Last Sunday morning, Anna, Amy, Wendy and I headed to Chicago's Chinatown for dim sum. Amy suggested Phoenix, and the line outside let us know that this was a popular choice for quite a few people. We waited about 30 minutes before being seated. While waiting, Anna and Wendy walked around Chinatown and I just chatted with Amy and bought an iced tea from a nearby tea store. It was kumquat flavored: DELICIOUS.
Once inside, we impatiently waited for the carts with food. Unfortunately, the variety of choices wasn't great, but the ones we did sample were quite good.
We ordered ribs (sweet, tender, finger-licking!) and taro cakes. I first tried taro cakes in Vegas after Lera recommended them. These had something inside them, which we could not quite put a finger on...mushrooms maybe? I loved the mashed inside and the crispy outside of these balls.
We then had these really cute wraps: they were stuffed with a variety of vegetables, and the wrap itself was a super thin omelet! Wish I could replicate this at home, but I don't think I'm that skilled.
Unfortunately, none of the carts had greens. I was so looking forward to asparagus, green beans or broccoli, but no such luck. Instead, we ordered Chinese broccoli off of the menu: it was tender and had a slightly garlicky sauce.
And of course we had to order dumplings! I honestly can't even remember which ones these were...pork? Chicken? Shrimp? I just remember they were really good.
We also ordered gyozas. I'm not sure what I did with these photos: perhaps I adjusted the color/saturation a bit too much :) Gyozas were crispy on the outside and full of flavor inside. [I so need to come up with better adjectives!]
We made quite a mess! The food was decent, but I would not necessarily recommend this place too highly. Next time I'll check out some of the other zillion places for dim sum in Chicago's Chinatown.