#dim dim sum

[highsummoneraoi]

Hong Kong: Necessities and Tips

Hong Kong: Necessities and Tips

My travels to Hong Kong were mainly to go with a good work friend. It is also a place that I have a lot of friends whose background or have family that come from Hong Kong. Although this was my first time, there’s a lot of things that you should know about upon going to this island.

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[onejamtart]

OJT EATS | Dim Dim Sum

Growing up in London, dim sum on a Sunday was if not quite a tradition, a pretty regular treat. Dim sum in London can be a bit hit or miss but there are some pretty great places. On the other hand, while it does more than make up for it with other great food, it's actually not been that easy to find good dim sum in Taipei. However, in the last few years, a few of the big HK chains have opened stores in Taipei. One of them is Dim Dim Sum Taiwan so when we recently craved some dim sum, we headed on down.

We started off with the most classic of dim sum: har gau. These were packed full of plump shrimp and super tasty. The wrappers were translucent and chewy; not a bad start.

These are one of our favourite dishes, chicken feet. They were really well braised and the almost jelly like meat pretty much just fell off the bone,. They were a little sweeter and a little less spicy than the ones we are used to but still very good.

Now onto the other super iconic dim sum; siu mai. Between this and har gau, we can't quite decide which one is the more quintessential dim sum but regardless, we love them both. These siu mai were bouncy and juicy - really very nice.

This is where things got a little off track at least compared to our expectations. These were on the menu as prawn cheung fun but they were unlike any cheung fun we've had before. To be fair, they were actually pretty tasty but just very much not what we were expecting.

This might have ended up being our favourite dish of the meal and was the least dim sum like dish of them all. Salted egg crispy chicken wings; crispy, juicy chicken wings with a strong salted egg flavour. We didn't manage to get a photo of it but the pot it came in had a pig shaped lid which was very cute. This is definitely worth ordering if you are here.

Finally, onto dessert and their signature custard lava piggy buns. They're super cute and what's more is that they come with instructions to stab them through a nostril with a chopstick and give them a squeeze.

We don't think we did it very well though as the custard didn't quite ooze out as aesthetically as the diagram but still, it was pretty cute. They were pretty yummy too but the custard was a little runnier than we'd have liked. Our favourite custard buns are still the ones from Din Tai Fung.

All in all, this was a pretty decent meal of dim sum which we felt was actually better than the Dim Dim Sum experience we had in HK. This might just end up being our go to when we are craving siu mai and har gau (although we will probably order the chicken wings too)!.

Dim Dim Sum Taiwan, No 68, XinYi Breeze B1, Section 5, ZhongXiao E Road, XinYi District, Taipei City

Cheers JL

[roamingkattravels]

Day 3 of 4 in the Kowloon District of Hong Kong Day 4 of my Hong Kong & China Trip Monday 19th March 2018 Weather 26 degrees, overcast with light rain late afternoon

Meals eaten 4 Miles walked 6.7

Hit list for the day: North Mong Kok Prince Edward – Flower Market Goldfish Street Sky Bar Langham Place Mall – cocktails Kowloon Walled City Dim Dim Sum

Breakfast was calling by the time I got up & left the hotel at 10.30 a.m. I walked swiftly past the sweet smelling Flower Market & headed south towards Mong Kok.

It didn’t take much walking to find a street lined with numerous places to eat offering all manor of food choices. Being too early for me to face rice or Chinese’s dishes I opted for a cafe with a breakfast menu.

As is common in Kowloon, I was given a seat at a table where someone was already eating & given a menu from which I chose egg tart & coffee. Two ladies heading to pay stopped & showed me a picture above my table then told me this cafe has won awards for its egg tart & very nice it was too. The other items you can see is a pineapple bun, another Hong Kong favorite – best eaten with butter.

After breakfast I headed further into Mong Kok to look for the previously recommended Dim Dim Sum. My route passed through a Tung Choi Street aka Goldfish Street which was littered with pet shops which were very different to pet shops in you’d find in the U.K.

The first shop located was a golf fish shop on the corner, I didn’t fancy taking a close look at the plethora of bags stuffed with fish hanging from floor to ceiling due to the unkind habitat these poor fish were living in. I wondered if they were all decanted back into tanks after their long daily stints in “the bag” but imagined it would be too large a test to achieve so that life was probably lived “in the bag”. The photo below shows the lesser inhabited sections of the wall, the amount of fish hung round the corner was too upsetting to take.

Walking down the road, a caught my eye on the other side titled Meow Meow, I couldn’t resist going in to see what is was about. The shop walls were lined with glass cages or rather tanks with beautiful & very expensive kittens imprisoned inside. My first thought was that the fish would be happy in here & sadly I doubted these kittens were much happier spending their day in glass tanks than the poor fish were spending their days in the bag. Again wondered if the kittens got taken out of the glass boxes at night – probably not.

