Finding the Holy Grail: Mind Blowing Dim Sum

For the last year (or 24 years, though the first 23 were unknowingly) I have been searching for something that I know exists, yet had never seen myself, a holy grail of my own sort. A dim sum that could both blow me away with traditional tidbits and show me the unknown path to new and better dim sum. Growing up in Seattle I always loved a variety of places–the Top Gun in Seattle sticks in my mind as a favorite, but always new there was something better out there. Last year on our trip to New York we never made it out to Flushing and were consistently dissapointed in the offerings in Manhattan. Without a trip to San Fran in my future, I set my sights on Vancouver. Close enough for repeated efforts, with much opportunity.

This weekend I made it one step closer. I don’t want to say I achieved it, because, of course, there could be better, but I was satisfied. Fisherman’s Terrace in the Crystal Mall gets top scores on value, traditional stuff done well and on introducing me to new stuff. Minus points for telling me it was a 20 minute wait and then leaving us hanging for a full hour. Bonus points for being in a mall that had amazing soup dumplings (Shanghai Shanghai) that I could eat while I waited. I will definetly be torn in the future between trying this again and going out in search of better dim sum.

We started with shu mai. These were worlds ahead of any shu mai I’ve ever tried–whole shrimpies (no heads though), chunks of mushroom, held together with flavorful pork. There was enough skin to perfectly hold the thing together and even loan a little flavor. The top was amply sprinkled with tobiko. I was floored. Floored by a shu mai, who knew that could happen? Dishes arrived, none quite as shocking as the the shu mai. The mini pork buns were sub par, didn’t hold up to the ones at nearby Gingeri, but most everything else was the best I’d had of its kind. The chicken feet (which were originally missed in our order…I’m not claiming white person discrimination…but it is fishy!) were accompanied by the longest “ankle” (as my co-worker calls it) I’ve ever seen. We munched through taro root cakes (unbelievable, crisp taro flavor, texture), dried scallop and shrimp rice rolls, and a whole lot more. My favorite new item is what I have dubbed Jew food meets dim sum: a crisp chip topped with fruit salad (that part isn’t jewish) topped with smoked salmon and a creamy mayonaisse. It was truly like a chinese version of bagels and lox! All in all, a fun, interesting and eye opening experience.

On People Who Don’t Like Food

I know I’m a snobby person. This has never been a doubt in my mind. Snobby in that if people don’t agree with me, I have trouble keeping my sharp tongue in check (this never gets me in trouble. Ever.). As I recently got into good food (you noticed?) I have become snobbier about food. I try to claim I don’t dislike foods, that I’m willing to try anything–though you’ll rarely find me ordering marinara or chicken. But the biggest change is how snobby I have become towards people who don’t enjoy food.

This weekend, in Vancouver for my half-marathon, Vancouver my favorite food destination for delicious Izakaya treats and dim sum delicicies, I discovered I was with three food haters. They don’t come out and say “oh I don’t like food” but they don’t enjoy good food. They eat for the sole purpose of survival, not for enjoyment. It hurts me to watch. I hadn’t yet realized the extent of this when I suggested my favorite quick cheap dinner spot in the area, Legendary Noodle. The vegan (who eats seafood) among us ordered steamed chinese broccoli hold the oyster sauce add extra broccoli. I hung my head in shame. Other culinary disasters that were ordered included pan-fried dumplings, but steamed, and with chicken. Chicken, my friends, was not made for dumplings. If it must be in them, frying them can save it, but this, this was not saved. I can’t begin to recount the many culinary travesties that were commited this weekend (”Can I get the smoked salmon appetizer, but as my meal. And can you add something to it so that it isn’t just salmon?”), but there were alot. A favored meal for the weekend was accomplished by a trip to the grocery store: white bread, sliced chicken breast, provolone cheese (no condiments please), for one girl, plain whole wheat tortilla with bean dip for another.

