mindless ramblings

Since that fantastic first visit, I knew I just had to bring my parents here to try the dim sum out. It was absolutely packed when we got there, but I guess that is to be expected 1230pm on a Sunday! We had a shorter wait this time, and since we pretty much knew what we were going to get we quickly placed our orders.

Lor Mai Kai
The lor mai kai (糯米雞) was even better than the last time! The serving was bigger, and they added chopped dried scallops on the top. It was perfectly cooked, just like last time. The rice was nice and gooey with mushrooms and other goodies hidden within. I’m just curious why they serve it in 3s. I guess 4 is a bad number! I don’t know if I’d like this to be the first dish. It is quite substantial for a starter and it would be better if it came mid-course but I’m really pulling at strings to find fault here!

Chicken Feet
Fung zao (鳳爪) is a dish that I never really enjoyed since I was a kid. How great can chicken feet be anyway? Well the answer is pretty damn good! It’s definitely not for the health conscious though. Lots of skin, fat and cartilage make for a mightily unhealthy serving. It was tasty though, with the feet well marinated and pig’s stomach at the bottom for extra unhealthiness.

Siew Mai & Ha Gao
The siew mai (燒賣) was solid but unspectacular. Nothing out of the ordinary, just well prepared pork, shrimp and mushrooms. The ha gao was more of the same. It’s tasty and I’d definitely get it again since I love both dishes and they are pretty much the dim sum staple for me.

Cheong Fun with Shrimp
I am glad to report that the cheong fun (腸粉) was as delicious as ever! Smooth rice rolls with fresh shrimp and a wonderfully sweet and fragrant sauce make for a fantastic dish. Shortly after we finished the first place we knew we had to have more and ordered another plate. It took quite a while to arrive, which led us to suspect that they make the rolls on demand, rather than giving in to the crowd and just mass producing them. Definitely a good thing!

Bean Curd Wrap
I have no idea how to write the Chinese name for this but its basically minced pork and assorted veggies wrapped in bean curd skin and then steamed. The sauce that settled at the bottom of the plate in the bamboo steamer was surprisingly thick, almost like a jelly-like paste. Despite the weird consistency it was very tasty and a good addition to what we had the first time.

Minced Pork Dumpling with Shark’s Fin
This is the soup-in-a-wonton that I was talking about last time and I finally have a picture of it! The Chinese name is goon tong gao and it tasted about the same as last time, fairly light and clean for a meat based dish. Moreover, they actually provide a decent amount of shark’s fin considering the very reasonable price of $6 (or so) for a bowl. The minced pork is very soft and full of juicy bits as it has absorbed all the sweetness from the soup broth. Although it came last, I think I would like this as the first dish, it has a light nature that might be overwhelmed if it came at the end.

Cha Siew Bau
Our last dish was cha siew bau (叉燒包) which I forgot to take a picture of. I usually don’t really like to eat baus during dim sum because the skin is often too thick and there isn’t a great deal of cha siew within. This was good though, the cha siew had sufficient numbers to be tasty but not overpower the bau itself.

Mango Pudding
The mango pudding (芒果布甸) is really good too. They use fresh mangoes which really bring out the mango taste while retaining the pudding nature of the dessert. The use of what appears to be fresh milk also helps enhance the fruity nature of the dish, rather than make it overly sweet by using condensed or evaporated milk.

So judging by the number of dishes we ate, and the decor of the place, I was expecting the bill to be not insubstantial. Imagine my surprise when it came up to just $58! Even including the tip, the total for each person was not even $20! This is seriously good value for money when you take everything into consideration. The staff are brutally efficient in everything they do, the food is consistently excellent and I really can’t find any fault with anything. If you haven’t tried it out, you really owe it to yourself to try what Kirin has to offer!