Fragrant Lotus Yum Cha
http://www.openrice.com/big5/sr2.htm?shopid=1868&comstart=15
The yum cha today was a lot of fun. Many of my friends had already warned me that it was "very traditional" and that you "can't book". I dismissed this, thinking no worries, I'll just show up 20 minutes before everyone else and and get a table. In my optimistic mind's eye, I imagined myself sitting at a table reading "Post-Captain" while waiting for the rest of my lunch companions to arrive.
I also studied my Cantonese phrasebook this morning, reading the Chinese characters for all of the main dishes and beverages in case the restaurant was one of those where you must select dishes by marking them off on a card (in Chinese). I checked and then consulted with my father to establish how to say: "My friend cannot eat gluten", as Madeleine is gluten-intolerant. Dad told me how to say this, and also how to say "lotus paste bun", but said that it might be safest if Madeleine simply avoided all items that looked vaguely doughey/floury as it might be hard to explain to a waiter what a glutent-intolerance was ....
Feeling fairly comfortable about the world, and that I knew how to recognised all of the characters, I strolled down Aberdeen Street, climbed the stairs to the second floor and with a hopeful smile on my face, asked the woman in the doorway (in Cantonese) for a table for 8. She looked at me like I was profoundly stupid and said in Cantonese: "You have to find your own table."
My hopeful smile faded slightly as I studied the room which was already completely full and people were already stalking tables and hovering over the diners to try to see if they were leaving. At one stage, I thought that I had found a table, headed towards it but discovered that someone had beaten me to it.
I decided to try again and asked a waiter: "Can you help me find a table?" He looked at me sympathetically but said: "No, you find your own table." I finally found a table for eight people where judging by the large array of empty plates and lack of conversation, it appeared as they were on the point of departure. One man rose with the bill, which made me extremely hopeful. I pointed at the table and the waiter obligingly nodded and indicated I should sit down and wait.
I had five minutes until the remainder of my group would be arriving. Then I realised that the table which seated 8 people was actually comprised of 3 different groups, with 3 different departure times!!!!! Two of the groups looked like they might be there forever because they were reading newspapers.
Anyway I sat down anyway, the sympathetic waiter came back and laid out bowls and cups for me and a bowl of hot water so I could rinse/wash them while I waited. Finally the second group left and the table was largely free except for the third group which remained, sipping tea and reading the racing form guide.
People kept coming to try to take my table. My stress levels rose and I called each one of my friends and asked them (in urgent tones) to please hurry up. Finally Rodney showed up, then Madeleine and Kim, then Al, then Tom and Helen. They were the ONLY gweilo in the restaurant. Each of them as they stood in the doorway surveying the crowded room (into which my non-descript face must have blurred and blended) had a mild look of panic as they must have wondered if they were in the right place or they had been led astray by that dratted Koala again. The restaurant does not have signage in English so I had sent emails with instructions on how to get there, plus the name in Chinese characters. My father said I should have paid someone to stand down the front with a sign saying: "Koala this way".
Anyway, everyone arrived and Tom mumbled. "You weren't kidding about the "traditional" thing. When you said traditional yum cha, I was imagining a leisurely brunch. I hadn't imagined it would be quite THIS traditional".
My nerdy swotting of dim sum vocab beforehand turned out to be completely unnecessary as there were trolleys. What was hilarious was that as soon as the trollies emerged from the ktichen, the customers would run to the trolley and swarm it and take the food!!!! By the time the trolley reached our table, it was empty.
Finally Tom had enoughand started swarming the trolley as well. It was extremely funny. I went for a couple of trips, so did Rodney and then Tom was sent a few times to fetch the food. Everyone had a really good time and took a name card and seemed really happy that I organised it. The fact that they were the only gweilo only caused amusement, as did the people hovering around our table while we were eating in the hope that we would leave. Although we were probably supposed to be intimidated, we ignored them and Tom said something like:
"They are probably thinking, let's stand here. The gweilo have made a mistake, the table will be empty as soon as they realise that they can't get a latte here." :)
In all, it ended up being approximately $55 a head which is very inexpensive for Hong Kong - incredibly noisy and bustling though. I like the idea that in the old days, the person organising would sit there all day and different friends would come and go during the day and yum chat was a place to meet and chat - very leisurely and relaxed.
What was funny was that we permanently had some old guy at our table. Different old guy but 3 different ones and they didn't want to leave. They sat there reading the horse racing page and drinking tea, so clearly it's solo friendly :) You can sit there with a paper, eating your brekky for AGES.
Then Kim, Mad, Rodney came over to my place for a drink and a chat. So that was nice. I was supposed to go to dinner tonight with Jocelyn from Singapore but she's sick and cancelled. Sad for her but good for me b/c I'm so full :)