Yangtze - November 22, 2015

Dim sum is one of those things that I really enjoy, but don’t get to experience nearly enough. Lots of small bites with great flavors, good textures, a variety of proteins, and numerous techniques. Sometimes they even offer some types of offal; like chicken feet or cockscombs.

This is another one of those meals that ended up being prompted by seeing an image on social media. I can’t take the blame this time though. It was either Kat or Shawn that initiated this meet up after seeing a regram (an Instagram repost) by one of the local aggregators that solicit images and then amplify the exposure for the picture takers and the restaurants they’re frequenting. Tech nerd note, while I support third party app makers, I really wish Instagram would Sherlock this reposting functionality so the original picture taker would get the likes, right now almost all of the likes go to the reposting account, some diligent users make sure to go like the original image, but it’s only a fraction, end note. Another couple Instagrammers were invited too. Erin, like Shawn, and unlike present me, is very fitness oriented. She’s also quite the baked good aficionado, a trio of foodies that share the same account were slated to come along, due to some logistical issues, two of the trio couldn’t make it, neither could Kat. So our group ended up being 5 eaters: myself, Shawn, Erin, one of the Nordeaters, and her SO.

Unlike some of the meals I’ve mentioned, dim sum is specifically meant for going as a group, I can’t even fathom trying to eat it alone. I’ll argue that 6 or 12 people would be the perfect group sizes, but I’ll get to that soon.

If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s basically a Chinese a la carte menu served from carts. Precariously perched little steam pot pillars leaning to and fro as the carts quickly navigate the tables spaced exactly cart width apart in the dining rooms. Various dumplings of the steamed and fried varieties, filled with proteins aquatic and terrestrial. Some small stir fried items. A menagerie of sweets filled with sugary pastes and eggy custards.

Like all good relations, you start dim sum with a blank slate, ready for the future to be written on it as you undertake each shared adventure.

This was actually my first time doing dim sum in Minnesota since Thom Pham’s Wondrous Azian closed a few years back. I’ve had it a few times since, but only in the Bay Area when visiting friends or interviewing. Traditionally you’ll see the servers with the various tins carrying around small stampers and they’ll put those in the little squares, here’s an example, here they used a variety of colored pens. 

Now back to the group sizes. Dim sum orders come in tins with either 3 or 4 of the item. The lowest common multiple of 3 and 4 is twelve, so for an even number of bites 6 people would need to order 2 orders of a 3 item tin and 3 orders of a 4 item tin with 2 items for each person of the 4 item variety, for 12 people, it’s the same 3 orders of a 4 item tin and 4 orders of a 3 item tin. Though 12 people around a table would be tough, and you need to make sure that everyone is an equally adventurous diner.

Round 1: Steamed buns filled with barbecue pork, steamed shrimp dumplings, shrimp shumai (with tobiko roe), and chicken shumai.

Since I was the only one of the group that had done dim sum before, I found myself in the role of impromptu captain? Since there was five of us, I tried to make sure we each could get at least one bite of everything we ordered. Each cart that came by was a quick “What’s that?” “Okay. 2 of those.” or “Oh, not yet.”

Good chopstick control is nice to have too. Remember when passing to use the ends closest to you, not the end that’s been in your mouth.

Round 2: (CW, upper left) Spicy steamed short rib, scallop and chive dumplings, and one of my favorites, chicken feet.

I will always order chicken feet if they’re on the menu. I hope my dining companions enjoy them, but if they don’t I will make the sacrifice and power through them. So much flavor, and a texture unlike most anything else.

Round 3: (Lower half) Another variety of shrimp dumpling, pork shumai, pork & veg dumplings.

It’s about this time we started getting a little full, a few of the diners had partaken in a Bloody Mary across the street that had a small burger on it, so they were flagging a little, but they carried on admirably.

Round 4: Some fried goodness in the form of fried crab claws.

We finally turned the corner towards the fried items. I think we had another couple items that didn’t make it into any pictures. There was a seafood roll with cream cheese, and some fried veggie dumplings too. Both good, both too short for this world to get caught by camera.

We also had an order of Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), another favorite, in here too. I prefer the ones at Grand Shanghai, but these were good too. Reminiscent of really good chicken noodle soup, which was a slight surprise, most XLB I’ve had are pork broth based. But different can be good.

Round 5: Mostly desserts. Sesame balls and egg custards. The hairy looking item is basically a pork pot pie in fried dumpling form, odd, but tasty.

Fin: the damage. We ate a lot, didn’t spend too much, and only had a couple dumplings and one crab claw left to take home.

I’ve heard others swear by Mandarin Kitchen down in Bloomington, so I’ll have to assemble another intrepid team to try that out. But not too soon. I think I might still be full from this trip.