Hong Kong Palace Dim Sum - ($45)

Mark Lim - Every holiday we end up at a Chinese restaurant because Asians don't have a word for "day off". Our favorite place to have Dim Sum is at Hong Kong Palace in Rowland Heights California:


What is Dim Sum you ask? Well, think of it like a big county fair but without rides, games, petting zoos, live music, or booths selling space age sponges. They might have live animals though. I've never actually been to the back of the restaurant.

After you are seated the servers come around with either carts or trays carrying a variety of small different food samples that you can ask for. You point to which one you want and they'll mark your ticket with a stamp so they'll know how much to charge you in the end.

Sesame Seed Balls with Meat and Deep Fried Tarot

I took a sneaky shot of people ordering across the room

Umbrella-ed Desserts

Mark and Mom looking full

Dad pointing out the next artery clogging dish

Duck Tongues!!! Weird!

Deep Fried Tarot - It's purple inside

Shrimp balls

Tofu stuffed with mystery white glob

A rice dish that was wrapped in a banana leaf

Mango Jello Dessert

Usually we have to wait for a half our before we're seated because the place is always packed but we came early and were seated right away. The bad thing about showing up early is they don't bring out all the foods so you can either wait in a packed restaurant and get to sample all the foods or you eat right away but don't get to see everything.

My favorite dish is always the deep fried tofu and anything with shrimp. My dad likes the chicken feet and my mom likes the tofu dessert with syrup on top.

There's other awesomely weird foods there like the pork blood and intestine soup. I don't know if I'll ever try that one.

Dim Sum is a really nice way to eat if you are a little adventurous and like to sample lots of different types of dishes. If you have one in your town you should definitely try it :)