Today's post is the lunchtime edition of the family dinner. My parents are visiting this week, so I decided it would be nice to broaden their cultural horizons and take them to dim sum. I've already indoctrinated my Swedish mother in law, so she happily agreed to go. My friend Erin, a fellow dim sum lover, joined us as well.
I have to admit that I lured my parents there in a slightly less than honest way. See, my parents - in particular my father - are good old Midwestern meat 'n' potatoes folk. My mom is a little more adventurous than my dad (especially in the realm of vegetables), but dim sum would certainly be a new concept to them. Knowing they would protest, I tried to approach it casually. I mentioned we planned to take them to dim sum on Sunday. I immediately got the suspicious look. "What is dim sum?" "Oh, it's Chinese food. Yeah, but they serve it a la carte." This is, of course, true, but not the whole truth. Dim sum is full of textures and flavors unfamiliar to people whose Chinese food experience consists mostly of General Tso's chicken. My half truths bought me skeptical acceptance.
After a brutal kickboxing workout on Sunday morning, I collected the family and went to dim sum. (The brutal workout is an important component of dim sum. It allows me to consume massive quantities of grease without feeling guilty.) Dim sum is perfect for dining with small children. There is immediate gratification because the carts swarm your table as soon as you sit down. And it is big and noisy, so nobody glares out you when the baby starts fussing . . . or outright screaming.
We sat down and the dumpling cart made a beeline for our table. Within about 30 seconds we had shrimp dumplings, scallop dumplings, spinach shrimp dumplings, and pork dumplings. Annika helpfully pointed out that she and I don't eat pork, but they were fair game for the rest of the table. As the gelatinous blobs of dumplings made their way around the lazy susan, my dad announced that if this was the only type of food available to him, he'd lose a lot of weight. Funny, I'd weigh about 350 pounds and could live out my dream of being on The Biggest Loser.
Annika, sandwiched between my parents, was quite the pusher. "Oh, did you try these shrimp dumplings? I LOVE shrimp dumplings!" "You HAVE to try these green beans, they are SOOOO good!" Annika is a dim sum pro. As the carts come around, Annika will listen to what they have and either say yes for the table or squish up her face and say "eeeeew! I don't eat that!" The latter is reserved for dishes made of beef or pork. So far, none of the servers have seemed offended from her reaction. Sometimes she's not sure, so she'll yell across the table to ask me "mom do we eat lobster?" Like I said, dim sum is nice and noisy. Perfect for children.
To further encourage my parents, I mentioned that they actually eat much more on the menu than I do. (Seriously, why is pork in everything?) My dad protested "yeah, but I don't recognize any of it. Where's the rice? Do they just have rice?" I threatened to take them next door for sushi. I am proud my parents. In spite of their significant hesitation, they managed to eat a full meal each. Although I never thought I'd see my dad so happy to lay eyes on a plate of stir-fried noodles (he recognized them and was able to order them himself).
Annika probably ate more than anybody at the table. After enthusiastically sampling everything that came her way, she - while gulping apple juice - proclaimed that she was so full her tummy hurt. That lasted all of three minutes until the dessert cart came by. Miraculously, her stomach healed itself so that she could eat half a mochi ball and a quarter of a cream-filled bun.
All in all, I think it was a success. I waited until we got home before I told my parents about chicken feet and shark's fin. I doubt my parents will ever voluntarily go to dim sum again, but at least they have a fun cultural story to tell their friends. And at least it wasn't sushi.
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