The Pearl Dragon Dim Sum – A Sunday Tradition

April 5, 2018 by Foodie Rich

I’ve said this before; food and travel go hand in hand. Its what those holiday memories are made of right? That Bouillabaisse sitting on the quay in Marseille. Or the glorious street food that can only be found in Bangkok? There’s something quite special about sitting on a milk crate getting stuck in to a tom yum soup whilst tuk tuk’s scream past at break neck speed. Or what about a real south Indian fish curry down in Kerala; you won’t get better than that. Yep, you can’t have a travel experience without the food; it just wouldn’t be the same. One such foodie memory which Lou and I often reminisce over is the Lin Heung Tea House in Hong Kong. One of the last remaining traditional tea houses, here you must leave your polite British ways at the door, take a deep breath and charge in. Seriously, there’s no queuing or friendly waiting staff to take your coat and show you to your cosy table for two. Nope, you just wander in to the chaos, and grab a bench alongside others. There’s not many western faces here either; it’s just packed with locals from all walks of life, reading papers, smoking, and enjoying some of the best dim sum in Hong Kong. To the rear of the restaurant is the kitchen. Bamboo steamers are piled high with all manner of dim sum cooking away. Elderly and rather weathered ladies push old rickety trolleys around the restaurant, parading the dim sum for all the see. Don’t wait for the trolley to arrive at your table, oh no, do as the locals do. Just barge your way through the masses and tell the lady what you’d like, and she’ll serve you. Well, I say ‘tell’ the lady, I found pointing with my index finger overcome the language barrier. Never pick up the plates from the trolley yourself; oh no. I speak from experience here. I tried to do exactly that and ended up upsetting the dim sum lady. With a look of rage, she enforced a rather sharp smack to my hand! I got the message; touching the dim sum is unacceptable. Don’t be fooled by these ladies’ appearance. Yes, they may look like caring old Chinese grandmothers, but they are not. If you put a foot, or in my case, a hand, out of place, they will pounce with pin point accuracy and with the speed of a striking cobra.

That dim sum experience was like non-other; its up there in my top 5 travelling foodie experiences. But, I’m always on the look out to replicate the same a little closer to home; impossible! If the Lin Heung tea house opened a branch in the UK they would be shut down over night. The lack of customer service, staff assaulting customers, the chaos and not to mention health and safety!! But what about the food itself? Forget about the surroundings and that unique experience, where can I find good dim sum locally?? London maybe? Yeah probably, but what about really local? Well, I think I may have found it at The Pearl Dragon in Southend

The Pearl Dragon opened their doors back in 1979 and was the first of its kind in Southend. Gosh, can you imagine, in the 70’s and 80’s food in the UK was somewhat dull to say the least. Trout with almonds or melon with Parma ham was as exotic as it got! So, quite a bold move to open a restaurant serving up, which was then, a pretty unknown and alien cuisine. They’ve obviously got it right, as 39 years later they are still going strong. And my visit last Sunday proved that. The place was heaving, but not with the day trippers you’d normally expect to find along the golden mile on a bank holiday weekend. No, with people who know their dim sum. Chinese communities from near and far had clearly flocked to the Pearl Dragon for their legendary Sunday Dim Sum Lunch.

Sat at our table, with Tsing Tsao beer in hand Lou and I proceeded to order. Anyone who knows me is fully aware of my dislike of feeling full up. Yep, I hate eating till I’m fit to burst. Strange I know, I mean I love food, but, if I’m full up, I can’t eat??? Yeah ok, I’m a little weird, but grazing is more my thing. That’s why I’m such a big fan of Tapas. Just meandering the streets, popping in to bars along the way, ordering some small plates, a glass or two, then moving on. I love that style of eating. And Dim Sum is no different. Roughly translated it means to ‘touch the heart’. Dim sum is meant to be just a small taster, to almost ‘touch the heart’ with flavour! Now you’re talking my language!

So back to that menu. When ordering you are given a list of Dim Sum on offer that day, and a pen. The idea being, you tick off what you want and hand it back to your server; simple. I’m not one for chicken feet, nor beef tripe, but if you’re a real Dim Sum enthusiast both can be had at the Pearl Dragon. Whelks in curry sauce sounded interesting, as did sliced pork & pigs liver congee. But Lou and I bypassed both and ordered, baby cuttlefish with chilli and peppercorn salt; absolutely amazing! Seriously, I could just come here and have a bowl full of these. Char Siu Cheung Fun was equally good. A simple dish of roast pork wrapped in a wide rice noodle then drizzled with a quite sweet soy dressing; it was good eating. But next up where the dishes of the day. The pork and king prawn dumplings where as good as any I’ve eaten in Hong Kong. Minced pork topped with a whole prawn and a little of what appeared to be fish roe. When dipped in a little chilli oil, an absolute delicious classic. However, this next dish stole the show; why? Pure simplicity that’s why. Clearly the undisputed champion of Dim Sum, ladies and gentlemen I give you Har Gow! What the hell is Har Gow? Its just a single large prawn encased in a light rice dumpling, that’s it! But believe me, dip this in a little soy or chilli and its, well, simply delicious. That’s doesn’t sound like we had much food and judging by other tables we hadn’t. But, I was full. Lou wanted to order more, but I had to put my foot down. Yes, the noodles looked good, and I still needed to try the whelks in curry sauce. Not to mention the crispy pork I could see coming out of the kitchen; it all looked on point. But seriously, that dim sum was deceivingly filling. No more for me, much to Lou’s disappointment!

So, have I found somewhere as good as my beloved Lin Heung teahouse on Hong Kong Island? The verdict? Well, kinda, yes and no really. At the Pearl Dragon it lacks the hustle and bustle, it lacks the confusion, it lacks the non-existent service and of course it lacks the rather abrupt, rude and sometimes aggressive dim sum ladies that you’ll find at Lin Heung. But surely that’s a good thing, right? I’m writing this as if these negative points are essential when enjoying Sunday dim sum? In Hong Kong it all fits, those apparent bad points make the Lin Heung teahouse what it is; its all part of the experience when getting down and dirty chomping on Dim Sum with the locals. Put that in the Pearl Dragon on the other hand and the place would shut overnight. In Southend we want friendly service, we don’t want to fight over dim sum trolleys with strangers and we certainly don’t want the staff slapping our wrists! Well, you can rest assured the Pearl Dragon couldn’t be further from my Hong Kong experience. However, where they do compare is the food. The Dim Sum is as good as what you’d find in Hong Kong. So, in a strange kinda way, the Lin Heung Teahouse and The Pearl Dragon although streets apart in some respects, they couldn’t be closer in others. To summarise, I’m going back, who knows maybe next Sunday, Lou hasn’t stopped nagging me since, she didn’t try enough food!!

4 generous Dim Sum plates with prawn crackers and four beers - £36

The Pearl Dragon 18 - 19 Eastern Esplanade, Southend-on-Sea