I know I say this about most things, but I do like dim sums. More than dim sums, I love Pao! Not just after Kung fu Panda, but much before that. The Pao, a veg one at Nicky's got me salivating. But, the toughest part of dim sums, is not making them. I think, its shooting them! I have had trouble taking decent photos of dim sums, and thankfully this time around at the Dimsum Festival at China Town, I think I made a decent attempt.
China Town suffers from a severe location issue. While located on the mainstream RK Salai, it is trumped by its more flamboyant cousins, the Zara's Tapas bar and Copper Chimney. If you can get past the dingy passage and go up the lift located like a treasure hunt, the food normally leaves you surprised. Comfort food, Chinese chef, a buffet priced around Rs. 575 with lots of starters and desserts besides the typical main courses. It is a happy go lucky place with lots of tick boxes that once in a while comes up with stuff like Dimsum Festival. Why was I hung ho about this dim sum festival? I saw Pao and decided I needed to try this out!
Not one, but three! They have a chicken, a prawn and a beef pao. Wow. The pao was just perfect. Perfect balance of sweetness and a super soft texture, stuffed with your choice of meat, each shaped differently and we had all three! And loved all three!!! More than the stuffing, the pao itself was brilliant, so the extra love! We skipped everything else and shared only dim sums, so we got to try a few. The rest of the meal was of prawn Sumai, an open type dim sum which was good, a nice chicken and corn stuffed translucent dim sum, but I've seen even more translucent ones, so marks here only for the taste, and not the looks,a fried wanton type thing, I don't know the name of and a very very average tasting bok choy and water chestnut dim sum made up the rest of the meal. The disappointment of the day was the bok choy and water chestnut dim sum. It sounded so exotic, but coming to think of it, both are pretty tasteless on their own, so I should not have expected flavour in such a dimsum. Nevertheless, I was there for the Pao and they had the Pao and I loved the Pao. Enough! Oh, yeah, we did have dessert. Chocolate Brownie Dim Sum! Slurp!
If you are a small group (read two people), ask the manager/chef to make you a platter and this way you can enjoy more dishes. Its okay to skip the dim sums, but if you like the slightly sweetish flavour, the pao are not to be missed!!!!! Most dishes are priced around Rs. 250, the Pao around 275 and 350 based on the meat and the dessert was Rs. 120 odd.
P.S. Did I do a decent job with the photos?
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