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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
DIM SUM AVANT-CART
The dim sum tradition of wheeling dishes around the restaurant for guests to pick
as they pass by is a growing trend across the USonly the more unconventional
offerings in this new wave doesnt stop with Chinese food, writes Kate Krader.
W
here do chefs nd inspiration? Everywhere.
Some get ideas while staring into the blackness of
a Mark Rothko painting, and others on a trail run
through the woods. For David Chang, the chef
and founder of the Momofuku empire, a good dim
sum spot is an inspirational jack pot. The vast array of dishes, some of
them wacky, get him thinking about alternate ways to prepare them.
Chang also likes the mood that dim sum places promote: Its like
Christmas, says the chef. Its festive. You never leave a great dim
sum spot feeling mad.
I agree with Chang. Even though I dont necessarily
want to dig into everything that a classic dim
sum cart has to offerfor instance Im not a
big fan of chicken feet; I just cant get behind
all that chewy cartilageI still might grab one
of the tins with the feet sticking out when the
cart stops at my table because its
there and its an adventure. Its
also immediate and interactive
and theres almost nowhere
else you can design your own
menu as precisely as you can at
a dim sum palace.
Now, happily for me
and everyone else who
appreciates this instant
gratication style of eating, those
dim sum carts are rolling down the aisles of
an amazing array of restaurants.
State Bird Provisions in San Francisco was an early dim sum
pioneer. Chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski serve small plates
that are Californian with plenty of Asian and European inuences thrown
in. The State Bird cart might be laden with creamy duck liver mousse
with almond biscuits or lettuce cups lled with Caesar-dressed steak
tartare; the house favorite is bowls half-lled with horseradish-spiked
crme frache and adorned with supersized potato chips; when the
cart stops in front of you, the server spoons an excitingly large helping
of house cured salmon roe on top.
In Atlanta, the classic dim sum experience helped inspire Kevin
Gillespie to open Gunshow. He and his arsenal of chefs take the food
theyve just prepared from table to table themselves, using carts
and trays. Gillespie announces his menu inspirations weekly on the
restaurants website. The menu is decidedly southern and focused on
local ingredients with some clever twists: One week, North Carolina
catsh is prepared with Thai avors; a few weeks later, it anchors a I
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low-country boil with sausages, potatoes, and corn. Behind the chefs,
a server walks around and marks the dishes that a table has ordered,
so they can be tabulated at the end, just like at a classic dim sum spot.
Unconventional dim sum is in effect in LA at Rivera, where customized
carts are stocked with chef John Sedlars inspired Latin dishes, like
Mexican vichyssoise; in New York City, the upcoming Spanish restaurant
Huertas will have a Pintxos bar, where servers with trays
will pass around snacks like brandade toast and
wood-red razor clams. The TV food star
Giada de Laurentiis is opening her rst
restaurant in Vegas: a highlight there
will be Italian dim sum brunch with
carts that serve dishes like silver dollar
lemon ricotta pancakes.
Of course, Im excited about
Huertas and all the avant-garde
dim sum spots. But there is a
downside, at least for people
less spontaneous than me.
You probably wont know
whats on the cart thats
headed toward you; so how
do you know how much to
order off the regular menu?
Among the great things
about classic dim sum is
that its invariably cheap: those
chicken feet wont set you back much,
whether you actually eat them or not.
The new dim sum is generally not that cheap
and the bill can add up quickly.
Theres another New York City restaurant that recently installed
dim sum style service: M Pche, a Momofuku restaurant. Chef Paul
Carmichael has six different carts in action at M Pche. Theres a
cart dedicated to the now legendary pork buns, which are served in a
little steamer basket with a sake pairing (warm in the winter, chilled in
the summer). Theres a seafood cart that offers, among other things,
oysters and uni (sea urchin roe). And then theres a congee cart, the
contents of which change daily: one day it might be mushroom congee,
another day chicken and dumplings or Shakshuka (the Israeli dish of
tomato with poached egg and pita).
M Pches congee cart is pushed around the restaurant by
whichever chef created that days featured dish. No one will promise
that Ill see Dave Chang pushing that dim sum cart around, but I cant
help but hope!