Dim Sum & Shopping in Atlanta

When I found out I was headed to Atlanta for work, I immediately thought of 3 things:

• Cousins
• Dim Sum
• Zara

Oh yes…3 of my favorite things.

My sister and her boyfriend actually decided to road trip it and make the trek to have dim sum with me. Her boyfriend is new to dim sum, so we tried a little bit of everything, including some items that were even new to me!

The first thing we ordered is one of my sister’s favorite desserts – warm tofu with a sweet ginger sauce. I still haven’t had the chance to try to re-create this since the last time we had this.

By the way, the dishes pictured are actually in the order we ordered them. For those new to dim sum, there are people pushing carts of food around the restaurant, and each one stops by your table. You choose whichever dishes you want off each cart (if any), and then share them with the table. I like to call dim sum “Chinese tapas” since it has a similar, small-plate-sharing concept. Anywho, we did get a lot of desserts ahead of savory dishes, but if I’ve learned anything about dim sum over the years, it’s that you take the food when you see it. Sometimes it sells out, and if you don’t get it the first time, you may miss out.

{Shrimp}

{Pineapple buns – a new one to me – I expected these to have chunks of pineapple in them, but they just had a custard-like filling}

{egg custards}

{sesame balls}

{the famous carts}

{baked BBQ pork buns}

{shrimp dumplings – clearly a table favorite}

{a new kind of shrimp dish with a piece of celery – not my favorite – give me the har gow!}

{BBQ pork}

{Chinese broccoli}

{shrimp with egg – another new one – very interesting texture – sort of like a baked ravioli with shrimp}

{table scene}

{rice soup – it tastes like my mom’s Get Well Soup!}

{mango dessert}

And then we found something special. Okay, so we had to ask three different people for this, but you have to understand…

….my sister LOVES this dessert. It’s pretty much her all time favorite – the elusive sponge cake. It’s literally been about 15 years since she last had this. She asks for it every time we get dim sum, and they never quite seem to have it. We were both children the last time she had sponge cake, so it was worth asking three people when we found out they had it this particular day.

Sis said it was as good as she remembers.

I actually made this one time when I was a teen. My mom has a dim sum cookbook, and I tried a couple of the recipes out back in the day. Hmm…this reminds me, I’m going to have to try the sponge cake recipe out again sometime soon.

{another table scene}

{steamed BBQ pork bun – Sis got a bunch of these to go for our mom since they’re her fave}

{Sis & her boyfriend}

And this really cool shrine was right next to our table. I’ve never noticed it before since it’s tucked away in one of the corners, and we always seem to sit in a different area of the restaurant.

{a closer look}

We definitely enjoyed our dim sum lunch – another great experience! If you’re ever in Atlanta and looking for lunch on a Saturday or Sunday, definitely check out The Oriental Pearl. I can’t believe we’ve been eating dim sum here for basically the last 20+ years, but we have, and we love it!

And where did we go shopping? Zara! I’m really loving their clothes lately, and this store seems to be the closest to NC. Okay, so I recently searched for the closest Zara store to me and found that they were Atlanta (to the south) and DC (to the north). Anywho, I definitely prefer shopping in person, plus, I had a couple items I’d ordered online that I needed to return or possibly exchange, so it was a worthwhile trip.

As for the real reason I’m in ATL, I’ve been super busy with meetings and work. I have just another day in Atlanta, and then I head home!