We were at a housewarming last week for one of our fellow Aussie expats, and met some locals who had a pretty extensive knowledge of the local Asian food scene. They had lived a significant part of their lives in Hong Kong, and their consensus was that Asian food in Seattle isn't quite what it is back in SE Asia, although it wasn't too bad. We've also had some experience of that here too - the Malaysian food has had an interesting twist to it, the Vietnamese hasn't had quite that fresh kick that we're used to back in Sydney. Nonetheless, we decided that this weekend was when we'd venture out for first yum-cha experience.
First up - finding a place for yum cha. More commonly known as dim sum here, we found a place in the International District (the politically correct name for Chinatown), which rated pretty well on Yelp. First impressions were pretty consistent with our Australian experience - a chaotic waiting room, a piece of paper with our names and table sizes written haphazardly on it, and restaurant staff yelling at each other incomprehensibly... could almost have been the Iron Chef in Cabramatta!
From here though, things started to deviate a little from the expected script. First up, we only had to wait 20 minutes for our table for two, as opposed to the customary hour-long wait, before we were ushered to our table (not a bad thing, I must add). Then came the next strange deviation - all of the establishments that we were familiar with (Iron Chef, Marigold, the Phoenix franchise, even Maxim's in Hong Kong) have one thing in common - all the tables were set up in a large auditorium-style area, allowing the carts to duck in and out, serving their wares. They could very easily start from the kitchen, work their way around the room, and then retreat back to the kitchen for restocking once the food had been depleted. This restaurant however was cramped, had tight corners, and ramps (?) connecting different levels (??) together. Something wasn't quite right here...
And then we walked up some stairs to get to where we would be sitting, at which point our immediate thought was - so how do the carts restock from the kitchen, which was located on the lower level? Within minutes of being seated, the question was answered for us...
First up - we had plates, and not bowls. A little disconcerting, but not overly terrible. We were offered the usual dumplings, dim sum, greens and footballs (I'm sure it's not actually called that, but it's mushrooms and minced pork battered and deep-fried into the shape of a football) from the two carts immediately next to us. And then... the carts didn't move! They stayed there! They didn't traverse the room! At this point, we were looking at each other, a little confused as to what was going on... why weren't the carts circulating? The answer was almost immediately revealed - someone came from the kitchen with fresh dim sum baskets, and loaded them onto the cart! We were slightly horrified, think of the baskets at the bottom of the stack! One could only imagine how long they had been there.
Interestingly, we didn't order anything off the carts after our initial raid... we quietly finished up, and headed out the door. While the range of food was pretty run-of-the-mill (nothing particularly exotic in the selections), the overall experience left a little to be desired. Unfortunately, at this point we have to concur with our newly found local friends - not quite what it is back in Asia, or even Sydney. It also reinforced the fact that we were ridiculously spoilt for food while growing up.
After leaving, we spent a bit of time walking around the ID, where we found a place that sold both roast duck (including the head), as well as BBQ pork. We walked away from that store with a whole duck, chopped up (sans head, we weren't that game), and found a place that did bubble tea which wasn't loaded with sugar - quite a find for here!
Later that day took us out onto Lake Washington for a cruise kindly gifted to us by one of Chath's friends from school. It departed from Kirkland, and took us past the houses of the rich and famous, including my big boss (in spirit, if not organisation) Bill Gates. Apparently he pays $1.1 million in property taxes annually! Chump change for someone like him I'd suppose. Interestingly, all of those details are on the public record, not sure how the rich and famous feel about that.
On the way back to the car, the end of our Asian foodie adventure - we stumbled across a banh mi shop, selling all manner of Vietnamese rolls. We figured - why not, let's take the punt. Would it stack up to the Vietnamese pork rolls of home? Things started well - grilled pork, cucumber, pickled carrot, radish, cilantro (it's called coriander people!), bathed in a secret sauce (secret = proprietary of course). All in all - pretty good, the roll was a little disappointing, but otherwise the flavours were pretty good. Have to say, enjoyed it a little more than the morning's yum cha experience...
So, an interesting day on the food front - some hits, some misses and a continuation of our foodie education. The day really reinforced the fact that we were incredibly spoilt for choice when it came to Asian food in Sydney, I think that's one thing the both of us miss a lot.
Some photos from the cruise, to finish up what was a slightly longer than expected post:
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| Kirkland Foreshore |
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| Civil War Re-enactments |
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| One of the more exclusive Seattle waterfront locations |
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