Dim Sum at Sun Sui Wah

We've missed this while we've been in France and dim sum really isn't something you can duplicate at home--even if I could lay my hands on all the ingredients.

Thanks to its enormous Asian population, Vancouver boasts dozens of spots where you can sit down in a huge dining room and pick and choose from the various dim sum carts wheeled to your table. 

Sun Sui Wah used to do this but not any more. Now it's a menu, an order form--and tick off the boxes according to how many portions you went. While I miss the surprise when the servers used to lift the lids off the little bamboo steamers to show what they were offering, what not comes to the table is definitely fresher and hotter. 

Six dishes did us nicely. The spring rolls were way better than the usual. That bowl of pale stuff is congee--rice gruel, much nicer than it sounds. This version had little dried fish and peanuts in it, and came with a little bowl of deep fried wonton skins and sliced green onion to sprinkle over the top.

Deep fried squid is always a must, as are shrimp dumplings which are larger than normal at Sun Sui Wah. We wandered outside our usual order with bean curd with oyster sauce which  turned out to be filled with ground pork. Making up the half dozen dishes were sticky rice balls. Other places, the sticky rice is wrapped inside a single black-green leaf instead of the smaller versions served here. As servers brought each dish to the table, they crossed off each item on the order by denting it with a fingernail. 

This is always a busy place. As we left, the queue extended down both side of the staircase.