The Sum of All Dims

My friends and I have a checklist. And on this checklist we have items that we need to do together sometime in the near future. Hikes, good movies, restaurants... they're all on there. But the more we try to whittle this list down, the larger it grows, as ideas always get tossed in the mix every single time we all meet.

Our latest attempt to check an item off on the list involved a popular style of Chinese food. My good friend, affectionately referred to as "C-Donk", has resided in Vancouver all his life, but yet surprisingly he's never tried the Chinese cuisine (more like religion) known as dim sum. So taking personal responsibility as a noble member of the Chinese community, I found the perfect restaurant to de-virginize him to the dim sum experience.

And so we ventured over to the "ghetto", East Van, to a somewhat isolated Chinese restaurant with a damn good reputation. Happy Valley Dim Sum Seafood Restaurant (I love Chinese restaurant naming conventions!). It's rated on Dinehere.ca as one of the best dim sum joints in our little corner of the Pacific Rim. This place was little bit off the beaten track, but well worth the journey. It's actually just up the hill and around the corner from the Rupert Skytrain station. It's too bad this place isn't immune to the long queues that plague the other traditional two-dollar dim sum institutions that we also frequent - you'll still need to line up after 10 a.m. on weekends if you haven't made reservations.

We stuck to the staples for C-Donk's grand introductory foray into the world of dim sum: ha-gow (shrimp dumpling), siu-mai (pork dumplings), wu-gok (Taro dumplings), and lo-mai-gai (sticky rice). Wow. The shrimp dumplings were monstrous, and the siu-mai was both juicy and tender. As well, the moist and tasty sticky rice is among the best you can possibly get in this town. We also tried the spicy deep-fried squid, also excellent because it lacked the rubbery vulcanized texture you get at other restaurants. This place definitely wasn't among the cheapest but we were paid off in spades with quality.

The biggest difference with this place is the fact that you pre-order everything all-you-can-eat sushi style, by filling out a small order form as soon as you are seated (it's in English as well if you were wondering). It doesn't take long before they inundate you with dish after dish after dish of the oily goodness. I like the novelty and efficiency of this idea, however it does take away the fun of flagging down your favourite from the parade of dishes that roll on by. Did I mention too that the service was surprisingly good? This staff was definitely atypical and very different from the mean old Asian ladies who traditionally run other dim sum establishments.

Unfortunately, due to the dietary requirements of some of the patrons of our group, some dishes could only eaten by select members of our party, which added to the eyes-are-bigger-than-your-stomach syndrome that made the last few dishes hard to cram down. And I was really tempted to order one of my personal favourites, the chicken feet, but I used restraint, knowing that it may have detracted from my friends' overall impression of the Cantonese cuisine. I've found that it's pretty much hopeless to get anyone to try chicken feet if they never ate it as a kid.

In the end, my friend simply loved the place - he's been raving about it ever since. We were absolutely stuffed - all for about twelve bucks each! At the conclusion of the meal, we all triumphantly checked off another item on our huge list of things to do. I highly suggest making a journey over to the Happy Valley for some dim summing... you have C-Donk's seal of approval.

Happy Valley Dim Sum Seafood Restaurant is located at 3432 East Broadway.
(604) 255-2280