Farewell Dim Sum

Sandy, my ex-roommate from New York, decides to halt her austere but rather healthy diet for one evening so we can enjoy some dim sum as we bid her farewell.

Aside from pre-game white wine and a little extras, here is what went down… our gullets. Favorites are the baked bun (soooo goooooood!) and the steamed water chestnut dumplings. Food can taste just as good when you’re choking back tears.

Tim Ho Wan, the Dim Sum Specialists
Shop 12A, Below IFC Mall
One Michelin Star

Each serving, which varies from three to four pieces, are a steal, given it’s less than HK$15 each. You can stuff yourself silly.

Xiu Mai

Beef Spring Roll

Steamed pork patty with egg over rice — a Cantonese comfort food, apparently. There’s a version at 7/11 that turned me off the dish forever, so I’m sad I didn’t enjoy this as much.

Inside is glutinous rice with chicken

BEST BAKED PORK BUN IN HONG KONG. Crunchy on the outside, soft and savory on the inside. Loved it.

We mistakenly drank this, thinking it was tea, but it turned out to be just hot water. Usually serves a dual purpose of clearing your throat and washing your chopsticks.

Steamed sponge cake. Fluffy! For dessert, there’s also black fungus, in case you’re into that.

I think of Sandy and all the times we’ve bonded over food — from take-out dinners at our shared apartment to getting picked up by Russians en route to a Cantonese chain that serves greasy comfort food that is perfect to ease our drunkenness — and I can’t think of anyone better to share a nice Hong Kong meal with. When she leaves tomorrow, the city will be a little less spunky. She will be missed.