Sunday Funday Dim Sum

If there's one thing you know about Hong Kong, we've got got dim sum like whoa.

My Sunday was off to a rough start. I was at a going away party for my friend and former co-worker. Got home around 2 AM to find that I had no keys in my bag. I had a spare set in the office, but no one's gonna open the office for me at that hour. I wouldn't want them to. I knew a few friends were still up, so I scrambled to call them while they were still awake. I was able to crash with my big bro and his fiance, and the next day joined them and some of their friends for dim sum.

When visitors are in town, cue the obligatory visit to Maxim's Palace at City Hall for dim sum.  I don't mind tagging along at all.  The last time I was there was 3 years ago!

Like any hot ticket item in HK, be prepared to queue.  Fortunately friends had already been seated by the time we arrived.  You would normally associate push carts of food with dim sum, but these days it's not so common.  You just order off a menu.  But that's no fun!  Maxim's is one of the few places that still serves food this way.  It's nice being able to see the food and point at the items you want.  To make it even easier, they've got labels on the side of the cart in English and Chinese.  I've been to less user friendly dim sum places where no one speaks English, only a few items are listed on the English menu (the best stuff is never one there), and you need to fight for a seat and the dishes.  This is challenging when you don't know what anyone is saying to you, or what the heck that food is in front of you.  I know it's lame, but if I want to have a good food experience, I need to go with a Cantonese speaker.

We had a little bit of everything, or maybe a lot.  In the end our receipt had 50 dishes, which came out to $150 HKD (less than $20 USD) per person.  While dim sum is usually super cheap, this was not too bad at all considering it was a classy joint and all.