An older & very handsome large white cat toward the back roamed around his slightly larger tank constantly meowing, his meow sounding like it came from a sore throat. All in all as cute as the kittens were it was a sad sight to behold.

Back on the opposite side of the road rabbits seemed to be the more in thing, one shop sported & very pink “Miss Rabbit” sign, a little further down was “I Love Rabbit”. Was this to eat I wondered & to be honest I found the mix of pet shops interspersed by restaurants slightly disconcerting, thankfully I could breathe a sigh of relief for the poor kittens knowing that it’s illegal to eat cat & dog in Hong Kong!

The corner of the road ended with several street food merchants selling intestines & other delectable snacks, their collective stomach turning stench being complimented by the strong smells from a blocked drain. Time to cross the road & fast!

Electronics & mobile phones dominated the block down, with a market covering several floors full of vendors selling & mending mobiles & other gadgets. Prices seem to be a lot lower then the U.K. & one vendor assured me the devices would work at home. A little further on Dim Dim Sum was found & it’s location noted for returning that evening.

Walking deeper into Mong Kok the shops became more westernised with each step, bland after brand replaced Chinese medicine & the local type of shops found in Prince Edward. It seems This part of Mong Kok has become a shopping mecca.

With the very polite help of a local man, Langham Mall was located. It’s 13 floors were reached via a network of long escalators snaking through the sky reaching central atrium. Vertigo was setting in badly by the time I’d reached floor 7 so I went in hopeful search for a lift. Lift located I headed up to floor 11 then walked round to floor 13 to The Sky Bar which was closed for another hour but after several hours of walking a beer was still in order so I went to a German bar on the same floor. Floor 13 also had The Lego Shop where a large model of Mong Kok had been constructed, it must have taken ages.

Heading out of the Mall a few guys dangling from ropes were busily erecting bamboo scaffolding, the bamboo’s were swinging as freely as the guys on ropes I guess waiting to be tied in.

I walked back toward Prince Edward for a quick snack of glutinous rice before hopping on the metro towards Kowloon Walled City Park which by now I knew wasn’t in Jordan or TST but Loc Fu miles in the opposite direction. Various delicacies were available nearby including terrapins.

The road to Kowloon Walled City passed this cemetery – it seems even the afterlife is lived high rise in Kowloon.

Kowloon Walled City (previously a Chinese Military Fort) was a den of iniquity for decades & became to home from memory some 33,000 people. Crime, drugs & gangs were rife rendering it an absolute no go area for British & Chinese authorities. There are some great videos on YouTube showing its occupants living in stacked cages only large enough to lay down & sit up in. In 1993, the then Chinese Government began to demolish the structure & replaced it with a park for the people.

After heading back to the hotel for a freshen up, dinner was planned at Dim Dim Sum. On arrival I was shown a table by way of a very abrupt gesture, my menu request completely ignored. Staff walked to & fro then bought tea but again ignored the menu request. Eventually a menu was obtained & a selection of dim sum rudely delivered to the table. Each of the dishes were pretty poor, lacking in flavour & being about as good as the very rude staff who served them. Dim Dim Sum was a total contrast to the kind & friendly service I’d received elsewhere so far on this trip.

Walking back to Prince Edward, I was still hungry so headed for the lovely One Dim Sum for a quick snack. The streets were less busy & most of the Markets were closing for the day, before arriving I’d expected they’d all be open until the early hours of the morning.

Having filled up a little more it was just gone midnight & with a flight to Shanghai to check in for next morning I retired to the hotel via trusty 7/11 to pack & rest.

Mama was as ever there ready with a warm greeting & after a short non compatible language chat I retired for the night.

Continued on Day 5…

Kowloon – Day 4 Day 3 of 4 in the Kowloon District of Hong Kong Day 4 of my Hong Kong & China Trip…

[abitoftravel]

Dim Dim Sum Dim Sum.

Yes, the name may be a little amusing, but you know i’m always serious about my food. Stern Face. But on a serious note, the chain’s name is Dim Dim Sum and you guessed it, they serve really awesome Dim Sum.

Now these are my staples for Dim Sum:

Siu Mai - Pork Dumplings with Shrimp.

Har Gao - Shrimp Dumplings.

Lor Bak Gou - Pan-Fried Radish Cake.

Lor Mai Fan - Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf.

I thought I’d go a little crazy this time and get some interesting new things:

Siu Mai but with Quail’s Eggs on top.

Lor Bak Gou but with half of it being Yam instead of all Radish.

Liu Sha Bao - Salted Egg Custard Bun (Salted Egg anything is awesome).

Now let me tell you, as corny as the name and food combined is (Dim Dim Sum Dim Sum), the food is really delish. And yes, i played with my food, i couldn’t resist since the Liu Sha Bao came with a piggy’s face. I had to poke a hole through it to let it ooze out the salted egg custard for a gratuitous vom shot. 

I highly recommend you try it when you’re in Hong Kong and because they have a few chains, you don’t really have much of an excuse.

For a full listing of all their stores, visit their website by clicking here.