Dim sum, Dim sum, wherefore art thou, Dim sum?

1.

Monday


Ecstatic Eeyore barged into my room. "We're doing lunch together on Friday!", he announced.


"Where?", I asked.


"Restoran Clan in Sri Petaling. 8TV's Ho Chak featured their delicious looking tai bao/loh mai kai! So are you game?"


That was like asking the President of the Japanese Food Kawan's Association if she liked sashimi.


Tuesday


Ecstatic Eeyore suggested going on a diet to prepare himself for the big lunch on Friday.


Wednesday


Ecstatic Eeyore checked and rechecked his schedule to make sure that he didn't have any meeting between 12.30pm and 2.30pm.


Thursday


"Don't forget! Lunch on Friday!!", Ecstatic Eeyore reminded me.


"What lunch?", I teased.


"Hmmmphhh!"


Ecstatic Eeyore walked out of my room in disgust.


I made a mental note to not mess with his head until after that lunch.


Friday


We found the restaurant. A few tables were occupied. We asked for the star item. "Sorry, don't have", the waitress said with a wry smile.


Our faces fell.


BUT....


....it was a dim sum place, after all, and since we were planning to have dim sum together with the star item, we decided to go ahead with our plans.


The trays laden with dim sum arrived.


We weren't about to let a minor setback spoil our day (yes, we're highly positive people), so we picked out our favourites.


Instead of describing each item in detail, I shall categorise the food as follows:-


Average (pass the pepper please)




The fried dim sum fared better than the steamed ones. The yam puff (extreme left) was crispy and the filling was substantial. The Hong Kong style chee cheong fun (extreme right) came with a tasty sambal that was rich with aromatic crushed dried prawns.


Bland (no salt?)




The char siew bao (extreme left) was scant in fillings, while the dough was too thick. The porridge came with a generous serving of chopped century eggs but it lacked flavour.


Where's the toilet bowl?? (I really need to throw up)




The brinjal appeared to have been steamed over and over again - probably leftovers from the previous night. The flesh was mushy and tasteless. I almost threw up.


Oh wait a minute. I did throw up.


Restoran Clan
140, Jalan Radin Anum
1, Sri Petaling, 57000 KL

Tel: 019-382 5455

2.

Saturday


After relating my tear-jerker to Boo_licious, she agreed to have breakfast with me on Saturday. It was going to be a replacement of sorts, to get rid of the awful taste from the day before. We also managed to rope in fellow foodies, Precious Pea and Unkaleong to join us at Hong Kee Tim Sum at Damansara Jaya at an ungodly hour of 8.30 on a Saturday morning. I can still hear Unkaleong's whines of "Ohhh....I'm so sleepy!!! Why so early???" *sounds of stretching like a half-dead kitten in the background*.


And the food? Everything tasted soooo gooooood. Yes, I am probably biased, having almost died from eating bad food the day before, but hey, it really was good.

I experienced a burst of flavour as I bit into the siu mai with minced pork filling. The spinach version was equally good too. We had the Hong Kong chee cheong fun with prawn filling, and if I were to compare it to the HK CCF which I had the previous day, I'd say that the CCF here is a lot smoother but the sambal did not have the "kick" that the other one provided.

We tried an interesting looking dim sum which was essentially fish paste with salted egg yolk filling and coated with almond flakes (3rd row, centre pic). I didn't quite like the combination of the ingredients; firstly, it tasted rather dry, and secondly, the ingredients just didn't blend together.

If prizes were given out for the best item on the menu, the Sang Chau Loh Mai Fan (fried glutinous rice) would have ranked tops. The glutinous rice is painstakingly fried together with bits of lup cheong (chinese sausage), dried prawns, sliced mushrooms, eggs and chive. This dish may look rather oily, but it is considerably lighter on the palate as compared to eating loh mai kai (steamed glutinous rice) as less oil is used for the former.

The dim sum is priced between RM2 and RM5 per plate.


Also check out:

Masak-masak
You Get What You Give...Sometimes
Precious Pea


Hong Kee Tim Sum Restaurant (behind Atria)
No 18 & 20, Jalan SS22/25
Damansara Jaya
47400 Petaling Jaya.

Tel: 012-6069787

Opening hours: 7.00am to 3.00pm daily.