I know where I'm going when the food crisis hits...

I have discovered a new source of cheap food... dim sum! I went out to brunch last Saturday with 10 friends/acquaintences. The restaurant was called Honey Court, on 3rd and Maynard (or 2nd... 1st? ) in Seattle's International District.

This was my first Dim Sum experience, and I'll say that it was definitely an interesting learning experience. Basically, Dim Sum is a meal eaten between morning and midday, in which one drinks tea and selects from a wide variety of dishes, each served in small quantities... much like a french a la carte brunch. Tea is served in a large kettle, and nice Chinese ladies come by to offer various cakes, pastries, meatballs, rice dishes, gelatins, meat- filled pastas, and more, from a cart. We didn't know what anything was by looking... its all a little strange-looking, to be quite honest. But our host/Charlene's friend (I'm sorry, but I just cannot remember your name!), was able to interpret for us, explaining what was in each dish and how it was to be eaten.

Though most of the time, it didn't matter what he said was in it... the server would take the lid off of the dish to show us, and invariably one of the eleven people around the table would say, "oooh, yes! let's have that!" So we ended up eating. And eating. And eating. Until the "ooh, yes!" would be slower in coming and was said with a little less gusto... and until we all finally said, "alright, now, I'm done." But by the time that happened, we had already ordered:

• three rice rolls (veggie, beef, shrimp)
• two rice dumplings (veggie, shripp)
• two crispy fried shrimp dumplings
• two barbecued pork puff pastries
• two barbecued pork flake pastries
• one barbecued pork bun
• three sesame balls
• one potato cake, one pork meatball
• one rice and chicken dish.

Mind you, each of these dishes had 3-6 small servings on it! And the most amazing thing about this entire affair was the bill... only $65.76, to feed eleven people!

Possibly the best part, though, was that everyone tried a little of everything. There were no cop-out pansies in our group, no one proclaiming an allergy or an aversion to get out of eating something. Even if it looked wierd and slimy, everyone had a taste... and that was so awesome! Being able to take a bite and explore the newness with someone else, a whole table of someone-elses, at the same time... I'm definitly looking forward to doing dim sum again... and at that price, how can you resist?!?