I am the Little Dik-dik who loves to Dim Sum (or Yam Cha, how they call it in Hong Kong). Well, Dim Sum and Yam Cha are the same thing, they both mean Cantonese style breakfast or brunch (little dishes served in mini bamboo steamers). Apparently in Hong Kong, some restaurants serve Dim Sum all day long, but traditionally, most Chinese people prefer Dim Sum in the morning or during lunch.
I cannot find any good Dim Sum restaurants where I currently reside in, so when I am in New York City, I need my Dim Sum fix! I heard there are better Dim Sum restaurants in Flushing, Queens, but I am too lazy to go there and I want something good in Manhattan.
Jing Fong in Chinatown is where I ended up going. It’s a huge Chinese restaurant that serves Dim Sum from morning until the afternoon. The dinning room is enormous with many Chinese ladies pushing around Dim Sum carts (this is actually the traditional way of serving Dim Sum, but in order to conserve space, this is no longer a common practice in many Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurants).
Everything on the Dim Sum carts are written in Chinese, if you don’t understand you can just asked them to show you what they have. They don’t speak English and I don’t speak Chinese, we are lost in translation, but after some finger pointing, head shaking and nodding, somehow everything was understood. I successfully obtained my favorite dishes such as shumai, meatball, shrimp wrapped in rice noodle rolls and roasted pork buns. You know what? They were all pretty good! Yes, the Dim Sum I had in Hong Kong and Shanghai was much better, but we are in New York City after all so I won’t complain.
If you want the whole Dim Sum experience in Manhattan, I think Jing Fong is a good place to go to. (Just look for the long escalators in the entrance)
Jing Fong: 20 Elizabeth Street, New York City. Tel.:(212) 964-5256
