A True Friend and Dim Sum

I am having A WEEK. Our office is going virtual and we are moving out this week to everyones' homes and a small satellite office and storage place. We have known about it for awhile but then it came down getting the lease signed and moving out at the end of November, however language in the lease was missed and it turns out we actually had to be out at the end of October which at that point was about a week and a half away. Being the head of Human Resources and therefore responsible for countless files and records (and also having spent the past 8 years preaching "document, document, document!") as you can imagine it is no easy task. All of us have spent the week, sorting, filing, packing, purging, lifting, carrying and cleaning. Cooking this week? No way--lucky I made soup on Sunday. Lunches have been whatever we could order in for the group--today was pizza. I am grubby, grumpy and have a paper cut on most every finger--oh yes I am a pleasure. Coupled with other work related anxieties that I won't go into now I am not fit company for man or beast. But that is where true friendship comes in. A true friend knows you are having a sucky week and calls you to check in. A true friend calls you and and says they will pick you up in 20 minutes to go to Chinatown and get Dim Sum for lunch. A true friend says it doesn't matter that you are in shorts and a slightly grubby Mickey Mouse tee-shirt (even if they are all cute and dressed nicely for their job). A true friend doesn't bat an eye when you put your grubby, wheezy (did I mention the asthma flair up?) butt in their car. A true friend helps you over-order all of your mutual favorites because it all looks so good and even pays for lunch. Most of all, a true friend makes you laugh, cheers you up, tells you you are making the right decisions and tells you that you are smart and creative and will figure your life out. And they drop you back at work an hour(ish) later feeling refreshed, full and in a much better mood than when you left. Thanks Nat for being that friend and helping get me through this week! Since Dim Sum literally translated means "from the heart," it was the perfect choice for lunch.

Mei Sum Dim Sum Restaurant is not the very best Dim Sum in Hawaii but they do serve it all day, the dishes are good (some are even really good). and it is pretty inexpensive with dishes ranging from $2-$3. You pick what you want from the little carts making their rounds or you can order dishes of the menu too. The service can be a bit dicey at times with the staff being a bit temperamental (For example: even though the cart with the turnip cakes has been unattended for several minutes now and I, a server, am standing right by it, you the customer will have to wait until the person who handles that cart decides to come back). A good lunch for two with plenty of food and hot tea is in the $20-$22 range and even less if you don't over order like we tend to do.

Chicken & Mushroom Dumplings

Spinach Dumplings


Steamed Bean Curd Roll (my personal favorite)

Eggplant

Turnip Cakes

Choi Sum (ordered off the menu--we needed something green on our plates)

Shrimp Dumplings

And did I mention a true friend thinks it is cool you have a food blog and cheerfully hands over each steamer basket and lets you take a picture before digging in!

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Mei Sum Dim Sum: 65 North Pauahi Street Suite A, Honolulu, HI 96813

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Happy Halloween & Happy Aloha Friday Everyone! I for one am glad this week is done!

BTW--If you are in a "souper" mood this weekend, join me in Souper Sundays by making a soup, stew or chili and posting about it. Send me a comment with a link to your soup and I'll post your souper creation in a round up on Sunday.