#SEATTLE CHINATOWN DIM SUM MAC#
#SEATTLE CHINATOWN DIM SUM WINDOWS#

Once seated, get ready because the food comes quickly. It can be busy but we’ve rarely had to wait. Like the places I loved as a child, it boasts a big floor space, many carts and fast, friendly service. Part of the Great Wall Shopping Mall, Imperial Garden sits to the north and has a separate entrance. When I need to have this experience again, my family and I head to Imperial Garden Seafood Restaurant in Kent. Shu mai, pork bao, gailan, turnip cakes, sticky rice and many other bite-size choices that I never knew the name of but in a snap can visualize with my eyes closed.

Swirling currents of carts upon carts stacked with bamboo steamers, pushed up, down and around by servers. A sea of faces and the dull roar of a hundred conversations. I remember wide open spaces crowded and packed with busy, bustling bodies. My dad would always proudly remind us, “This is where President Bill Clinton ate dim sum when he came to visit.” One of my favorite family outings growing up in Los Angeles was piling into the car and driving a good 45 minutes to eat Chinatown dim sum. mustard cabbage, spinach, bok choy) to soups, noodles and fried rice.ĭim sum at Imperial Garden Seafood Restaurant Other dishes to try: Din Tai Fung's menu also includes many other tasty dishes, from unbelievable sautéed greens (e.g. If you bite in eagerly without taking this precautionary step, tongues are easily burned and as my son said, you’ll be “lucky you didn’t get squirted!” Typically you poke a hole, pour the liquid into a spoon and sip it like soup. One more warning: Once your order arrives, be careful! Dumplings have a teaspoonful of hot liquid inside.

#SEATTLE CHINATOWN DIM SUM WINDOWS#

A very-cool-for-kids signature at all Din Tai Fung restaurants are the picture windows through which customers can watch impressive roomfuls of workers make dumplings. Once seated the service is fast but it's best to call in advance and go during non-peak hours (usually right around opening time).ĭin Tai Fung offers a wide variety of dumplings including their specialty juicy pork dumplings and vegetarian dumplings. Though the parking is easy at both sites, you can find massive lines. Indeed, a visit here with children needs advance planning. My son loves Din Tai Fung so much he once insisted we wait two hours for a table. But on those days when our freezer stock has run out and nobody’s made any, our go-to dumpling house is Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese chain that has locations in both Bellevue and in University Village in Seattle. These delicacies - ground meat or vegetables wrapped in a piece of thin dough and then steamed, boiled or fried - are as common in my diet as fruits, vegetables and water. I can’t remember the first time I ate dumplings, which are commonly eaten across Eastern, Central and Western Asian cultures. Here are my top three Asian-American comfort foods and the places I go to share them with my family. I have spent the last decade scouring the greater Seattle area for eateries that satisfy my childhood cravings. Having lived in two big cities stateside most of my life, there have been plenty of opportunities to hunt them down, but it's not always been easy.

#SEATTLE CHINATOWN DIM SUM MAC#

When I was a little girl growing up multiracial, bicoastal and semi-transnational (Taiwan/China) I ate and loved a lot of food that was quintessentially American: mac and cheese, hamburgers and fries, pizza, pie, ice cream and birthday cake.īut I also adored and devoured the very different foods, from dumplings to dim sum, that defined my childhood as first-generation Asian American.

Seattle chinatown dim sum