A Tale of Two Dumplings... or 3, or 4, or 5...

I got together with some friends this past weekend, and that means a little bit of shopping and a lot more of eating.  We started off in chinatown at the Dim Sum place on Bowery and Canal directly across from the Manhattan Bridge.  I was actually headed towards the one on Chatham Square but we happened to pass this place and the entrance was packed with people waiting to be seated.  This was an indication that if the folks of Chinatown were flocking to this place, it had to be good.  

I approached this old Chinese man in a suit who looked like he was in charge...  maybe it was the suit.  He was unusually tall and still had a head full of slick black hair.  I bet he was handsome back in his day.  So I told him we needed a table for 3, and he hands me a post-it note that said, "three" and, "#61."  Yes, we were number #61 and he was just calling out #40... in Chinese.  I never felt so lost in my life; we never knew what was going on in that chaos, but it was quite amusing.  Every time the host yelled out a number we held up our post-it note.  I think he was so annoyed at us that he finally said he would call out our number in English.  We were so hungry, it was torture standing there while the carts of steaming hot food with their enticing aromas passed us by.  

We were seated after what felt like forever, but once the carts came by, we were pointing away until we had more dumplings in front of us than we could count.  We also got some rolled steamed noodles with that yummy sweet soy sauce, this fried dough stuff that was then dipped in a rice flour batter and then steamed, and a dish of steamed chinese broccoli.  We found that if we wanted something we needed to tell them right away because those dim sum ladies are quick.  

This place is definitely better than the last one I went to.  Everything was super tasty... except maybe the mystery dumpling with peanuts in it... that was interesting.  And of course, the meal was accompanied by some deliciously warming jasmine tea that I just couldn't get enough of.  Moral of the story: if you see a Chinese restaurant packed with Chinese people, it's going to be good.