in Guangzhou. Then while I was looking for a place for lunch in the Tianhe district, it clicked in my head. Since this wasn’t the branch which was awarded a Michelin star, we could hope to get a walk-in table. I didn’t know then that this was the first branch of this Hong Kong chain which opened in Mainland China, as long back as 1995. In order to maximize the chance of getting a table, we walked in for lunch quite late, and found a table with ease.

As part of my preparation for eating in Guangzhou I’d made a list of the different kinds of dim sum, written in the Chinese script, and I’d practiced saying these words over and over again. As always, life is simpler than you think it will be. This was a business district after all, so our friendly waiter, Albert, spoke impeccable English. We’d already had several meals in Guangzhou without ordering any dim sum.

With help from Albert we chose three different kinds of dim sum with different fillings. The featured photo shows my favourite, a rice wrapping around shrimp, then there was the lovely steamed pork which you see in the photo above, and the chicken dumplings next to it. When I looked for tofu, Albert suggested the fried tofu balls with a shrimp sauce which you see in one of the photos above. Finally we rounded it all off with the sweet nutty pastry which you can admire in the photos just below.

The signature of the Guangdong kitchen is in the freshness of the ingredients, and the quick cooking which serves to release the flavour. Lei Garden carries this philosophy further, with an emphasis on organic growth. Although it is a chain, five of the restaurants have earned Michelin stars. The food was wonderful. I hadn’t had great expectations of the tofu, but it was surprisingly good. The Family remembers it as her favourite. Mine was the shrimp dumpling which you see in the featured photos. Over the next few days we regretted not being able to go back for a repeat of the experience. The food was clearly more modern and lighter than everything I’d eaten since reaching Guangzhou, while being definitely of the style I was beginning to recognize as belonging to Guangdong. Fortunately, there are branches in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore, so we should be able to taste this great food if we take a short eastward detour.

One worry you never have in Chicago

One of the recurring themes of Westerns is the cattle drive. Most of these drives used to end in Chicago. So, if you eat steaks, then you could suspect that you might be able to get good food in Chicago. You would be right. It is possible to eat a good steak every evening at a different restaurant if you are a tourist in Chicago.

For those who like a little spice in their lives, the first bit of variety one can think of is the deep dish pizza. One Saturday evening I made my way to an old and well-known pizzeria just north of the river. This was either fun, or a big mistake. No reservations are taken, and there was a forty five minute wait. The energetic eleven year old who was our guide for the weekend was beginning to wilt. The bar food (photo above) included a few things which she was happy with, while her parents and I sampled some of the other things available at the bar. Was it worth the wait? Does Chicago stand by a lake?

Earlier in the day we’d walked through Chinatown looking for good dim sum. Some of the most popular food known across the world as Chinese was invented by Chinese immigrants to the US over a century ago, but I believe dim sum is not among them. We passed interesting restaurant like the one in the photo above before reaching a place which Yelp considers one of the best for dim sum in this area.

I used to put on weight when I visited US even for periods as short as a week until I realized that I have to stay off sweets and muffins. This time around, the weather helped with working off extra calories. Some of the other tricks involve not eating muffins which come on the side of an order of fruits and yoghurt. It was easy to find places with calorie count indicated with each dish. This works as long as you stay off uncharted bits like salad dressing or bread and butter on the side.

Chicago has wonderful Italian restaurants, and Asian restaurant with amazingly good sushi. I’m told by a local authority that there are wonderful Indian restaurants; in fact such a diversity that you can eat at places which specialize in regional Indian food.

Whatever you eat, its good to remember that it started off as 96% water. It got tastier as the water was replaced by butter.