Chinese Dim Sum, yum yum

I've been gone for a few days.  I thought I'd share a little bit of what I've been doing.  One thing I did while I was away was to try something I've always wanted to try.  (I almost said, "checked an item off my bucket list," but I don't really like that expression)  I went to a dim sum restaurant while I was in Philadelphia.  It was called the Dim Sum Garden and it was delicious.

First things, first.  The most important item in a dim sum restaurant are the soup dumplings.

Soup dumplings, aka Shanghai steamed pork juicy buns

There were eight of these dumplings, to start, but we were so excited to get them we dove right into them before I could snap the pic.  You eat these dumplings by peeling them off the parchment paper into your spoon and then lifting the spoon to your mouth.  Take a tiny bite of the thin won ton and slurp the broth out of the dumpling.  Watch out!  They are very hot.  Then, drizzle a little ginger sauce on it and proceed to finish the dumpling.  There is a little pork meatball inside.  Delicious.

We went to the Dim Sum Garden for the juicy buns, but my favorite thing was the Cold Cucumbers.

Cold cucumbers

These cucumbers were so good.  They were marinating in cilantro and vinegar.  I guess I'm in love with anything with cilantro in it.  So good.  I've got to learn how to make these.

We each had a bowl of soup and shared an order of scallion pancakes.  I had the Chilli Cabbage Shredded Pork soup and my friend, Carol, had the Seaweed and Egg soup.  We finished off the meal by sharing a plate of Pork with Sauce Noodles.

Chili cabbage shredded pork soup

Scallion pancake

I didn't get a pic of the pork with sauce noodles.  Sorry.  This meal was delicious and we were both stuffed.

The decor of the Dim Sum Garden is nothing to write home about, but the food it delicious.  Our waitress was so helpful. She made wonderful suggestions to us for choosing our food, as neither of us had been to a dim sum restaurant before.  She also explained that the Dim Sum Garden was a Chinese dim sum restaurant.  This type of dim sum is much different than a Cantonese dim sum restaurant.  In a Cantonese restaurant the popular way to dine is to arrive at 11 o'clock a.m. and have a brunch-like meal.  The waiters roll carts around the restaurant and the diners take plates of dim sum off the carts until they can eat no more.  They usually stay until around 3 o'clock p.m.  They make an event of the whole meal.

Btw, this was very economical meal, as well.  That may explain why the place was fill with college students.

 

 

110.  A couple days with an old friend
111.  Spending time in an urban environment, it feeds my soul
112.  Husband safely home from a skiing trip in Maine
113.  The first snowfall of the year
114.  Sunday morning in bed, with coffee