Restaurant Review

"Drinking Tea"

“Oh, crap! It’s raining. What am I going to do for the whole day?”

“Do you want to try some Chinese food?”

“Is that spicy?”

“No. Why do you think that way?”

“Everybody knows Chinese food is spicy. Isn’t that so?”

“Not true.”

Although spicy food is a typical representative of Chinese food, not all Chinese food is spicy, for example, my favorite, Cantonese food. Cantonese is famous for eating everything cooked in every possible method you could think of, and the best part of Cantonese food is breakfast, which we call “drinking tea”. It’s not just about tea as the name says. It’s about a group of friends sitting together and enjoying variety of Dim Sum. It often starts at 11 o’clock and ends up in about two to three hours. I thought I was never going to find it here. Fortunately, I did in Oriental Pearl Seafood Restaurant.

“Is that far? It’s raining cats and dogs and I don’t want to get wet.”

“I won’t say it is close, but it’s really convenient. By the way if you want to stay dry, I guess you will have to stay indoors all day.”

Oriental Pearl Seafood Restaurant locates in the Chinatown, which is a ten-minute walking from Chamblee Station. It’s pretty convenient to go from Georgia Tech even if you don’t have a car. I have been there many times and it takes me about 40 minutes. When you face the large logo “China Town”, make a left and you will see the restaurant, or you could choose to chase after that superb smell.

“Perfect! I walked all the way here and I am wet through now. I am warning you it’d better be something good.”

“Calm down. The food will make up for everything. Now, choose want you like.”

“Are you nuts? What the matter? What’s wrong with you? I have no idea of any of these stuff and they don’t even have their English names on the menu. How am I supposed to order?”

“Relax. Forget about the menu. Go pick up whatever you like from that cart.”

Here is the nice thing about the restaurant. You don’t have to make a choice from meaningless names and pray for something edible. Waiters will come to you with carts full of different kinds of Dim Sum so you could see the food and pick the one attracting you. While fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, most of waiters don’t know much English, but many people who can just speak English told me they have no problem getting what they want.

“Hey, that’s enough for a meal!”

“But there is still a lot not on our table.”

“You are a pig. It’s impossible to get a pack of everything one time. There are only two of us. Let’s get started and finish these first.”

The Dim Sum would drive you get more than you can eat. Always keep in mind that you are not going to try everything at one time.

“What’s that translucent thing? Is that good?”

“Try”

“Oh, man. Unbelievable! Is that shrimp in it? What’s it called?”

“Yup, unbeatable shrimp dumpling.”

Shrimp dumpling is my favorite Dim Sum. It’s the first thing I would try when I go “drinking tea” in a new restaurant and it plays a fateful role of my opinion of the restaurant. They obviously did a good job. There were four shrimp dumplings in every pack with Fresh shrimps in translucent skin. Putting it inside mouth, I felt the skin was dissolving, and the dumpling suddenly collapsed leaving shrimps jumping in my mouth. With a slight bite, sweet of freshness of shrimps occupied my mind. I can’t help chewing it, swallowing it and picking up another one to satisfy my thirsty.

“Are those chicken’s feet? Which part am I supposed to eat? The skin? Or the bone?”

“That’s a question. Just eat it! Then you will figure it out.”

Chicken’s feet are another classic type of Dim Sum. It’s something would see on almost everybody’s table. Again, chicken’s feet here impressed me. The skin of chicken’s feet shed from the bone as soon as my tongue touched it. Soft skins as well as crispy muscle fiber with combination of sweat and salt taste made me almost forget to spit out the bones.

“They are terrific! I am going to get more.”

“Hold on. Worry about what you have ordered first. I bet it’s too much.”

“No. For these, I am the sea that takes everything”

“You are a pig.”

There are many other good dishes. Sticky rice is appealing. It is rice with chicken coved in lotus’s leaves and steamed. The aroma dominated the whole room as someone opened the pack far from me. I ordered it as soon as I smelled it. Pork dumpling is also adorable. It looks like meat ball but it’s actually way more than just meat. Mushrooms enhance freshness of meat while water chestnuts offer little sweet taste which made it not too oily.

“Hey, check this out! Ice-cream in bun”

“What? Really!”

Although they make rich cream buns, accident did happen. I once found cream was still cold in cream bun so I called waiters immediately. Then the waiters called the manager. Five minutes after apology, another pack of cream buns which were perfectly heated came. Moreover, I got 20% off for that meal.

“What’s that? It looks disgusting.”

“I have no clue. I have never seen this in China. I guess it is fried squid.”

“You guys have squids for breakfast?!”

“Aren’t you listening? It’s also my first time to see fried squids for breakfast.”

They even served Dim Sum which I didn’t know. I was asked if I wanted

some fried squids. I was confused because I had never heard about fried squid for breakfast in China. After confirming it with the waiter, I decided to try. It turned out a smart decision. Elastic meat topped with some special sauce made me unable to stop chewing. There are dishes that you have no appetite first seeing them but you would want more soon after the first bite. Fried squid apparently is one of them.

“What a lovely meal! It makes up for everything.”

“Are you full?”

“My stomach is full but my mouth isn’t”

“You pig! Leave some good for the next time. Let’s check out and go”

“Hold on. It must be expensive, isn’t it? I only have 20 bucks with me. Probably I have to wash dishes for them.”

“To be frank, I hope so. Fortunately, that’s enough.”

Oriental Pearl Seafood Restaurant is nowhere close to expensive. All kinds of Dim Sum are sort to 4 different prices: small for $2.45, medium for $3.45, large for $5.75 and extra large for $7.95. Actually you don’t need to pay too much attention to that, just have whatever you like as what I did. Always go with some friends so you could try more kinds of Dim Sum since it counts by pack. After splitting the cost, it is about $10-15 per person.

“So how do you feel?”

“It’s the best Chinese meal I have ever had. The food just gave me a lesson on Chinese food. It’s easy to order food since you could see it right away which avoids getting something totally different from what you thought. In addition, it’s first come first served so you don’t need reservation…”

“So it’s good?”

“It’s excellent! When will we come next time?”

Oriental Pearl Seafood Restaurant

★★★★☆