| Dim sum apparently means "touching your heart," which is either a bucolic, Hallmark-y sentiment or a stern message from your cardiologist that you probably shouldn’t have that last steamed pork dumpling. Either way, dim sum is a fabulous guilty pleasure, one that you can regret for a few hours afterwards if you’re MSG sensitive (I know one person who had to lie down after a particularly MSG-laden lunch), but one which at the time seems worth it. Experienced sources swear that Coke – but not diet Coke – cures the post-MSG yips.
Which brings us to some excellent dim sum I’ve run across in Chinatown, at the U & Me Restaurant (233 Centre St. S.W., phone 264-5989). This is not to be confused, of course, with the You and I Coffee Gallery, home of great cappuccinos and chicken salad sandwiches in various locations downtown. No, this is U & Me. As in U Thant, former UN secretary general from Burma (now Myanmar), and me. I love the image of good old U, fresh from a plenary session, sitting down at his usual table with Kofi Annan and, say, Dominic de Villepin, showing them how to pour chili oil on the dried shrimp and green onion rice roll.
I can’t say whether the dim sum at the U & Me is free of MSG, but when it arrives at your table, it’s fire-breathing hot. This is because there are no carts. Each dish is steamed when you order it. This makes the dim sum fresh, and makes other dim sum seem greasy and congealed by comparison.
There are all sorts of great dishes here. The scallop and shrimp dumpling, in which a scallop is perched precariously atop a shrimp dumpling, is delicate, while the pork and shrimp-roe dumpling has a vibrant colour – the salt of the roe contrasts starkly with the richness of the pork. I love the meat and peanut homemade dumpling, which is rich and complicated. There’s decent sticky rice, yummy steamed pork buns, lovely Shanghai-style dumplings (white shrimp dumplings served with a vinegar- and ginger-flavoured dipping sauce) and, of course, pork-blood congee.
When I was there last, there was a party of elderly Chinese gentlemen arguing over a table full of plates. This is how you know it’s good. The cost is about $10 per person, and U & Me is open from 8 a.m. until 4 a.m. So much for the claim that there’s no good late-night food in this burg.
SOME OTHER FINDS
The website www.chowhound.com recently had a string of postings about pizza in Calgary, and one of the most mentioned places was Pizza Bob’s Classic Pie (2610 Kensington Rd. N.W., phone 283-2041). The Pizza Bob’s pizza is the thin-crust style, with cornmeal on the bottom of the crust, and not too much cheese, but homemade tomato sauce. In other words, it’s real Italian pizza. Finally. There are only small and large sizes, with a large being 12 inches, and they have traditional toppings such as salami, anchovies, black olives and Italian sausage. It’s good pizza, something that I’d certainly order again, and it won’t make you feel as though you’ll regret it the next day if you have more than one piece.
The Rustic Sourdough Bakery (1305 17th Ave. S.W., phone 245-2113) has a lineup at 8:15 a.m. on Saturdays, for God’s sake. There were at least 15 people waiting for large loaves of Berliner Landbrot or Swiss rye, both of which make fantastic toast. The only problem: dealing with the crowds. The deli’s also open then, if you want some prosciutto or, as seems to be popular in our house, liver sausage, on your toast. Don’t scoff – it’s good. |
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