Wandering the streets of Hong Kong, we knew that there was one thing we needed to find: dim sum. For those of you unfamiliar with dim sum, it is a type of traditional Chinese food usually eaten either during breakfast or lunch. For more details,
read here (got to love Wikipedia!). Anyways, we were wandering the streets of Hong Kong in search of a restaurant we had read about in our Lonely Planet guidebook. The guidebook provides an overview map, and then gives more detailed maps of certain areas. Well, the problem was that the restaurant is on one of the detailed maps, but when you flip between the maps, they don’t correspond. On the big map, north is on the top of the page, where on the little map, north is on the left side. So we’re constantly backtracking, trying to get our bearings, and the whole time the buildings seem to be falling in on us because they’re tall and so close together and there are so many signs, none of which are in English.
So we’re walking and walking, and slowly any hope of ever finding this place is slipping away when we come across a bakery with the same name. We figure this has got to be the place, except there are no tables, only a stairway leading up to the second floor. So up the stairs we go, and we find ourselves in a large room that more resembles more a department store then a restaurant. All the water pipes and wires are exposed in the ceiling, the floor is tile made for easy cleaning, and the lighting was harsh florescent lighting.
And it is packed. There doesn’t appear to be more then a handful of empty seats. A gentleman at the top of the stairs stands up from his table to greet us in broken English before pointing us towards a table somewhere across the room. As we walk across the room, we become acutely aware that (A) there is something that is gathering everyone’s attention and (B) we were the attraction. I guess they’d never seen such an attractive couple before.
Somehow we find an empty table that seats four, and as soon as we sat down a gentleman sits down across from us. Before we have a chance to question him, the waiter arrives, throwing down a teapot, along with a bowl and other dishes. He fills the teapot and bowl with hot water, purposefully placing a teacup in the bowl, and then walks off. Uncertain of what to do, we watch the gentleman sitting across from us. He took his dishes, dipping them in his bowl of water while rubbing the rim of each dish. Just in case the dishwasher had missed a spot.
The waiter then brought over two sheets with different squares, one for us and one for the gentleman across the table. As we sat there, a lady with a cart came by with round wooden containers containing the dim sum. She opened one up and offered us the dish inside. Not knowing exactly what it was, we accepted. She gave us the dish, then pulled out our sheet and stamped one of the many squares with a Chinese character. About that time a lady joined us at the table, conversing with the gentleman. We assumed they were together. But no time to ask, as another women with a cart came by. As she attended to the table across from us, other people walked up to the cart and started looking in her different containers. One woman found the dish she was looking for, and showed us as she passed.
“Lotus seed bun. Very good here. Very famous,” she said. Taking it as some friendly advice, Justin asked the cart lady for our own buns, which she gladly provided us after stamping our card. After she left, the lady across the table decided to inform us that the lotus seed bun is sweet, generally eaten as a desert. Live and learn right?
Now that the secret was out, and we knew someone else spoke English, we started grilling her like a stuck goose. Which is what she recommended – the goose that is. So we ordered a noodle soup with goose. She also informed us that the selection was a little smaller then earlier in the day because we had arrived after the lunch rush, but on the plus side everything was cheaper because they wanted to make sure and sell it all. She did her fair share of questioning as well. She wanted to know where we were from, and was surprised to hear the United States. Apparently she thought Americas were rounder, so she had pegged us as European. She also asked if we were newlyweds. Justin said, “Why, because we’re still smiling?” to which she replied, “No, because of your shiny rings.”
About that time the gentleman at our table departed and was replaced by a woman. She, unlike our other table guest, did not speak English. Yet she did try to teach us a few words. She kept saying a phrase and then expecting Justin to repeat, and seemed to get a great deal of joy out of hearing his attempts to repeat her phrases. Either because they were so bad or because he was saying, “I’m a silly white boy.” Either way, she was also very generous with her tea, repeatedly filling our glasses. It seems that the tea leafs have an excellent re-brewing ability. No sooner would a pot be empty of water then a waiter would come along and pour in more hot water. Except in the case of our generous tablemate. Our table was located right next to the waiter station, so she would just reach over from her chair, grab a pot of hot water and refill her teapot herself.
By the time we’d finished, we’d had 5 different dim sum dishes, the goose noodle soup, and all the tea we could manage, all for 104HK$, which, at about 7.7 HK$ to one US$, made the whole meal about $13.50. And they didn’t even charge for the best part, the experience.
