Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Baby's First Dim Sum


Growing up, my family and I always looked forward to Dim Sum on Sundays. Dim Sum was a special treat for us. It wasn't something we did too often.

Now that I live on an island that is far away from Chinese restaurants (with the exception of a few "Chinese" restaurants that aren't really Chinese, but "Canadian-Chinese"), I sometimes crave Chinese Dim Sum. **By Canadian-Chinese, I mean restaurants that have chicken balls, fried chicken, General Tao and other generic dishes as their main "Chinese" dishes.**

Whenever I'm in Montreal, we always make a point to go for Dim Sum!

My cousin recommended Tong Por Restaurant in Ville St. Laurent. It was fabulous! The restaurant itself was large and could seat big families and parties. When it comes to Chinese restaurants, I often gauge how good a restaurant is by the number of people dining and how long the line-up is! This place was PACKED...which meant that it was a good place to dine!
One of my former Mexican students was in Montreal and met up with me for Dim Sum. It was so nice to see him again! When I taught at a private language institute in Toronto, he was in one of my classes.
There's nothing like the hustle and bustle of a busy Chinese restaurant! The sounds, sights, scents are so much to take in. Every time the wait staff passed around with their carts filled with assorted dishes, we'd stop them and order a few of everything...except for chicken feet!

The lady with the chicken feet dishes on her cart would laugh every time she passed our table and ask me, "Chicken feet? You want chicken feet?". Each time, I'd say "No thanks!" and smile. It became a running joke between the two of us because she knew I'd always say "No thanks!".
Little One's first Dim Sum experience, and she slept through most of it. For the life of me, I have no idea how she could sleep through all the noise! :)

When having Chinese Dim Sum, use chopsticks...if you can! Asking for a fork will sometimes get a few smirks and giggles :) Also, it is common to drink tea. Forgo asking for pop or juice, unless you really want to have it. Order it if you really want to, but tea is served at every table and is refilled throughout your meal. The tea is flavourful and also helps cleanse the pallate. Not only that, but the tea is said to help in digestion.
The pork buns were amazing! They reminded me of a baked version of Filipino Sio Pao. It's a type of bun filled with sweet and savoury pork.

The sesame balls were also delicious. I don't know what the filling is, but it's chewy and oh so yummy! Though I am part Chinese, you'd think that I could speak the language or read the characters. Nope. I am horrible! :( I don't even know the names of all the dishes. Whenever the wait staff passed around with their carts, I'd just point at whatever I wanted because I didn't know what anything was called!

I'm hoping my friend, Curiosity Killer can help me out in identifying all my fave dishes!

Those white rice noodle rolls with shrimp inside (above photo) are what I call "Chinese lasagna". I also love the shaomai, shrimp dumplings (har gao) and Taro dumplings!

If you're in Montreal, head to Tong Por for an amazing dim sum! The prices are good. There were nine of us (ten, if you count Little One...but she didn't eat any of the food) and the bill came to $97.80. That is pretty good, if you ask me!

Oh, and the bathrooms are clean! That is another big thing for me! I have a public restroom phobia, so if a restaurant has clean bathrooms, they get bonus points from me!

Five out of five stars.

8 comments:

caninecologne said...

hi c - yeah, clean restrooms are always a plus. the gross ones are the kind where you feel compelled to roll up your pants because you don't want it even touching the floor!

we haven't had dim sum as a family, but bert and i have had it with friends. it's always a fun, communal experiences. and if you go with someone chinese and knows the staff, even better! the sesame balls with red beans are so good.

as for little one sleeping through noise - hey, that's good! having a kid that can sleep thru anything will be so much easier for you. we used to rn the washing machine, the dryer, and the vacuum (not all at once) when tc was a baby. sometimes, if parents always have it deathly quiet when their baby is sleep, i think they setting up their baby to be too sensitive to noise. noise is noise folks. sorry, let me get off my soapbox, ha ha.

just got back from chicago yesterday! : )

word ver:

alatis

Unknown said...

Canine:
Awwwwwww! Chicago is soooooo close to where we are!! Just kidding. It really isn't...BUT it's CLOSER than your neck of the woods!

Yeah, LO can sleep ANYWHERE! It's pretty crazy! I do realize I'm lucky. No need for friends and family to walk on egg shells when at our house. There definitely is no "Shhhhhhh!!! You'll wake the baby!!" here. In fact, she CAN'T sleep if there's no noise!

I honestly think that her being in the NICU for 2.5 months contributed to that. I mean, there was sooooo much noise in the NICU all the time.

hotmommy said...

i remember reading yoru post of your hubby's first dim sum and your dad told him that in order to be part of the family officially, he had to eat chicken feet..and he did it! {{{{{{{lol}}}}}}} god bless that husband of yorus! he is such an awesome guy !

caninecologne said...

hi c -

i is a college graduate.

duhhh...forgot to put the "u" in "run" and the apostrophe RE in "they're"....

durrr....

hope all is well with you!!!

word ver: gonsu

not ginsu, like the knife?

Unknown said...

HM:
I know! Even I have never EVER tried chicken feet! I cannot believe Hubby did it. My Dad was just joking about that being the prerequisite for becoming an official member of our family! LOL!

Unknown said...

Canine:
Are those Ginsu knives all they're cut out to be? I've seen the infomercials on TV and have been tempted to buy one! LOL! "It slices! It dices! It's a Ginsu..."

caninecologne said...

hi c - never tried a ginsu. i've only seen the commercials.

why would i need a knife that can not only cut a tomato, but a tin can? ha ha.

word ver:

yanta

Unknown said...

Canine:
Ummmm...DUH! Because you never know when you'll need to cut a tin can in half!! ;)

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City girl moves to the country, falls in love, and marries a farmer. She tries to incorporate her city ways with her new country lifestyle and blogs to keep in touch with friends, family & students who live far, far away :) Can this city girl go country? Watch as she learns all sorts of exciting things about life on the farm and in a small rural community. *UPDATE* We are now parents! Our baby girl was born on Nov. 11, 2008 (at 28 weeks gestation- 12 weeks premature, but she's quite the trooper)!!!
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