The Chinese New Year falls a bit early in 2009, beginning the Year of the Ox on Jan. 26. To celebrate, skip the MSG-laden grease-bombs we call Chinese food and try something more authentic8212;the Hong Kong Tea House.
Located downtown just off of TRAX, the Hong Kong Tea house specializes in teas (naturally) and Dim Sum, which means “little bit of heart” in Chinese. Dim Sum is a small, appetizer-like snack with tea used for brunch or afternoon tea. It’s a tradition from the Cantonese or Guangdong province in southern China and Hong Kong is culturally (though not geographically) connected to that.
“If you go to Hong Kong, you’ll see Dim Sum places everywhere,” said Janet Theiss, director of the Asian Center and a professor of history at the U. “It’s a huge thing to do, especially on weekends.”
Theiss lived in China for three years and has visited it numerous times. She recommends this restaurant in particular because “their food is just very well prepared and very authentic. You don’t go there for spicy, you go there for the more delicately flavored dishes.”
I visited the teahouse on a Saturday around noon. My date and I shared the chrysanthemum tea8212;a loose-leaf tea including whole chrysanthemum flowers. At $1 to $2 per pot, we could easily have tried another tea, but one pot proved enough for the meal. The black and green teas aren’t as beautiful as the herbal and flowery ones (like jasmine), but they’re every bit as tasty8212;maybe more so.
We ordered by checking off the variety and quantity of Dim Sum we wanted on a little list. Each plate costs about $3 or $4, so you can try a lot of different things without overwhelming your wallet.
We chose the salt and pepper calamari, pan-fried pot sticker, shanghai dumpling and steamed barbecue pork buns. Servers bring out the dishes as they’re ready and also come around to tables offering already prepared specials. So, in addition to the Dim Sum we’d ordered, we said yes to rice of seven treasures8212;exactly like the fried rice you’re used to, but made with sticky rice, allowing you to eat with chopsticks. It was tasty, familiar, and held us over until our food arrived.
The calamari was excellent8212;not too chewy, not too greasy, and just salty enough8212;the type of thing that I’d order every time. Then came the pan-fried pot stickers, which were also good, though very similar to pot stickers everywhere.
The shanghai dumplings were better. In Chinese, they’re called “Little Dragon Buns,” and they’re famous, with places in Shanghai specializing in just these dumplings. However, Theiss said that Hong Kong Tea House’s version, served with a vinegar and ginger dipping sauce, is as good as any. Lastly, we had the steamed barbecued pork buns, which you can also get baked, but only on weekends. They’re sweet, soft, white bread rolls filled with sweet and tangy strips of barbecued pork. Some people are huge fans of these, and though my date and I liked them, we both decided that we’d get something different next time.
The teahouse also offers a selection of desserts including green tea ice cream and bubble teas (which you can order to go). However, it was only lunchtime and my date and I were too full to go down that road. We even had leftovers, which heated up quite nicely later that evening (even the calamari).
Theiss recommends the snow pea leaf shrimp dumplings, the shrimp and chive dumplings and the homemade dumplings, which have nuts and shrimp inside.
“Everything is consistently well prepared,” she said of the teahouse. “I think it’s some of the best Dim Sum I’ve had outside of Hong Kong.”
