Food.is.love #5: Eating dim sum in Rotterdam

Rotterdam has the largest Chinese community in The Netherlands.

So, after spending our afternoon exploring the Windmills at Kinderdijk under the hot midday sun, we drove to Rotterdam city centre to eat some dim sum. I know some of you may not be familiar with dim sum.

I like to describe the dining concept as ‘Chinese-style tapas’. Little dishes of bite-sized braised, fried, baked, or steamed snacks are enjoyed as intermediate servings during a meal. The steamed ones are typically served in bamboo baskets.

Dim sum is traditionally a cantonese custom linked to tea drinking and can be literally translated as "to touch the heart." There’s some truth in that. My heart does a little skip for joy each time the waitress walks to our table bearing some of these little treats. :)

After 30 minutes of driving, we reached the restaurant! I thought the logo had a catastrophic spelling mistake, but found out later that Parel is the Dutch word for Pearl ;)

The restaurant is on the 3rd level. You can take an elevator up or use the stairs.

At 15:00, the lunch crowd was definitely dispersed, so we were able to easily get a table by the window.

The chopsticks were wrapped in paper packaging with tips on how to use them ;)

The dim sum menu had a pretty large range and helpful pictures on them.

The Mann ordered 12 dim sum items, and we added on a couple items from the main menu to fill our rumbling bellies. We also got two pots of chrysanthemum tea (€2.00 per pot). They were brought to the table and Ying helped to pour tea for everyone.

The first two dishes to be brought out were the chicken ones!

Fried Wings with Pepper and Salt (€8.00).

These wings were juicy and well-seasoned, and the chopped chilis gave them a spicy kick! However, the bones were darkened with blood, indicating that the restaurant uses frozen chicken, not fresh ones.

Soya Sauce Chicken (€13.50).

The half chicken was well-marinated and there was a pile of vegetables under the chicken which soaked up the sauce.

Steamed White Rice (complimentary with order of a main dish). The steamed white rice came in a stainless steel pot.

Stir-fried Morning Glory with garlic (€14.50).

The vegetables were just done and beautifully fragranced with browned garlic pieces. My favourite part was eating the garlic bits with the rice.

Other dim sum items started to come in a rush. First, the ones that tasted Good.

Steamed Roasted Pork Bun (€4.00).

The roasted pork was tasty and the bun was fluffy enough. Not the best I’ve had in Europe, but decent.

Shrimps in Deep-fried Beancurd Skin (€5.10).

This is my all-time favourite dim sum item!! This restaurant did it fairly well. Juicy shrimps made up the most of the filling, and the beancurd skin was fried to a crisp and not too oily. My tongue was happy and satisfied :)

Braised Chicken Feet (€4.00).

Chicken feet may sound a little scary, but they are rich in collagen and taste pretty awesome! Orient Pearl’s braised chicken feet had a rather strong star anise aroma, but it was more pleasant than over-powering to me.

Steamed Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce (€3.60).

Succulent and lots more meat than bones. The gravy was rich and delicious on the steamed rice.

Steamed Rice Roll with Roasted Pork (€4.00).

The rice roll was a little bit thick but still tender, and the roasted pork was decent. When drenched in the accompanying sauce, the rice roll made a good base for the blended flavours and textures.

Now for the Fails, in descending order from not so pleasant to pretty unpalatable.

Pan-fried Radish Cake (€3.60).

The cakes looked satisfyingly browned, but lacked flavour. The texture was also not done very well. Though I could pick out bits of radish, the cake itself was not tender and starchy-gooey enough.

Steamed Custard Bun (€3.80).

The filling was dry and did not come with salted egg yolk. The dough? Thick, bready, and chewy! We had ordered a double portion of this, but I could not eat a second bun, which is a rather rare occurrence for my sweet tooth.

Har Gow (€5.00). Har Gow is probably the “King of Dim Sum”. It is that popular and well-loved. Har Gow is basically a delicate steamed shrimp dumpling. When done well, its skin is translucent, thin, moist, tender, slightly chewy, and encases a plump, crunchy, juicy shrimp.

Either the chef had a terrible day, or Orient Parel does not make a good Har Gow. The skin was dry, chewy, and thick. The prawn deserves no mention.

Siew Mai (€4.50). If Har Gow is the King of dim sum, Siew Mai is the Queen! A minced pork-shrimp-and-mushroom ball is wrapped in a wonton skin, topped with a dusting of fish eggs, and steamed. The best Siew Mai to have should look regal and taste so good that you want to fight over any leftovers in the bamboo basket with your chopsticks.

Orient Parel failed here again. Look at the Siew Mai. One bite of it, and I gave the rest of mine to The Mann to finish off. That’s how little it touched my heart. :(

Pork in Steamed Beancurd Skin (€4.30).

This one’s at the bottom of the list, so yes, it was the worst order of the day. I felt that there was an unpleasantly porky odour in the filling.

Don’t worry, there was no wastage of food! I admit that I may come across as ‘arrogant or highly opinionated’, especially when it comes to Chinese dishes. That is likely because I grew up in Asia eating Asian delights where they are made best and authentically — in their respective home nations!. So while I found some dishes rather unpalatable (based on my memory of how the dim sum in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, etc. taste), my European-born and bred Chinese family found them decent and polished off any leftovers. :)

Address:
Kruiskade 72-76
3012 EH Rotterdam, The Netherlands

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