To Dim Sum or to Yum Cha

You have to do it don't you. When in Rome as they say. Dim Sum or Yum Cha is as Hong Kong as the Peak or the Star Ferry are. You think of one, you think of the other.

We wanted to try Dim Sum, but where. Should we go for one of the super slick Dim Sum Restaurants that serve immaculate and innovative food. Or the more traditional ones that are jam packed with old friends catching up on daily events, picking different dishes off the carts being pushed around by the old women. We chose the latter. 

We got a good recommendation and luckily it was really local to us. The Lin Heung Bakery. As we walked in, we saw a huge room packed with at least a hundred people, all in true Hong Kong fashion making a hell of a racket. It was packed, and I think we looked kinda lost as one of the guys there found us two seats on a table being used by two other parties.

The normal way, I observed afterwards, was to pick an area and hang around, and as soon as someone stands up to go, you pounce in the almost vacant seat. The English preserve does not stand here.

So seated we were. We were given a pot of oolong tea, and then we waited for the trolleys to come our way.

Menus do not exist in these places, which makes it more exciting. Bit like playing shotgun noodles again.

The first trolley that came around had plates of steamed rice noodles filled with either fish or pork. We choose the pork ones, the woman poured over some soy sauce just to coat the noodles. They were delish to say the least. The noodles were really soft and delicate to the taste, although meat was only at the ends not all the way through. Bit tight that.

Next up which seemed to be thrust upon us was some Steamed Pork Rolls. Lina reckons beef, but I say pork as they tasted like sausage meat. They were pretty good, but we should have chosen the ones with shrimp as well. 

We were still kinda peckish, so we ordered some honey glazed pork and rice, that we had seen people eating and we liked what we saw. This had a real nice sticky glaze to it and went well with the rice.

We decided to have one more dim sum, so when the next trolley came around we ordered what looked like a Tamale. But turned out to be a Glutinous Rice Cake with Chicken Wrapped in a Lotus Leaf. It is a Chinese Tamale. Well similar type of thing anyhows. Really nice, but I really like Tamales, so this was right up my street. We are getting pretty good at eating difficult things with chopsticks, even with those darn plastic things. Much prefer wooden chopsticks, have more grip. 

We were just coming to the point of no more tea. Thee guy had filled up our tea pot with water countless times, then we saw a mad rush to a trolley over the other side of the room. The woman was mobbed with people, taking her delicious parcels of food. We had to wait before someone from our side came back with what she had. It was steamed buns. So I was up like a flash to grab me some Char Siu.

Luckily she had some left. Phew. I really love these little buns of barbecued pork. They tasted so good, I wish I could of had more, but we were pretty full by that point. The rice again.

Went over to pay for our hour of gorging, and the bill was HK$105. Unreal. I was expecting double that. 

I wish we had of eaten here more often as the food, the atmosphere was brilliant. But we were late risers and normally heading straight off to another part of Hong Kong for the day.

We shall return in October.