by Ted Sherman

Created on: October 25, 2008   Last Updated: December 04, 2008

Dim sum (touch your heart) is a favorite of mine, and wherever I happen to be: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Honolulu, New York, Las Vegas or San Francisco, I seek out Chinese restaurants that specialize in the delicacy guaranteed to touch both heart and stomach.

According to Chinese legend, dim sum was first created a thousand years ago by travelers. The little ready-made, rice-dough-wrapped dumplings, filled with meat, seafood or veggies, could be stored in backpacks or on ponies. At stops along the road, over campfires, the quick snacks were steamed, toasted or fried.

When travelers reached inns, fresh-made dim sum delicacies were specialties of the house for sit-down and take-out meals. Depending on the locale in the Orient, thousands of varieties of the popular food were available. As today in Asian restaurants, carts of dim sum were wheeled around dining rooms for visitors to pick and choose their favorites.

When looking for dim sum in San Francisco or anywhere else, my intent is always to find restaurants where local Chinese families come to eat. While many of the usual tourist trap restaurants serve good food, it is usually so Westernized and too often pre-frozen, it has lost its original charm and taste.

One San Francisco place that fits my idea of a local family hangout is Happy Chinese Restaurant on Nob Hill's Powell Street. On a recent late-night visit, we were the only non-Orientals in the room. At various round tables were groups of elders, chatting and eating from a lazy susan tray that pivoted around the middle of the table. At another table near the kitchen entrance, another group was making dim sum dumplings and wontons, slapping them together by hand, but with assembly line speed as they laughed and piled up the ready-to-cook delicacies.

Our first course was an enormous steaming bowl of wor won ton chicken and pork soup. Although there were only two of us at the table, the serving could have fed a dozen. In fact, because it was so chock full of meat, veggies and won tons, we could have made a more-than-adequate evening meal out of just one serving of soup each.

We next chose various dim sum specialties, including sui mai (pork) and shrimp (har gow). Another dish took me back to my childhood. I was a welfare kid during the Great Depression, and after our Dad had died, when our Mom served us chicken, she always ate only the feet. She wanted to make sure her hungry kids had the best parts, because the feet were almost all skin and bone. At the Happy Chinese

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