Jay had a hankering for dumplings on Sunday & I’m never one to turn down the chance to eat douhua (a tofu dessert with light syrup), so off to the city we went! This was the first time we ventured to Boston’s Chinatown for dim sum without our Chinese speaking friends. Not a big deal, right? We’ve been to Hei La Moon hundreds of times before. We know how to play the waiting game for a table. We know all about the cart service and how the stamp card works. We know what the best dishes are. Sure, we can’t speak the language, but we can sheepishly, point – right? We can do this!
WRONG. So wrong. We had a plan: when the cart comes to our table, take what we want or point to it if it’s a dish that must be served. Well, our plan sucked. We didn’t know how to ask if the dish was pork or shrimp (I’m allergic to shrimp). All of the dumplings looked the same! Also, the food was slow to come out of the kitchen & people were getting very impatient, so they would bombard the cart instead of waiting for it to go to their table. As a result, there was a scarce (sometimes cold) selection of dishes by the time the cart made it to our table. However, the food that did make it to our plate was delicious.
It wasn’t a “bad” experience per se, but it wasn’t the fun & delicious experience that we’re used to when we go with our friends. Guess we’ll have to figure out how to ask “pork or shrimp?” in Chinese before another craving for dumplings strikes. The worst part? The cart carrying bowls of glorious douhua with ginger syrup that I love so much never passed by our table! Real talk: I just came for the dessert.
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