Save me a chicken foot

The Tea Garden menu

Every few months, a group of John's Boeing work friends meet up for lunch in the International District, and I enjoy going along when I can. Last Friday time we tried a different restaurant-- The Tea Garden on Ranier Ave. Dim sum is popular in Seattle, so many Chinese restaurants have jumped on the bandwagon. If you like ordering from a menu like this one, then the dim sum experience is probably not for you. Of course, during dim sum service the kitchen will still prepare any dish you order, but I think eating off the carts at a big group table is more fun.
You choose dim sum from an assortment of dishes that servers push around on carts. As the carts circle the table, you point at the small plates you want. If you're lucky enough to be dining with Chinese-speaking friends, they can request special delicacies for your table. And they can also translate what you are about to eat. This is very handy.

Our table of friends is diverse (folks from Korea, Viet Nam, China, Philippines, America) so our preferences are a bit random, but I've learned there is a certain order to how dim sum should be served: lighter, steamed dishes come first, followed by meats, then deep-fried dishes, and finally dessert. Which is usually custard tarts, sweet buns or fruit jellies. All washed down with many pots of tea or sometimes a beer.

There's plenty of dumplings on the lazy Susan, and a person can eat quite a few of them...

Dim sum means "touch the heart" (as opposed to "fill the belly") so it was originally just a snack, not a main meal. Now it's a staple of Chinese dining culture, especially in Hong Kong. The spoilsport health officials in China have recently criticized the high amount of fat and sodium in dim sum dishes, even those innocent looking steamed dumplings. It's an occasional treat, but you should still try to balance the fatty dishes with vegetables, minus the salty sweet sauce. Like these healthy looking Chinese greens John is tucking into.

Whoa! Some of items under those bamboo lids are exotic looking.
(Squid)

And, last but not least: fried chicken feet in sauce. Our Asian friends had no trouble holding the slippery things in their chop sticks and nibbling off the meat. Mine almost landed on the tablecloth.