My First Yum Cha

Another friend leaves the fold at my place of employment.  And so in celebration of the time we spent getting to know him, we all went for Yum Cha at Sky Phoenix in Sydney's CBD.  I had never been to Yum Cha before.  Heck, I'd never heard of Yum Cha before.  Everyone was so excited about the prospect of going to Yum Cha that I caught the bug myself.


Sydneysiders (and Australians, in general) pride themselves on their culinary prowess.  I have no interest in exploring anything described as culinary.  Food scares me.  Everyone knows this.  Why on earth I should end up in a city like this, I have no idea.  But I decide to go with it.


Yum Cha means to drink tea.  But to me, Yum Cha is sort of like a brunch buffet.  Except that the buffet is at your table.  We all sat at a table with a giant lazy susan in the middle.  The waiters and waitresses would come around with trolleys full of all sorts of food.  You pick what you want at your table and they keep track of what you take on a card.  I tried fried prawn dumplings, steamed BBQ pork bun (delish), teriyaki chicken, fried calamari and chicken feet.  Everything was very good with the exception of the chicken feet.  I think that I would have really enjoyed the chicken feet if they were fried and crispy.  But they are not.  Seems to me they were only boiled and since they are mostly cartilage, they are very mushy when you eat them.  Wikipedia says, "gelatinous," and I think that sums it up perfectly.  So I ate a small amount, but simply couldn't continue.


Dessert was included.  They had sweet tofu and custard served in buns or rolls.  They also had mango and cream in a pancake.  There were names for all of this, but I couldn't remember if my life depended on it.  None of the dessert appealed to me, but it was nice to see everyone fighting over it.  :)