Empire garden, Boston MA

This weekend we went for dim-sum to Empire Garden (no webpage). Is dim-sum the Chinese response to brunch? Well, Diego has been promising to write a theoretical post about this for a while.... In my opinion , dim sum fulfills the same social function that brunch does. It is an activity you do with family or friends (it's almost impossible to eat a variety of plates by oneself), usually on a Sunday noon, and the meal in both cases is greasy enough to cure any hangover. Granted, dim sum is not known for its cocktails, or its eggs (although some dishes have them) or its relaxed atmosphere. But if you want a different experience with the same "social" connotations, head to your closer Chinatown and enjoy.

Diego and I are lucky to live near Boston's Chinatown, really well known by its dim-sum joints. As most dim sum places, Empire Garden's is set in a huge hall (say for a 500-person reception) crowded with tables and crazy carts carrying dumplings, sticky rice, buns, and many types of mystery meats in mystery doughs. The carts (maneuvered mostly by non-English speaking women) approach the tables and one is supposed to a) guess what is being offered; b) try to communicate to the cart "driver" any questions you may have and c) finally decide whether you want it or not.

Unlike most dim sum places, Empire Garden's decor is that of an old theatre/opera house, with grand arches, golden dragons and frescoes-like paintings staring at you from the ceiling. It's quite an interesting atmosphere. In addition, the carts are privately owned. In most other places, carts come from a single kitchen -the restaurant's-, but here the arrangement is more that of a centrally-managed food court. This means that the cart drivers are very aggressive. We hadn't finished settling on our table, when a woman rushed to us carrying short ribs in one hand and something that looked like fried calamari or octopus. We went with the ribs.

So, let me tell you about the food. We are not very adventurous -bah, Diego is, I'm not- so we usually end up ordering stuff we already know about, or have previously tried, or we can easily recognize. After the ribs I plunged over some pork buns, my all-time Asian delight favorite. Barbecued shredded pork in a sticky white dough, I ate two of the three that came in the bamboo steamer and would have kept eating just those if Diego hadn't been eager to have more variety. Thus, we moved to shumai -pork dumplings- that tasted better than they looked. We decided to have one more item: noodles. No matter how desperate we looked, we couldn't get any noodle carts to approach our table. We even took matters into our hands and walked around the hall asking the different carts what they were carrying. No sign of the noodles -which we had seen on some tables-. Finally, we had a revelation. Was it possible that, besides the carts, food could be ordered "a la carte"? Empire Garden has no carte, but more sophisticated dishes can be ordered from an invisible menu. We had the chicken crispy noodles, which came with a terribly bland sauce I had a hard time swallowing. I ate the dry crispy sides while Diego ate the rest. He finally agreed that, although he was happy with the food it was blander than some other dim sums we've tried.

So, Empire Garden may not have the tastier food in the neighborhood, but the ambiance is unbeatable. And, while dim sum is definitely not the perfect brunch, it is great to go for it at least every once in a while if any, to change your weekend routine.