Yum Cha

Sharing a border with Vietnam, you can imagine that there is quite a Chinese influence here.  We have been meaning to do Yum Cha for ages but never really knew the right place to go.  I'm sure there are some great places out in District 5 (our Chinatown) but I have never been given a good recommendations.  A few of the larger hotels like the New World do a Sunday Yum Cha that is apparently pretty good but I'm not a huge fan of the old "Hotel" buffet feel.  So when friends suggested we visit Ocean Palace, down near the Zoo in Le Duan we jumped at the offer.  It was big, noisy, kid friendly and cheap. In a nutshell, perfect!

Firstly we were revelling in the fact that we had the street to ourselves!  As rare as rocking horse poo, there was not a car or bike to be seen.  There may or may not have been some security measures in place in relation to some protests that may or may not have happened in relation to a ship and some cables.  I actually like having a blog so if you need more info, try Google.

Crazy kid.

Finally got there after navigating through a LOT of blocked streets.

Refreshing Jasmine tea poured with flair.

Little fishy things.  Yes, I know that is not what they are called but that is what they were and Quiddy loved them.

Basically they take your order, place the order on the table then cross things off as they arrive. 

Voted by most to be the winning dish of the day, the Char Siu Pork was AMAZING.  I really feel sorry for people who go out to eat with me.  The poor things have to wait until I take the obligatory photo before they can tuck in.  In this case, torture.  I could have eaten plate after plate of this stuff.  We will be back!

He loves his rice.

Little fluffy clouds of happiness.  Pork Buns.

Yummy asian greens.  The storks were quite thick at the bottom but delish none the less.

More for the kids than anything.  Not the worlds best spring rolls but still nice.

Now we are talking.  Nicks fave sweet and sour pork.  Crunchy, sweet and, well, sour.

The ones in the foreground quickly became my favorite.  They were filled with spinach and shallots and ginger and they were beautiful.

I had never seen these before and I was very pleasantly surprised. I can't remember what they were called but they were a dumpling but also had soup inside.  You pick it up in your spoon, have a nibble and suck out the soup then eat the rest.  Kind of like a Chinese version of Wonka's 3 course dinner gum.  Two courses in one!

It tasted as good as it looked.

The beefsteak.

More of those little soup dumplings

Inside of the dumpling.

By this stage  I was in food heaven and forgot to keep taking photos.  We had beautiful little egg tarts for dessert and rolled home fat and happy.  A really lovely afternoon and we will definitely return.