Four of us had a brunch at the House of Hong in Seattle’s International District on Sunday. We had dim sum : serving carts that are brought by the table with all kinds of plates with bite-sized food items, and the diners select what they want. We had turnip cake (mashed daikon radish mixed with bits of dried shrimp and pork sausage that are steamed and then cut into slices and pan-fried), shao mai (steamed pork dumplings), shrimp dumplings, buns with a Cantonese barbecued pork filling and gai lan. Gai lan is a leafy green vegetable that also goes by the name Chinese broccoli. The tea served is an important part of the meal as well. We couldn’t nearly figure out what kind of tea we had, then the waitress came by and explained it was actually a blend of three teas : Chrysanthemum, oolong and Puer (blank) tea.
