My kids were first exposed to Dim Sum in Toronto's Chinatown during one of my family's "secret" visits to the city in 2003. We have a lot of relatives that we love to visit, but, to paraphrase Primo in "Big Night": Sometimes the family likes to be alone. Alison's most famous encounter with Dim Sum came the following spring when she literally fell asleep on a plate of steamed dumplings in Philadelphia's Chinatown. Ellie is the one who really had her heart touched be these small bites. We make them at home on special occasions, or just because we feel like it. I'll be posting soon on that.
So, it was with great anticipation that we approached our trip here this weekend. We left early to avoid Friday afternoon traffic and headed straight for Spadina avenue. After another fruitless attempt to find Shaoxing wine at the LCBO store we entered the well-recommended Bright Pearl Seafood Restaurant. We were welcomed and pleased to find a handy chart, complete with color photographs - always a help when one is Mandarin or Cantonese impaired.
Alison is a picky eater at the best of times, but Ellie let us down. She loves Spring Rolls, but wouldn't touch them. She just didn't want to eat. So we left and bought them each a banana. It turns out the Ellie has become spoiled by the variety of dipping sauces we serve when we do Dim Sum, not only traditional Chinese sauces, but things like Vietnamese Nuoc Cham or peanut sauce. But she also prefers deep-fried or pan-fried to steamed, and I was surprised at their absence.
Of course it all made sense after we got checked into the hotel and I went on Bright Pearl's web site - we got there just in time for them to stop serving Dim Sum for the lunch break. I will tell you this, as a lover of Asian food, and the art of Dim Sum in particular, I have to tell you that the food here was wonderful. I look forward to going there again. Without the kids, perhaps?
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