One day @ a time - #8 Dim Sun eats Dim Sum - June 12

Almost done with the blog-athon! I'm just making up lost time due to a Macbook malfunction. I'm now playing on my new MacBook Pro, but feelin' like an amateur, teeheehee.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

So after the crazy week that started off with me Buffering due to my broken lapto--uhh, notebook :-), I set out to take a mind clearing stroll through Brooklyn and instead got my mind blown! We moved to this area shortly after our house was broken into and did the initial stroll around the blocks. We picked up menus and I made mental lists of what groceries were where. We saw this huuuuuge building under going a remodeling and at the time it looked like a fish market??? What do you think?

The "Plaza"part is what made us feel like it was a seafood market of some type. Well, that was a year and some change ago and every time we pass it on the way to another seafood market, we'd wonder when it would finally open. This day we were coming from a stroll and saw activity outside of the entrance. First we stood on the corner, then we slowly inched closer towards the building. Both looking up at it and mumbling things like "I wonder what's going on" and "Is it open for business?". We mumbled right up to the foot of the steps and that's where we met a nice lady talking to two other businessmen. I think she knew we were clueless and inquisitive because she walked up to us and asked us if we needed help. We both explained that we didn't know what was inside, but wanted to go in if it was finally opened. We asked if it was a seafood market and she said no, it was a restaurant. A RESTAURANT!?!?!?! My heart skipped a beat! We live on the cusp of many different nationalities in my area, so given her nationality as Chinese and the word "seafood" on the building, I got super foodie excited. We already have authentic Greek, Italian, Middle Eastern and South American food at our footsteps, so this would be the cherry on top! She invited us in and that's when I realized she had ties to the building. I was impressed, she was so inviting and we instantly got hungry, but it was Saturday and we were both in our weekend worst of cargo pants and wrinkled t-shirts. I told her we looked a mess and would return cleaned up, but she told us it was casual and we looked ok as is. I like a sweet, but hard sell. She ushered us up the steps and into what I can only explain as a Dim Sum Palace! You'd expect to see something like this in Manhattan's Chinatown. Huge. Pretty Lighting. Loud. Busy. Aaaaaand we were the only non-Asians in there ... something of a coup in the ethnic dining trenches of NYC. Take a look at our first round ...
Look at that! That's only a third of what we ordered. So happy I was Dim and it wasn't a seafood market. I don't mind walking a bit further for seafood if that means Dim Sum is close to home! If you've never done Dim Sum, it's fun and instant gratification. The waiters come by with carts of steamed dumplings and small bites and all you have to do is point to what you want and it's on the table in seconds, straight from the cart. We'd pretty much said yes to everything and then realized we had to slow down or we'd have more on the table than we could fit or eat. That's when this beauty rolled by ...
It had me at bacon. We both looked at each other for approval, then before even getting each other's response, told the lady with the cart we'd take a few of the bacon thingys. I don't know what you call it but inside was crab meat and spices. That's all I can discern, it was crispy, not greasy and delicious. We thought surely we were breaking the bank there with all of our cart hijacking and I kept thinking this would be a nice way to say welcome to the neighborhood and congrats on getting the business opened. Turns out when we moved into the area over a year ago, it was almost ready to open, but the city slowed the process by not issuing an occupancy certificate. Must've been stress waiting for that as a business owner. Anyway, we ate for 2 people and had enough left to take home for 2 more people ... grand total?? $36. Crazy!!! I love a stroll through Brooklyn!

Ok, I'll post the next and last blog for today around 5:30 for my East Coast foodies reading live that have to clock out from the cubicle :-) ....