Dim Sum

Having grown up in Singapore it’s always a treat to find half decent Asian food outside of Asia. Golden Dragon in China Town in London does dim sum really well and it’s a great pleasure to go there with my friend from school, Derek Yuen, aka “the Dim Sum king”. We have been for dim sum brunch many a time on a late Sunday morning. It’s a wonderful way to start a Sunday and often the perfect cure for a hangover.

I find that Golden Dragon on a late Sunday morning regularly seems to be jam packed, most often with large Asian families all catching up at the end of the week yapping away in different dialects of Chinese. The restaurant is well-lit and open with red and gold décor. It is loud and plates fly around all over the place in different directions, waiters and waitresses snap at each other from across the restaurant floor -but this atmosphere is part of the fun. I wouldn’t say Golden Dragon has particularly good service but it is all about the food and the company!

I love the big round tables, which fit lots of people around them, and everyone can see each other – it makes it a very sociable meal. The sharing aspect is really lovely as well – all the dishes are laid out in front of you on a lazy Susan (see photo below), which can be spun around. There is more than enough for everyone so there is no need to get worried about not having a piece of something. In fact, I prefer the sharing culture, as not only are you sharing the physical dish, but also the taste and enjoyment of each wonderful dumpling with all your friends around you. What´s more, there is no risk of getting bored of one taste, as there are so many dishes to try! 

Lazy Susan 

You may think that Golden Dragon would be ridiculously expensive being in Leicester Square, central London, but actually it is very reasonably priced: for a whole lot of food I paid a total of only £16.50. If you saw the amount of food we had, you wouldn’t believe it!

We begin our feast! The dim sum arrives in round wooden boxes stacked on top of each other steaming hot… in each box there are about 4 dumplings, all different and all delicious! 

A few of our favourite dishes!

1. xiao long bao – Shanghainese speciality pork and other things inside a dumpling – the hallmark is the soup inside the wrapping – this one is one of the hardest to make and it is very, very difficult to make exceptionally well. This is my favourite. They are always REALLY hot and steamy so to avoid burning your mouth you can poke a hole in it with your chopstick and let the steam come out. Yummy – even thinking about this makes my mouth water.

2. Char siew bao – fluffy steamed buns filled with BBQ flavoured pork. This is my second favourite. I used to eat these at school for snack – a bit of my childhood!

 3. Siew mai – pork, shrimp, scallions, a dot of crab roe

 4. Har Gao – plain rice noodle dumpling filled with prawns

 

 5. Cheong Fun –rice noodle rolls served with sweetened, diluted soy sauce and wrapped around various fillings.

6. In Cantonese they’re called Hong You Tsao Sow (Derek says people will laugh if I call it that but I have so.. ). You can also call them Szechuan chili oil dumplings.

7. Baked char siu bao– filling BBQ flavoured pork.

 

 

Pasca x