March 14

Oh dear, it's gone and finally happened. I've had so many delicious meals in China -- and I've gone and forgotten pretty much all the details of this meal.

Maybe it was that much of this meal, the first of two dim sum feasts I had in Guangzhou, was wrapped in dough. The wrapping conceals the inner contents, and the photos fail to jog my memory. I admit that I ate the meal a good month ago.

Maybe it was that the food hails, like my father's family, from Guangzhou, and as a result I slipped into a haze of familiarity. Ah yes, I know this one, I would think happily to myself before chomping on a properly fresh shrimp dumpling.

I'll say this -- the seafood was damn fresh. My traveling partner, a hungry hostel bunkmate and I were seated at an umbrelled table on the sprawling outdoor patio of one of Guangzhou's massive dim sum palaces. This particular eatery was near the highway crossing to Shamian Dao, the small island in the Pearl River that's part of the city.

In addition to its myriad indoor, outdoor, glassed-in and balconied eating area, the restaurant featured at least three rooms of fresh seafood on display for customers. A man-made "river" (complete with a pedestrian bridge to the kitchen) throughout the restaurant was actually a giant fish tank -- several times I watched a kitchen assistant reach in for a fresh one to become part of someone's dinner.

In the hands of my Cantonese-fluent travel partner, we ordered a feast and crawled home. I'll let you experts examine the meal and chime in with their proper names.

No. 1

No. 2

No. 3

No. 4

No. 5

No. 6

No. 7

The last one is turnip, I remember that much.

March 14, 2005

Guangzhou Dim Sum 1 - Outdoor Dining