Jing Fong 11-26-2010

Location: 20 Elizabeth St.
Time: 12pm
People: JLam from MeSoHungry, RB, CK and myself

Feelings: When I was little, my grandfather used to take my parents and I to a Chinese restaurant once a month. The memory of sharing Chinese food, specifically Dim Sum, stays with me as a heart warming family event. (Plus my grandfather always used to follow up by buying me some clothes or shoes!) Perhaps this it the reason I crave Dim Sum during holiday season.

Despite my fascination with sample sales, I don't participate in Black Friday, so we instead headed over to perhaps the most famous Dim Sum restaurant in the city, Jing Fong. I would usually prefer to go to Flushing for some cheap and tasty Dim Sum, but I was not sure if CK could endure the long 7 train commute after our Thanksgiving Long Island trip the night before. Also JLam had a fantastic idea of going to what's normally the overcrowded restaurant on Black Friday since people must still be full from the night before. Although it was still relatively crowded, we got seated without any wait. I am not sure if JLam's speculation was correct or the big "C" sanitation report at the front window scared some tourists away.

Since we were seated on the stage, coincidentally where all the non Chinese people were seated, the cart ladies seldom came to our area to show us their goods. I did not see a lot of my favorite dishes, but we managed to gather rice noodle rolls with shrimp, turnip cake, buk choy, pork buns, fried calamari, shumai and sesame balls. Most of the dishes were saltier than I would have wanted and not as fresh as Ocean Jewels, but we enjoyed our Yum Cha nonetheless. Who knows, this might be our new Black Friday ritual from now on.