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- - Dim Sum (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/diningbuzz/2217630-dim-sum.html)

I went to Hong Kong last year and really enjoyed the Dim Sum there.
Yesterday, I went to Ban Heng in Singapore. (I live in Singapore.)
And enjoy eating the Dim Sum there.
My all time favorite food is Dim Sum.

Not available near me. But while living in the Bay Area a coworker took me out for dim sum at lunch. I was the only Caucasian in the place. It was spectacular. I especially enjoyed the steamed bbq pork buns.

There aren't many Caucasians eating Dimsum in Singapore, too.

A Cantonese (GuangDong including HongKong) community is required for such, which fortunately includes (at least in the past) pretty much every Chinatown outside Asia. Quality and range of options may vary though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by YVR Cockroach (Post 37747023)

Quality and range of options may vary though.

And higher price and elevated restaurant ambiance don't necessarily reflect a better eating experience :idea: My former favorite "most reliable" was a suburban place that didn't use carts, but brought things when ordered (from a paper checklist). Much better than waiting for the now-sad cart with slim pickins left by the time it makes it to your side of the dining room.

Although I’ll eat expensive dim sum with my wife, my preferred dim sum comes from places that have Asian staff and primarily Chinese graphics. One of the best dim sum experiences for me was getting dim sum at Chase Luck on Ocean, fetching my son from nearby City College where he had basketball practice, and forcing him to feed me one Shu Mai with the plastic fork while I drove him to the Stonestown mall. I told him that if he didn’t feed me, then I’d have to pull over and park so that I could eat my dim sum before I could drive him to the mall. He had no choice but to feed me the piece so that I had the energy to drive him to the mall. After I dropped him off, I then finished up my dim sum. Yum.

Quote:
A century-old teahouse in Hong Kong’s central financial district is hosting “dim sum raves” to draw younger customers with tea-flavored alcohol, dumplings and electronic music.

Reuters, "Dim Sum raves aim to revive Hong Kong’s appeal," Marianas Variety, Mon., May 11, 2026, available at https://www.mvariety.com/lifestyle/d...0ceec359.html/ .

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eastbay1K (Post 37747332)

Chinese restaurants and refinement/ambience often don’t go together. Seems the adage of a choice of two of the following: price, quality and ambiance/refinement, holds true.

that said (and I have to disclose I hardly eat out these days) but the best dim sum I’ve had was the Shang Palace in Paris (which has a Michelin macaroon) and best Cantonese meal was at the restaurant attached to the Sukasol in Bangkok, and I’d be willing to try the dim sum there if offered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by YVR Cockroach (Post 37748509)

So glad I was able to visit Tim Ho Wan when it was a single outpost hole-in-the-wall known as the "cheapest Michelin starred restaurant in the world." Really good. I've never been to another, and unlikely to go to the Jollibee-owned international chain version with the same name.

I agree that expensive restaurant doesn't usually means good food. In this case, good dim sum. I usually eat at hawker center in Singapore rather than restaurant.

Quote:

Originally Posted by YVR Cockroach (Post 37748509)

Chinese restaurants and refinement/ambience often don’t go together.

Cecilia Chiang and Sylvia Wu would like to have a word with you. ;)

Going to have an adventure tomorrow. Dim sum restaurant that apparently catered to the mainland Chinese crowd - aptly named Red Star - the last time I went to that particular branch (the original one). Called to make a reservation today and the person I spoke to was not a fluent Cantonese speaker.

Dim Sum is my favorite hangover cure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWA884 (Post 37749883)

Cecilia Chiang and Sylvia Wu would like to have a word with you. ;)

I hope not to see Cecilia again for quite some time ;)

But this thread is about dim sum. As far as other Chinese cuisines, the game has improved several thousand-fold from the quasi-Cantonese schlock I ate growing up. Of course, I'm still subjected to some of that deliciousness when visiting the alte kakers.

So, fine dining Dim Sum, probably a pass unless I'm a guest on someone else's HK$. Other regional cuisines at the top of their game, often with an excellent wine list I'll chip in :cool:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eastbay1K (Post 37760013)

I hope not to see Cecilia again for quite some time ;)

However, we can communicate with her by using a ouija board. :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWA884 (Post 37749883)

Cecilia Chiang and Sylvia Wu would like to have a word with you. ;)

Have to admit I have no idea who they are, or have ever heard of them. But then again, from a person who hadn't even heard of a leading music artist at the peak of his career (and the peak of the genre's era) until he suddenly passed.

FWIW, the dim sum experience was o.k. Just wish I had the $25-off-$100 coupon (which they foisted on me).

