I found the lack of information on the web about the Chinese New Year Carnival (different from the Chinese Community Street Fair to be held this weekend) to be quite strange. After I searched SFGate.com (the Chronicle’s online presence), and San Francisco Chinatown’s official website, all I could gleam from these sites was that it was a “two week-long outdoor fair” at Walter U. Lum Place in Chinatown. Then I went to Citysearch and was happily surprised to find a bit more information on the Carnival:
This kid-friendly celebration of Chinese culture will fill the streets of Chinatown with music, dance and dozens of vendors. The aroma of tasty Chinese treats will waft through Grant Avenue and Stockton Street, tempting passersby to check out the goods. Kids will enjoy puppet shows, demonstrations of cultural arts such as kite-making and lantern-making, folk dancing, and traditional and contemporary music and entertainment.
With a description like that, how could you not want to go? So my wife Lucky, our pal Grady and I decided to jump on the N-Judah and headed to Chinatown. I was expecting colorful silk costumes, lively music, and hundreds of kids frolicking with delicious goodies in their hands. To our chagrin, the carnival, if you could call it that, consisted of about ten booths lining a short alley between Washington and Clay Streets. The bored barkers repeated their oft-repeated “Try your luck” spiels, trying half-heartedly to get uninterested passers-by to win a barely alive goldfish by getting the ping-pong ball into the bowl; or an oversized dusty Spider-Man (probably a more tempting reward last year when the blockbuster movie featuring said hero came out), by putting the lopsided basketball through the smaller- than-regulation size hoop.
Unimpressed, and more importantly, hungry, we left in a hurry to find something to fill the empty void left by the disappointment. We wandered the streets of Chinatown, passing shop after shop selling trinkets and knickknacks. “Where should we eat? I’m starving,” Lucky said adding to the pressure of finding something. There were tons of restaurants, but at 2 in the afternoon, would they still have any dim sum left? We decided to look for a place that would sell dim sum to go. That didn’t make it any easier – there were tons of hole-in-the-walls selling dim sum, but many looked dirty or lacking customers, both bad omens if you ask me. After a few more minutes of fruitless searching, I saw House of Dim Sum. It was quite bustling compared to the others and seemed pretty sanitary as the ladies behind the counter were using gloves and tongs.
As I looked at the selections, my mouth started to water. But I was shaken out of my salivating state when the lady behind the counter asked me what I wanted. In Cantonese. “Oh boy, this is going to be painful,” I thought since my Cantonese is pretty non-existent and my Mandarin is getting rustier by the second. As panic began to set in, I found a quarter sheet of paper listing over 40 selections of dim sum in both Chinese characters and in English. What a simple way to order! I ordered an assortment of dumplings – chives and shrimp, spicy hot pork, beef, pork and vegetable. Then I added some favorites that I knew by name: char siu bao (BBQ pork bun), dan tat (egg custard pie), won ton mein (wonton with noodle soup), and lou mai gai (lotus leaf rice). The lady behind the counter was caught off guard by my sudden fluency, but then flashed me a smile that said, “You’re OK, kid.”
$18 dollars and five minutes later (the wonton noodle soup took a while), we headed back to Walter U. Lum Place. Below the sad excuse of a carnival was a playground where all the locals hung out. On Washington Street, groups of grandpas huddled together intently watching games of Chinese chess while in the cement square of the playground, grandmas sat chatting or playing cards. In the playground itself, young couples sat on benches while their children played on the monkey bars and swings. Lucky, Grady and I sat at the edge of the playground watching the children playing without a care in the world. We dug into our late afternoon lunch, stuffing dumpling after dumpling into our mouths. Fresh and still warm, these little bite sized morsels were surprisingly delicious. And considering they were only 60 cents each, they were quite a bargain. The only orders that fell on the disappointing side were the wonton soup and the lotus leaf rice. The noodles and broth were totally tasteless, but the wontons, filled with pork and ginger, were just as tasty as the dumplings. Considering there were at least 8 wontons in there at a price of 60 cents each, it was worth the $5. The lotus leaf rice, however, was not very flavorful. Unfortunately, the stuffing of peanuts, egg yolk, and Chinese sausage could not rescue it.
Despite the wretched start, House of Dim Sum provided some satisfying dim sum to go, particularly the dumplings; and Walter U. Lum Place provided the perfect outdoor location to people-watch and enjoy a meal.
House of Dim Sum
735 Jackson St.
San Francisco, CA
(415) 399-0888
Originally published: www.ucsf.edu/synapse/articles/2008/Feb/21/dimsum.html
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