Would you believe me if I told you this is my third attempt trying to write this post?
Long has it been that I've not been able to get into the flow of things, and yet, here i am, trying to write this post for the third time.
As if I haven't written about eating dim sum before.
It's quite dumb, to be honest.
But I guess there're moments in life where your thoughts just don't flow.
Or maybe they do flow, but they're distracted here, there, everywhere, until you clap over your ears a pair of Bluetooth headphones, and... the words flow again.
It would be less of an eye-roll if I were writing a paper or some sort of email or some sort of theoretical argument.
But I'm writing about a dim sum meal that I had at Canton Paradise a while ago.
How boggling can it be?
Maybe it's because I don't know where exactly to start.
Maybe it's because I don't know whether I should write about each new favorite one by one, or plonk the pictures all down and let the words flow.
Perhaps I'll try the latter.
Don't laugh.
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes a picture speaks more than words, and right now it's very much applicable.
If you're wondering why all these dishes seem so varied, well, that's the charm of their weekday dim sum menu.
You have the favorites that everyone likes, but they also do have dishes which you possibly may or may not find elsewhere.
I've since learnt that there's always something new to discover, and life is such that you sometimes end up discovering dishes that previously you didn't think you'd eat, but you now do.
Like the dish I call Dumplings in Spicy Mala Chili Oil.
At another time you would not see me have something this oily and spicy.
But we probably needed a heavy nudge that afternoon, and so decided to give this a try.
I don't know the name of this dish on the menu but really that's what it is- four dumplings sitting in a pool of Mala numbing chili oil.
My friend got a kick out of the Mala.
I, on the other hand, fell in love with the smooth silkiness of the dumpling skin, the slight tender chew of the meat, the way the dumpling slid so easily down my throat, and the perfect size of each dumpling that made eating it so comfortable and so easy.
Amongst the orders that afternoon there were our favorites.
Like the Steamed Char Siew Baos that were warm, fluffy and full of chunky char siew pieces smothered entirely in sweet, red-colored sauce.
Like the Cheong Funs that we had both the char siew and the ones with some sort of a deep fried crisp youtiao inside. Cheong Funs might be considered regular dim sum fare to most of us- we can order them from the coffee shop steamers- but here the rice roll itself wrap was really thin.
I liked the one with the crisp youtiao.
Each piece gave off a satisfying crunch.
Besides that, we also tried their Fried Spring Rolls.
I'm not sure if there were meant to be anything special about it- if there were anything I might have missed it out. To me they were typical with the turnips and everything stuffed into it, but they were very well fried. Every bite was hot and crisp and crunchy and, best part, even after a while, the Spring Rolls didn't hold any aftertaste of soggy oversoaked oil.
We also had the Charcoal Egg Tarts, the Char Siew Sous, the Crispy Tofu, and this one other dish that I call Truffle Mushroom Crystal Baos.
Out of all these it were the Crispy Tofu and the Truffle Mushroom that we found ourselves liking.
Not that we didn't appreciate the Char Siew Sous- these triangular shaped babies were chock full with little chunks of meat in the sweet char siew sauce and there was even that slight burnt taste on the pastry.
But the Crispy Tofu had all these super cute cubes of tofu lightly coated with (something) skillfully fried to such an extent that the outside was a distinct crisp whilst the inside was soft and mushy. There seemed to be a faint scattering of salt or some sort of seasoning over the tofu as well so it didn't taste as plain as you imagined a dish like this might be.
As for the Truffle Mushroom Crystal Bao, well, the first thing that surprised me was just how well the mushroom had been finely chopped. I had honestly been expecting an entire piece of mushroom whole inside the crystal skin of the bao, so imagine how glad I was when at first bite all these little bits of mushroom flowed out from the bao and into my mouth.
Easy to eat, full of taste, this at once became a new favorite of mine.
I'll be sure to order these Crystal skin baos again the next time I'm at Canton Paradise.
I'll also be sure to study the menu better and try some new dishes.
They are, after all, delicious, geriatric-friendly (a fact I appreciate), warm to the heart, and make for a great meal to enjoy when you're needing one.