Asian Court

My oil was low today.  I stopped at the Midas to get it changed, and headed along Route 40 to find something to eat.  I didn't want to spend too much, but the promise of dim sum drew me in to Asian Court.  It's tucked away from the Baltimore National Pike so you have to know where to find it - namely, somewhere in the Giant shopping center.

Apparently, I am the last food blogger in the area to have found out about this place.  No worries.  I know about it now.

No menu is posted, but you will be filled up on about $15 of dim sum.  The warm colored dining room is covered with murals that evoke China, excepting the bar which has a flat screen TV playing Chinese telenovelas (when I was there anyway).  The place was pretty busy, and filled mostly with Chinese-American diners, a sign that this is probably a good place to be.  There wasn't a whole lot of room for the wait staff to navigate around the tables with their dim sum carts.  The first waitress to come to me had to stop across from my table, and I needed to get up to choose my plates (small ones are $3, with higher prices ranging from $4 for medium plates to $8 for the largest ones).

I don't remember exactly what I ordered, but the waitress was very keen on recommending the rice (I've had better, especially with the thin and chewy prawns, but it was still flavorful and I ate most of it).  I also got some fried pork dumplings (very tasty - my favorite thing), another type of steamed dumpling whose contents I can't quite place (also tasty, though I came back to this plate less often) and a set of taro dumplings with a delicious and delicately crispy fried batter on the outside.  They were just beautiful but difficult to pick up with a set of chopsticks - easier to cut in half with them, and then pick up each half.  By the time the second cart had come around with shu mai - my most favorite type of dim sum - I was regretting having ordered so much.  They will let you take home the leftovers, however, so if you order too much you won't be wasting it.  I was going to be adventurous and order the chicken feet, but with so much food in front of me, I needed to conserve what was in my bank account and not stuff myself.

With all that dim sum plus a pot of piping hot jasmine tea, my total came to $17.50, a pricier lunch than I had planned to get today, but about right for all the food that I got.