So what is my point? In my striving for great food, have I lost the ability to enjoy food with normal people? Or are these girls abnormal? I make fun of vegetarians for sport, but let’s be honest, my friends that are vegetarians eat well, they still love food. Maybe I don’t have a point and I just wanted to complain about my weekend. Maybe I’m internally chastising myself for being unable to resist snarky comments about what these girls wanted to eat. Or perhaps I’m just said nobody understood why I was upset when my tagliatelli came and was actually fettucini and when my croque madame had tomatoes on it!

Dim Sum at Sun Sui Wah

But first, a quick note: I have added a few pictures to the previous post. As per a request below, I am going to work on getting more pictures on the site–especially on home cooked meals–I don’t know about getting restaurant pictures yet.

And now on to my wonderful dim sum at Sun Sui Wah on Sunday. Aside from the whole catastrophe of me losing my passport on sunday morning (turns out you don’t actually need a passport or birth certificate to get in to Canada), we managed to get out of Seattle by 9:30, making it to the downtown Vancouver branch of SSW before noon. There was a bit of a wait for a table, but not bad, maybe 20 minutes, which isn’t all that much when you consider we drove over 2 hours to get there. The clatter and clank of dishes right away reminded me that we were not at a quiet, polite Seattle dim sum anymore. “It’s like a different country” Said B. Meaning China, not Canada. And it is, this was a real dim sum experience, and for me a first. I chose piece carefully, wanting to try everything–new things for the experience, things I get all the time to see how different they were here. I was careful to eat only small bites of what we got in order to conserve as much stomach space as possible.

I’m going to describe what I got here, please, anyone who knows the real names of these things, I would love to know!

The first cart that came by I picked a steamed barbecue hum bao. The outside was a great texture, pillowesque as it enveloped pork that fell apart at the slightest prodding. The hint of sweetness that I so dearly treasure may have been a bit overpowering, but it was better than lacking it. Next up was a squid dish, it appeared just to be a few whole pieces of squid steamed in a very light sauce. Simple, yet for a squid lover like me, a great punch of flavor. The tubes held sauce so there was a little explosion of flavor when you bit into it.

We grabbed a few pork potstickers from a tray, which were good, but still just potstickers–nothing overly exciting. A sticky rice was nicely packaged into small package so there was a very high sausage to rice ratio, a nice bonus for the meat lovers among us, also allowed the rice to take on more of the meaty flavor. I always order my thick rice noodles with shrimp inside, but here they had only beef, so I took that and was surprised at the soft texture of the beef inside, matching the noodles perfectly in texture, but with a terrific bite of flavor from the inside of the plainness of the noodles.

A little treat I had never had before came by soon after, small circles of tofu (soft and custurdy on the inside, but with a solid skin, so they didn’t fall apart) with a ball of shrimp on the top–like the inside of a har gow, but with out the skin, and a small sprinkling of roe. This was a great new treat, and it was very well liked by B and I. Another new dish that we really enjoyed, I can barely even describe. The outside was like the dough part of a steamed hum bao, but it was sliced like it had been from a log, and the inside was almost all filling–only maybe a centimeter of bao around the edge. The filling looked a little like sticky rice, perhaps? With just a bit of sweetness. It was my favorite of the day, so if anyone knows what it is, please tell me!

Unfortunately I haven’t convinced B to get over his fear of chicken feet, so one of my staples was out, but my other one was definetly in–Congee. B agreed this was some of the best congee we have tried. And nothing cures a hangover like a good congee. This made us very happy, it was the only thing I had trouble enforcing my one bite rule. We finished up with a little pan fried pork dumpling, which made our potsticker taste like cardboard, it was so packed with flaver (a breadier type of dough, much better meat). Last but not least, I finally realized that I had to ask for my daikon cake to get it, which I did. Those were pretty average, despite being fried to order.

I left Sun Sui Wah with a grin on my face. I finally understood why people were so snotty about Seattle’s dim sum–this was what they were talking about. And I’m willing to bet there are people who turn their nose up at Sun Sui Wah’s dim sum, so I’ll have to keep looking for new and better places!