Quote:

Originally Posted by YVR Cockroach (Post 37760875)

Have to admit I have no idea who they are, or have ever heard of them.

Cecilia Chiang, Who Revolutionized American Chinese Food, Dies At 100

Quote:

Chiang had to flee her home a second time when the Communists took over. She wound up in the U.S., where she was both shocked and amused by the food most Americans considered to be Chinese — like gloppy chop suey. "They think chop suey is the only thing we have in China," she said with a laugh. "What a shame."

So Chiang resolved to open a high-end Chinese restaurant that served authentic fare. "Everybody said, 'You cannot make it. You cannot speak English. You don't know anything,' " she recalled. But starting in 1961, tourists, dignitaries and celebrities — from Mae West to John Lennon — flocked to The Mandarin for then-unfamiliar food like tea-smoked duck and twice-cooked pork.

To this day, Cecelia Chiang's DNA can be found all over American Chinese food.

Madame Wu’s Chinese Food Was Glamorous and Transformative

Quote:

At Madame Wu’s Garden, which she opened in 1959 and ran for nearly 40 years, her menus were constantly evolving, but peppered with regional deep cuts and then-hard-to-find dishes. To diners who’d never had Peking duck, the restaurant represented an imagined ideal of tradition and authenticity, but that image obscured her more complex work: Ms. Wu’s approach as a restaurateur was kinetic, profound and always strategic.
---
Her regulars included Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Redford and Cary Grant. When Mr. Grant asked her for a “Chinese chicken salad” one night, she made a dish of fried won ton skins, rice noodles and shredded chicken, packed with scallions and dressed in mustard, soy sauce and sesame oil, loosely based on a banquet dish she remembered eating as a child.

It was so popular, she added it to the menu, published the recipe in local newspapers and included it in her first cookbook. Ms. Wu helped write the blueprint for American Chinese chicken salad as we know it, more than a decade before Wolfgang Puck put his own version on the menu at Chinois, his French-Chinese restaurant still open in Santa Monica.
---
It was modest at first, with very little décor and no liquor license. But after a few years, she expanded Madame Wu’s Garden into a 11,000-square-foot space on Wilshire Boulevard that could seat 300 people. She made it dazzle with pagoda-style architectural details, stone waterfalls, imported art and a sculpture on the ceiling that rippled with gold. The aesthetic was quickly imitated, and co-opted by white restaurateurs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWA884 (Post 37760953)

Cecilia Chiang, Who Revolutionized American Chinese Food, Dies At 100

Madame Wu’s Chinese Food Was Glamorous and Transformative

Thanks for the information. As someone who dines in Cantonese restaurants catering to a Chinese if not primarily Cantonese crowd (judging by the language used), I haven't run across such establishments and cannot say I've ever dined in any kind of Chinese restaurant in the U.S. (perhaps with the exception of a sort-er one in a Hyatt in Tahoe). I do have an acquaintance whose father started and operated several restaurants in the Boston area and wonder if his establishments had this sort of atmosphere.

I too don’t know Madame Wu restaurant. I’ve been to the Chinese restaurant by that special Hollywood theatre. 1995 wedding rehearsal supper. Also got to see a mystery event in an adjacent room.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWA884 (Post 37760953)

To this day, Cecelia Chiang's DNA can be found all over American Chinese food.

Quite literally, as her son, Philip, is a founder of P.F. Chang's!

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaobest (Post 37762805)

Also got to see a mystery event in an adjacent room.

please tell us more.

Post dim sum analysis was that there was too much pork (in everything except the taro puffs and the osmanthus jelly, but maybe there was pork byproducts in those too), and every thing seemed the same (doesn't help that I tend to order the same stuff).

Did also see this observation re: restaurant quality on Chinese social media (the one I went to had a rating of 4.0 which means it wasn't good by that measure).

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0a394daa17.png

Some of the best dimsum i ever had was in Seattle at Jade Garden
Even better than dimsum in HK and Singapore
Not catered to western tastes too

There were more ingredients and they blend better.
Miss their food!

Thanks for informing. Where is Jade Garden in Seattle located?

A quick search on DuckDuckGo or Google gives the answer. :)

https://jadegardenseattle.com/map

Quote:

Originally Posted by YVR Cockroach (Post 37763833)

The thing is, most dim sum must be eaten piping hot. Once it is allowed to cool down, the flavours start going awry. There are also a number of other quirks with dim sum that most people don't know. Sure, you could have too much pork in a dish (depending on what it is), but usually it's a temperature/timing thing.