Dim Sum

John's dad (I call him TomDad) likes to eat out when traveling, so we had lots of fun joining him in that activity!  His one rule, though, is that the restaurant's got to be busy.  If the locals aren't going there, then he doesn't want to go there.

So in Chinatown we looked and looked and every restaurant was empty.  It was only 11:45 so maybe it was too early for lunch...then John walked in a door that led to stairs.  He didn't even have to go up them to know this was the place, as the roar of voices and clinking plates was so loud.

It was an authentic Dim Sum restaurant, which means women were walking around the tables pushing carts full of small plates of food.  They'd call out the food names & if you wanted it, you'd motion for them to put it on your table.

We, as obvious foreigners, caught their attention.  We'd hear "Hey!" and then a woman would be displaying her cart for us. It only took us a few minutes to realize that we shouldn't ask what the food was because that only led to a word we didn't understand and the food immediately being put on the table.  We just started saying "No, thank you" left and right, unless the food looked good. (Please note that the photo below only shows half of the table, thus showing only half of the food.)

Helena ate 2/3 of a shrimp roll and then focused on her Ritz peanut butter crackers.  Grandpa, however, helped her eat them Chinese style!

It really was quite a chaotic adventure of a meal.  Eating it was fun but not so fun that the Chinese bakery could be skipped afterwards.

And just in case you ever go out for Dim Sum, try the tofu skin rolls & the shrimp rolls.  They were our favorites.  (We figured these out by Googling dim sum afterwards!)