Dim Sum

At 6:30AM, Seng and I sneaked off to Maxim Restaurant at the Lipsin Garden, where Seng and Mom used to live. It was early, but there were already some customers inside enjoying their early morning dim-sum.
Dim Sum, literally translated "Touch Heart", are small dishes of delicious tidbits that we Cantonese take for breakfast (not every day, of course). There are some staples, like rice gruel (choke, in Cantonese), that are taken every day. The restaurant sells the fancier versions cooked with pork or fish.
Dim sum is taken with tea. The waiter will ask you what kind of tea you want, and they will bring you a tea pot, along with a bucket with tea cups soaked in hot water. You can rinse out the tea cup, and wash you chop sticks in it as well. In modern restaurants, that is not a necessity, but can still be a ritual that most follow. It is good to have an idea of what type of tea you want before you go in, otherwise you will be on the spot when the waiter ask you what you want. Throw out words like "Po Lay". "Cok Po". and the waiter will get you a good pot of tea.
We ordered Cok Po, a combination of Cok Fa (chrysanthemum) and Po Lay (brown fermented tea), which has a nice scent of chrysanthemum and the strong flavor of tea, a good mixture.


In most of the bigger restaurants, as well as in the States, the dim sum comes around to you in a steam-cart or on a tray. The wait staff will show you the food, and if you like what you see, you point at it, or nod your head, and the wait person will place a dish in front of you. A score card is used to keep track of how many dishes you have taken, and what size (price), and you tally up at the end of the meal. Very efficient and civilized.

In this version, the restaurant is self-served. The food is arranged in a steam table. You walk up with a tray, pick what you like, and the server mark up your score card. You pay at the register later. Also very efficient.

We picked a 'few' items.
The first is wo-kok. A dumpling with pork mixture wrapped in a outer layer of yam, and deep fried. This is one of my favorites, especially when it is fresh out of the frier. The skin is crispy. The little wisps of yam at the edges are small, crunchy, crispy, and a bit salty is a perfect complement to the moist yummy pork fillings inside. Taken when it is hot and crispy, each bite is a small bite of heaven.



This is the siew-mai, pork and shrimp mixture in a dumpling, steamed. This is a popular item. Most people who go for dim sum will order siew-mai and har kow (shrimp-dumplings).
This one did not disappoint.










The chicken feet is an oddity. Fancily named "Phoenix claws", these are chicken feet, cleaned, declawed, and deep fried, then stewed in a savory herbal plus all-spice sauce, with bits of garlic and pepper in the sauce. This shop makes pretty tasty ones.








The shrimp dumpling is mostly shrimp, with some port, wrapped in a translucent dough skin. My mother likes it when the shrimp and pork is ground up together. She detests the kind with the whole shrimp in it. This one meets her half-way. The shrimp is chopped into halves, and mixed with the pork. It is okay, but not memorable.





Every one's favorite is the Big Pau, or the Tai Pau in Cantonese. The buns are a couple of sizes bigger than the regular steamed pork buns (Char Siew Pau). It is a think dough skin wrapped with a lot (and I mean a lot) of pork. Mom was very critical about this. She thinks they should have some chicken, black mushrooms, Chinese sweet sausages. Nevertheless, she ate two of these.


The gluttonous rice in a bowl is one of my Children's favorites. Pictured here, there is a piece of chicken breast, sweet sausage, roast pork, and sticky rice. All these fit into a small metal bowl, and the entire contraption is steamed until the rice is cooked, and plopped upside down onto a plate.







This last item is very unusual. I mean it is not usual to see it at a dim sum restaurant. It is pork hock (feet) stewed in a sweet vinegar with ginger. The pork and bone is cooked until the skin (which contains all the fat), and the meat are soft. The juice or the broth is at once tangy, sour, and sweet. This is traditionally cooked for women after they have given birth. They are supposed to take this for an entire month. (How do they stay slim after a month of pork hocks?)

Besides these dishes, we also bought some porridge, paus, dumplings, and what-nots to take home. It was a very nice breakfast indeed.

There is a very popular food chain here called the Old Town Ipoh White Coffee. I have often wondered about how good they are. Tonight, when Seng and I drove by one of them in Perak Road, we decided to drop in to try it out. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they offer food as well as coffee. There are about a dozen varieties of coffee, from the black to the cappaccinos, hot or iced. For food, they have buns, cakes, rice, noodles, so it is quite a good variety.

We ordered two white coffee Kuo (thick, extra concentrated), and they came in demi-tasse size or cappuccino sized cups. The coffee is whipped, so it is foamy on top. It is thick and rich, and very flavorful. For food, we ordered a Polo bun (buttered bun), and a, guess what?, curry-mee. The bun does not look extra-ordinary. The curry mee is good. It is as good as those outside from the street hawkers, except for the lack of key ingredients like blood clams and octopus. It its place, they substituted food ball slices. I definitely recommend this place for coffee.