Last weekend I had a colleague visiting from the Swedish Livebookings office in Halmstad, and he and his girlfriend wanted specifically to go for dim sum. Me and W, never saying no to an early afternoon yum cha with friends, promptly started looking around for a good place to introduce the newbies to this great Chinese tradition of drinking tea while eating.
Originally I intended to write a typical review of Phoenix Palace and the great dishes we tried, especially the glutinous rice which was awesome and how well H dealt with the sneaky dish of pickled cold chicken claws...
Oooh... Challenging!.
Originally uploaded by Manne.
But then as I this morning found this excellent dim sum review on Dragon Castle from Cheese and Biscuits in my RSS reader I figured I might as well let that one do the talking. Different restaurant, equally raving. Do give it a read, and do pay Dragon Castle in Elephant & Castle a visit, it is worth the trip!
I would really like to emphasize the amazing value for money you get when going out for dim sum. Despite each dish being a little work of art, obviously painstakingly wrapped and steamed or otherwise laboriously prepared for you to enjoy in a few seconds, rarely does any dish on the menu cost over £3.50, usually a lot less...
Quite a few times the past year, thanks to W and her friends, I have been for yum cha at a variety of restaurants ordering basically everything on the dim sum menu over the course of a few hours but never even once felt it got anywhere near expensive. How do they do it?
On that note, check out this video from dim sum chain of restaurants Ping Pong, showcasing some of the craft that goes into the tasty morsels. I am especially fascinated by the guy making perfect round dumpling shells from small lumps of dough at 01:35...
Dragon Castle:
Phoenix palace:
