EPICURE AT LARGE
— by Jeremy Ferguson
Dim Sum
gazine
Often likened to French hors d’oeuvres, Middle Eastern mezze and Spanish tapas, dim sum bolts past the others in lightness, variety and ongoing inventiveness
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Rebecca Wellmam
HONG KONG IS NO LONGER THE FOODIE CAPITAL OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM —the Chinese dragon has recouped its gastronomic groove—but few would dispute its enduring reputation as dim sum capital of the world. As simple as a shrimp dumpling or a handful of rice steamed in a lotus leaf, the art of the “small bite” is Hong Kong’s gastronomic pride, a procession of pleasures that seduces as it surprises. Sichuan-born, self-taught chef Ronald Shao of the Hong Kong’s top-rated Cuisine, Cuisine lets no gras grow under his feet. His stellar dim sum is a deep-fried vermicelli roll that begins with an audible crrrrrunch and leads into the creamy richness of goose liver—yes, foie gras. That’s the way they do it in Hong Kong. Shao also stuffs his dumplings with minced pork and hairy crab roe, so they erupt in the mouth as 21st century surf-and-turf. He infuses soft sticky rice with crisp lotus root. He reinvents big, fat pork buns with a drizzle of abalone. And he makes his own soy sauce using organic soybeans from Canada. Shao isn’t the only dim sum master in the neighborhood: Last December, Four Seasons chef Yan Tak became the world’s first Chinese chef to garner three Michelin stars. At Four Seasons’ Lung King Heen, diners gawk at columns hand-threaded in blood-red silk, a ceiling shimmering with silver-leaf and green jade napkin holders. It’s the most gorgeous restaurant on Victoria Harbour. Har gow, the simplest of shrimp dumplings, is a dim sum benchmark: Turn out a lousy har gow and you’re toast. The har gow at Lung King Heen here may be the best in the world, but in this company, it’s a wallflower. Tak’s Shanghai dumpling gushes with steaming broth. Spring roll stuffed with sea whelk arrives with a whiff of five-spice. His steamed scallop and lobster dumpling is to swoon for. His signature is a gossamer creature, a deep-fried layering of scallop, shrimp paste and crisp Asian pear, the whole soaring above the sum of its parts. I could rattle on about dim sum and the Cantonese canon all day. Its history parallels the introduction of tea houses along the fabled Silk Road and the Chinese conversion to tea. Silk Roaders liked to snack. At one time, the Silk Road found an eastern terminus in the ancient capital of X’ian. A few years ago, I ate lunch in a X’ian restaurant that offers 800 dim sums. Often likened to French hors d’oeuvres, Middle Eastern mezze and Spanish tapas, dim sum bolts past the others in lightness, variety and ongoing inventiveness. “We create new kinds of dim sum every week,” says Shao. “It’s a kind of horse race among Hong Kong chefs.” Dim sum arrived in the West as the last and most refined wave of Cantonese: Bye, bye, egg roll, hullo, Shanghai dumpling. It’s the darling of Toronto and Vancouver Chinese. Here in Victoria, it has lately entrenched itself as the only province of foodiedom in which our city might look the mainland straight in the face. My dim sum craving invariably takes me to Jade Fountain in the bowels of the Red Lion Inn. Surprisingly, it’s a handsome room, closer to Hong Kong flash and dash than Chinatown kitsch. The trolleys roll at lunch and the dim sum menu, in a departure from tradition, is available in the evening. The mostly Cantonese clientele is plenty pleased: Jade’s packed. There are spring rolls for novices and chicken feet to baffle us quai lo—the venerable Cantonese term for “foreign devil”—but also so much more: My fave dumpling comes stuffed with pork, peanuts, coriander and mushrooms, talk about a mouthful. I wouldn’t sniff at the shrimp and Chinese chive dumplings, either, either. Ever-so-delicate open-face dumplings of steamed scallop topped with crunchy tobiko nod at the textural play of sushi. But if Cantonese is about the virtue of steaming, it’s also about sin-crusted deep-fry. The kitchen turns out lovely little shrimp fritters, but its headliner is the seafood roll, a hefty forcemeat of shrimp wrapped in tofu skin deep-fried. I haven’t found this one anywhere else, and it’s a beaut. Just remember to push aside, as violently as possible, the accompanying mayo, a bizarre goo recalling elephant semen. In Vic’s only other credible venue, the Pacific in the Grand Pacific, the form goes haute with top-of-the-line ingredients and prices to match. BC seafood congee, rice porridge with spot prawns, halibut and salmon, isn’t strictly dim sum, but its velvety rice and juicy seafood justify the trip. A stuffing of barbecued duck kicks the spring roll up a notch, while har gow with pork and tiger prawns proves an unfettered delight with its drizzle of shitake-and-goji berry juice. The latter, a Tibetan fruit, is supposed to be a youth elixir. How appropriate, a gift of time to savour the dim sum cleverness of tomorrow.
NEW SUMMER MENU By chef Matt Rissling.
See the menu at www.marinarestaurant.com
250-598-8555 1327 Beach h Drive at the Oak Bay Marina arina
www.marinarestaurant.com www . .marinar estaurant.com m www.eatmagazine.ca JULY | AUGUST 2009
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