Tea Lunch at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
I first learned about tea lunch with bite-size dim sum dumplings made with seafood, pork, and vegetables in Hong Kong as a teenager before going on a 3-week study tour in the People’s Republic of China with the Detroit Youth Tour to China in 1979.
I loved it that the waiters in Hong Kong all spoke English and could tell me what the dim sum in the steam carts they rolled among the tables were. They also showed me how the billing worked by placing a red ink round mark on the bill with the number of dim sum taken of each kind. At the end of the meal, they would total up everything along with the tea and you would pay at the table. That was a first-class introduction to tea lunch with dim sum dumplings in Hong Kong.
Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California continues this type of positive intercultural food experience. The menu has a photo of each dim sum, which is sold 4 to a basket along with a description of what the dim sum is in English. The dim sum arrive in a waiter robot powered by a waiter in so-close-to-Silicon-Valley Salinas.
My daughter Florence Paget and I shared the following dim sum and jasmine tea:
-shrimp dumplings steamed in rice flour pastry shells that looked like small, squinched, clutch coin purses. The gooey rice flour pastry makes the shrimp inside retain its salty, sweet flavor, but the texture of the steamed pastry shell might put off people trying dim sum for the first time.
-deep-fried shrimp balls
-pork dumplings coated in creamy and spicy hot peanut and red pepper sauce from Sichuan
-Chinese donuts that resemble long Mexican churro donuts. The donuts come with a super sweet dipping sauce.
The dumplings at Dim Sum Inn are not bite-size like the ones in Hong Kong. It takes about two bites to eat the dumplings in this great deal restaurant in Salinas, California that has:
-a large parking lot
-a large banquet room
-easy to understand menus with photos
-vegetarian dim sum and lunch items
-easy access from Highway 101 and Highway 68
Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California merits a detour as the Michelin guidebooks say.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
