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| Sesame Balls - photo by Julia the Child Foodie |
My Aunt Sally was in town from Virginia and spent a Friday afternoon showing us around Chinatown in Boston. She is my mother's best friend and they've known each other since college. Aunt Sally's grandmother used to live in Chinatown so she really knows her way around. My brother Thomas came with us and we had a great time.
We started out having lunch at Chau Chow City on Essex St. They offer dim-sum which was new to me and my brother. Each waiter comes around with a cart with different dishes on it. They lift up the lids so you can see what they have. Some have fried food, others carts have steamed dishes in baskets or metal tins. Aunt Sally speaks Chinese so she was able to talk to the waiters and tell us what they had on their cart. We trusted her to order for us and wanted to be surprised. Our table got full of different dishes very quickly!
We tried some weird dishes; tripe (cow stomach), shrimpballs (like meat balls), and even baby pork ribs. Thomas really liked the tripe and had two helpings, I couldn't believe it! Most of the dishes we tried had pork or shrimp in them. We also learned the rules of eating with chopsticks when you are sharing dishes. To grab the food, you use your chopsticks. If you haven't eaten with them yet then you can use the end you eat with. But, once you've eaten with your chopsticks you have to flip them around and use the other side if you want to take something from the plate. (This way you don't double dip.) One of my favorite dishes was the sesame balls. They are balls of dough that are filled with a sweet paste and rolled in sesame seeds. The waiter can cut them in half with special scissors or you can eat it whole. They are very sweet and very filling so save room for it (see picture at the top).
The best part of dim-sum is that you get to try so many new things. Even if you don't like something (I didn't like the tripe), someone else at the table is probably going to eat it.
In Chow Down Chinatown Part 2, I'll tell you all about the bakeries, butcher shop and grocery store Aunt Sally showed us after lunch. Stay tuned!
Dim Sum - photo by Julia the Child Foodie
