Dim Sum: Bubor Cha Cha

This Sunday we went to Chinatown for dim sum. As we walked into Bubor Cha Cha, Noah commented "I want to go to the restaurant with Ngau Cherngs!" Ngau Cherngs being beef rice noodles, his favorite dim sum dish. The thing is looking at Bubor Cha Cha, you wouldn't know that they did dim sum, every day, until as late as 1pm and even later.


"They do have Ngau cherngs here" I told Noah, "In fact you get to look at a menu with pictures on it and pick out what you like."

"I like pictures better than just words because at least then I know what it is." Noah said. Noah is 6.  He can read English. ....even I can't really read Chinese.

We wnet over to our table to sit down. Jonah was on my shoulders and I spun him off to dismount and sit in his chair. I heard a "Aiya!" behind me.

I hadn't seen tat the waitress was standing right there. Jonah must have stuck his leg out and heel kicked her in the temple, which would hurt, even though he is four, because I had spun him. That kind of soured the mood.

"Stop your thoughts." Grace said.

We got our guk fa cha or Chrysanthemum tea and Grace went to ordering.

We started with desert. A sesame red bean donut or "chee jai" though not everyone knows it by that name. Good thing for pictures. Ngau Cherngs (rice noodles) Pai gwut (spare ribs) and a plate of noodles followed. The noodles really had a strong "Wok Hei" or Chi or air from the Wok.

"I can still smell the wok." Commented Grace.

I could do another post about "Wok Hei" itself.

What type of noodles? Something to do with Seafood and the very thin type of noodles. Har Moon noodles. Honestly we sort of just picked that one randomly. They were good though.

It has become a thing with me that when I eat out I want to eat fried noodles now. Whereas before I would never order that. Maybe it's the Wok Hei. Maybe it's that it's easy to fill up on noodles. Maybe it's the attraction to starch that your body converts right into sugar mixed with grease and that is what my body craves. Not sure.


We also had the Phoenix claws or chicken feet.

"This they really do good." Grace commented. The Chicken feet are not that easy to get right and it's one of those things that really needs to be fresh. And Bubor Cha Cha does an exceptional job at this dish. You could say that this particular dish is the holy grail of dim sum. It used to gross out a lot of westerners, but it has become the thing to order to show that you know what the hell dim sum is. And besides when else do you eat chicken feet.. and call them Phoenix claws?

We finished up and left heading out to a nearby bakery to get Baos for tonight's desert after dinner, and for breakfast for the next two days.

-Sifu Adam