The best Hong Kong dim sum

A Hong Kong dim sum restaurant session once upon a time was about tea appreciation. The baskets of delicate dumplings were a foil for the fragrant drink and considered snacks rather than a full meal.

These days, dim sum itself is a protagonist on the culinary stage. The diversity and sheer number of Hong Kong dim sum restaurants is stunning.

Noisy Cantonese joints where people eat with such determination there's a slight madness in the air; gilded, hushed dining rooms where waiters anticipate your every move; tranquil oases hidden on a mountaintop ... we've got it all here in Hong Kong.

We've picked our favorite Hong Kong dim sum restaurants to make it easy for the food-in-steam-basket fanatics. As we say in Hong Kong, please enjoy!

We've come up with 13 Hong Kong dim sum recommendations and so divided them into 3-4 per page. We've stuck a condensed version of the complete list plus addresses on the last page.

Aiya! Did we miss out your favorite Hong Kong dim sum restaurant ? Let us know which one, and why you love it so much in the comments box below.

Best after hours: San Hing (新興食家)

Celeb-worthy lau sa bao from San Hing.

A mix of elderly folk, celebrities and drunk people on a last stop before home share tables at San Hing for a Hong Kong dim sum fix at dawn.

Located in Kennedy Town, San Hing technically opens at 3 a.m., though customers will arrive earlier to secure seats. Especially on weekends, the shop is a madhouse in the wee hours.

Staff frantically churn out a wide selection of dim sum, stacked into giant bamboo towers. Customers are perpetually hovering around the food arrival counter, while an unending stream of new customers mill about looking to snatch seats.

Photographs on the wall show Canto-pop star Eason Chan giving props to San Hing's lau sa bao -- signature yellow custard "quicksand buns."

Other San Hing specialities include quail's egg siu mai, deep-fried milk and various seasonal dishes often not listed on the menu, such as osmanthus jelly during the summer.

The cost is a bargain, with dim sum dishes ranging in price from HK$12-$17.

San Hing has been around Kennedy Town for more than 20 years, though it moved to its current location a few years ago.

San Hing 新興食家, 10 Hau Wo St., Kennedy Town, +852 2816 0616. Open daily, 3 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Also on CNNGo: 12 things about tea your dim sum restaurateur won't tell you

Best VIP treatment: Fook Lam Moon

A very literal lau sa bao.

The first thing we encountered at Fook Lam Moon was a Rolls-Royce Phantom pulling up at the main entrance, casually letting out a rotund, weary-looking man and his two hungry, young offspring who bounced noisily to the door of the Hong Kong dim sum restaurant as though they were visiting grandma's house.

It isn't called the "canteen of the wealthy" for nothing.

Even though the joint is frequented by the rich and famous, anyone can rock up to Fook Lam Moon and feel like a billionaire.

The service is six-star-hotel-perfect without the robotic-ness. They don't overservice because, you know, celebrities just want to be left alone.

But staff have real charm that they turn on for every customer that walks through their doors. Not just wealthy regulars.

Compared with San Hing above, if you're willing to pay HK$60 for a basket of siu mai, you may as well be regarded as a high-roller.

Yes, it's expensive, but each dim sum gave our tastebuds an education.

Har gau are succulent and juicy, almost to the point of being soupy; their skins perfectly translucent. A signature shrimp cheung fun has a layer of crisp bean curd sheet to add another dimension of texture to an old standby.

The lau sa bao surpassed our favorites at San Hing. The bread casing was barely a centimeter thick and the custard filling would spill out in an appropriate visual expression of its name "quicksand bun."

Fook Lam Moon, 35-45 Johnston Rd., Wanchai, +852 2866 0663, www.fooklammoon-grp.com. Open daily, 11:30 a.m. - 3 p.m., 6 - 11 p.m.

Best rural experience: Choi Lung Restaurant (彩龍茶樓)

Shek Wai Ling (top right) says her customers travel more than an hour to eat dim sum at Choi Lung.

Choi Lung Restaurant is a three-story family-run teahouse on the waist of Hong Kong's highest peak, Tai Mo Shan. It is a great place to recharge after a hike.

Go early to secure the freshest Hong Kong dim sum experience in this self-service teahouse. Diners have to prepare their own tea and rest on simple plastic stools.

Despite the humble set-up, Choi Lung has been running for more than 40 years with a group of dedicated fans.

"People would drive all the way here from Sai Wan for a bowl of black bean ribs with rice. The rice bowls used to be made of porcelain but people kept dropping them so we switched to stainless steel," says waitress Shek Wai Ling.

We recommend the bean curd sheet wraps filled with chicken, taro and fish maw. The taro is cooked just through with a crunchy outer layer, the chicken is very tender and the fish maw is juicy.

A vegetable stall outside Choi Lung's front door is also well known for selling locally grown produce.

In November, the restaurant will serve fresh watercress purchased directly from the farms nearby, which Shek promises to be "very sweet and rarely found."

Visit Choi Lung at weekends as some dim sum are not served on weekdays, such as the black sesame rolls.

Choi Lung Restaurant 彩龍茶樓, 2 Chuen Lung Estate, Route Twisk, Tsuen Wan, +852 2415 5041. Open daily 5 a.m. - 3 p.m.

To get there, take a taxi from Tsuen Wan station for around HK$60 or take minibus 80 at Chuen Lung Street near Tsuen Wan wet market.

Quest for the Ultimate Life

Sunday, December 4, 2011