Dark Side surprise

We're having lunch with Hello Kitty's family, which usually means a venue on the north side of Victoria Harbour.  When the overriding requirements were dim sum and stir-fried glutinous rice, the one place that I could immediately think of was Fook Lam Moon (福臨門) in Tsim Sha Tsui.

One thing that surprised the hell out of us today was the service.  We're absolutely nobodies and this was only my second time here, yet the captain seated us at a table close to both the elevator and the restrooms, so that Hello Kitty's granny wouldn't have to walk far.  While I was ticking off items on the dim sum order sheet, she also suggested I not go overboard and order in multiple rounds - which was an excellent idea given that Fook Lam Moon in Wanchai usually sends out all of your dim sum dishes in the span of 5 minutes, and one can find oneself staring at 10 or more steamers on the table.

Finally, even before the first dish arrived, someone noticed that Hello Kitty was left-handed, and proceeded to move her chopsticks and spoon to her left side.  That was simply amazing... since many restaurants in town completely fail on this front.

This was the kind of service that I'm used to seeing at Lung King Heen (龍景軒)... not at a restaurant famous for treating nobodies like... nobody. 

Glazed barbecued pork buns (叉燒焗餐飽) - it's been a while since I last had these.  Not bad.

Steamed sausage rolls (風味腊腸卷) - pretty decent, too... now that the weather has cooled and preserved sausages are available.

Steamed rice flour rolls with spring onions and dried shrimp (蔥花蝦米腸)

Steamed Chiuchow-style dumplings (潮州蒸粉粿)

Steamed prawn dumplings with bamboo shoots (筍尖鮮蝦餃) - somehow a little below par today...

Pan-fried rice flour rolls with XO sauce (XO醬炒腸粉) - lots of XO sauce here... Tasty.

Crispy pork belly (燒腩仔) - very good, crispy crackling.  Someone at the table confessed to having 5 pieces...

Deep-fried wontons (錦鹵炸雲吞) - these come with a separate bowl of seafood and vegetables immersed in a starchy, vinegar-based sauce. 

Unfortunately the seafood items were all previously frozen and didn't taste very fresh.

Steamed lotus leaf wrapped glutinous rice with Chinese dry scallops and chicken (瑤柱珍珠雞)

Fried glutinous rice with preserved meats (生炒糯米飯) - baby, this is what you came for... A request for Hello Kitty's granny.  In fact Hello Kitty has pretty high standards when it comes to this dish, as the older generation in her family used to cook this the old-fashioned way at a daipaidong (大牌檔).  She seemed pretty pleased with what we had today... commenting that the grains of rice remained separate and this tasted like it was fried from scratch using uncooked (and unsoaked) rice.

Overall, a very happy meal for everyone.  I wonder why we didn't come more often when Hello Kitty lived nearby...