Dim Sum Anyone?

Today's Lunch Special : Dim Sum



My day started with 2 words - Dim Sum... Having awoke from my slumber at around 11, a friend of mine nudged me on msn to join her and a couple of other friends for Dim Sum at Wah Court (which is around 5 minutes from where I live). The first thing that came to my mind was : crowded chinese people,waiters and waitress carrying big round trays and chinese tea : "OKAY I'M IN" was my reply to my friend.

For those of you who are perplexed with the word Dim Sum, here's a quick introduction. Growing up in a place where people regarded it as the "food haven" I have to admit I was never openly exposed to Dim Sum. No doubt it was one of the most popular breakfast dishes for most chinese malaysians, my family some how didnt really get hooked to it. So as a result, I grew up not truly knowing what Dim Sum actually was. It wasn't till my college years when my chinese friends first took me out for a "Dim-Sum" breakfast. I must admit, it was a real experience. I mean here you are seated and a bunch of waiters come to your table, each offering a unique dish and you just pick the dish that your taste buds are craving for. You don't even have to get up from your seat to make an order! Most of the Dim Sum dishes have pork, and are served in different ways - mostly either fried or steamed. The cost of each plate... I seriously have no idea, but usually the whole meal comes up to around $8-$10 per person (it depends also on how many dishes you order). The dishes are usually served hot. Click here to see the common dishes that are offered.

Anyway my friend had already made reservations for 6 people, so we didn't have to wait in-line for a table, which was good! (The last time I went to Wah Court with 3 other friends, we had to wait for nearly 20-30 minutes - yeah it was our own stupidity for not making reservations!

The first dish did kicked-start our appetite. It was siu mai (pork dumplings). Siu Mai is actually one of my favourite dishes and not surprisingly it's also a crowd-favourite. Many people that I have spoken to about Dim Sum dishes claim siu mai to be their favourite dish. From Siu Mai, the dishes just kept coming in. All 6 of us would look at the waiter's tray, and all that was needed was someone to say yes and the dish would be on our table. I honestly lost tracked on all the dishes we had...but one I clearly remember is the sessame ball dish which is another favourite dish of mine. This is something that I've actually enjoyed since my childhood days. We used to have a similiar snack like this at home and my family used to love it and I still think they do.

The time taken to have a hearty dim-sum meal depends on 3 factors:

• the number of people that you're with
• the frequency of the waiters appearing at your table
• The crowd level at the restaurant

Surprisingly, despite being in a company of 5 other people, we managed to finish lunch in an hour and 10 minutes. Well this was more due to the latter factors. The time interval between 2 waiters appearing at our table was around 2-3 minutes, and by luck, they were carrying the dishes that we wanted...so we didn't need to wait that long for our desired dish to come...well maybe except for the sessame ball because for some unexplained reason, that was the LAST dish to come! And our timing too was good in a way as the restaurant was not as crowded as we expected it to be.

My 2nd Dim Sum experience at Wah Court was an enjoyable one. The bill came up around 66 dollars (for 6 people), yes as I was walking back home, I looked at Pizza-Pizza and thought to myself that I could have had lunch there for less than 5 bucks, but then again...there's seriously nothing like the Dim-Sum experience. Plus remember the saying that you're always bound to bump into someone when you're in a crowded restaurant? Well how often do you see the professor that you TA for and have a close relationship with, having lunch with his family? Not that often I guess!!

Brief Headlines for the Day

• Finished the 2nd of the 3rd question for my take home final!
• Thinking of watching Stealth at the cinema tonight - was supposed to go last night, but the too-lazy-to-do-anything syndrome kicked in!
• Chelsea beat Arsenal at the Community Shield 2-1 - Maybe Chelsea won't win the league now!