"Let The Lights 'Dim Sum'"

This title comes from Drake's new album "Take Care" which is amazing and I am obsessed with it, hence the reference. Anyhow, on Saturday, I went out for dim sum for the first time ever for my friends birthday dinner.  To be fair, I had no idea what dim sum even was. My roommate and I had to google it in order to find out that it was kind of like an asian version of tapas(that at least was my take on the description).  Basically,  dim sum is a style of chinese food that is prepared as small, bite-sized portions of food that are served on small plates or in small steamer baskets. Customers also order on a card rather than verbally, which is interesting.I was apprehensive to try it, but tried to go into the meal as optimistic as possible. We went to ping pong dim sum in Chinatown on Saturday evening. Ping Pong, started off in London, but now has two locations in DC, which is pretty cool.

Outside of Restaurant: Image Courtesy of Google

Inside of restaurant: Image Courtesy of Google

Bar: Image Courtesy of Google

The restaurant was elegant, trendy, dark and dimly lit(actually!). Being that it was a birthday celebration of sorts, we quickly perused the drink menu and ordered the coolest drinks we could find. The best finds seemed to be the ping pong(martini and rossi bianco, white wine, shochu, and lychee), the kumquat mojito(appleton estate rum, lime, mint, and kumquat...pictured bellow), and the drink I chose which was strawberries, lemon, and prosecco(so, so good!)

Strawberry, Lemon, and Prosecco

Kumquat Mojito

In all seriousness, I couldn't even tell you everything that we ordered; since it is such small portions for small prices, the entire table ordered tons of food. With my vegetarian dining habits, I couldn't eat most of the food, but I took a photo of the chicken puff, which is a honey roasted puff filled with chicken and topped with pineapple, because it looked so delicious, I knew I needed to mention it.

Chicken Puff(Sorry that it is blurry!)

The food that I did have a chance to try was incredible. The first dish I tried was one of the "nibbers" called chinese spicy nuts. I didn't really like them, but it is okay because the rest of the meal made up for it. The second dish that I tried was definitely another tables order that they brought to us by accident(oops!), but it was amazing. It was a spinach and mushroom griddled dumpling in a whole wheat, flakey, flour pastry. No one else liked it because of the mushrooms, but I thought it was delicious, flavorful, and really interesting. Next, I tried one of the restaurants newest dishes, tofu and vegetable spring roll served with spicy mango sauce. The spring roll was really good, not too greasy, and had really good tofu in it. I liked the mango sauce because it was tangy, but not too spicy. Really great choice! Next, my friend who had been to dim sum many a time, convinced me to order a sticky rice bowl. Basically, the chef cooks vegetables inside rice and wraps it in a leaf wrap, cooking it in a steam box. It was SO cool! It had a little bit of garlic in it, great veggies, and the rice was so good. I was confused originally because I thought you were supposed to eat the leaf(you aren't) and I definitely tried to. Really awkward...

The final dish that I tried was a vegetable puff, which was very similar to chicken puff, only with vegetables, obviously.

Vegetable Puff...YUM!

Needless to say, this dinner was amazing. Anyone reading should try it...I'm going back this Saturday night!