For this season until December, two expert dimsum chefs from Guangzhou were brought in to present their new interpretations on Dimsum. Dimsum of course, has long been a Hong Kong dominated side of Chinese cuisine but the great wealth and economic movement is now appearing in the dynamism of the cuisine of the mainland. The Festival is called “The Art of Dimsum”.

One of the translations of Dimsum is to “touch the heart” and I was excited to try the skill of this mainland chefs having extensively eaten my way last year in Hongkong especially in the bastions of Dimsum.

The chef started us off with steamed moon cakes (not baked) filled with a sweet and lightly salted vanilla custard. A pan fried cuttlefish cake came next with crisp rice net that had delicate textures of crunch as the rice net collapsed on the palate with the sponginess of the tasty cuttlefish cake redolent of chives.

This was followed by a delicate and snowy savory steamed milk and egg white custard topped with carrot puree to give an illusion of egg yolks. We ate this with steamed multigrain mantou or siopao bread which could have been a little over kneaded but was a good combination nevertheless.

The pan fried shrimp rolls with minute bubbles had a very delicate crisp texture with a wrapper of soybean.  It was moist and had the fresh firmness of shrimp inside and a winner with their house XO sauce.

For soup, prawn rolls floated in a clear flavorful and superior stock with carved carrots.

The chef’s version of Sharksfin Dumpling has more crystal prawn than pork and had a very fresh new approach to healthy eating while the steamed beef siomai had a pleasantly savory ginger and leeky ginger topping.

Dessert was a double boiled milk thickened but given a warm mouth feel with ginger. It reminded me of a good pastilles de leche and gave an incredible richness as one of our sweet endings. Contrasting that were a cool flowery tasting cakes of green bean pudding that were just lightly sweet and some special caramel flavored tikoy that were lightly steamed as contrasted to the traditional style that is steamed for hours.

Overall, I’d like to go back and try the other dishes this time probably bringing a couple of bottles of gewürztraminer or New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs to spice up the meal.  I’m glad this festival stays till December and gives a good respite when one gets tired of all the traditional holiday food we are going to encounter.  If the translation of Dimsum is “to touch the heart” I do believe the menu offerings would because of the new creativity presented by the chefs from Guangzhou.

You can email me at chefgenegonzalez@yahoo.com