We went to Chinatown today and had dim sum.  It is always delicious.  We like to go go to the Phoenix (2131 S Archer Ave, Chicago).  For Saturdays and Sundays, there are women who go around the restaurant with carts and show you what is on each cart.  Other day you can order the dim sum from a menu and the choices are much fewer.  You let them know if you want what they have on their cart. There could be as many as 60 dishes going around on these carts. They then, on your bill, put a tick mark into the category that your dish fits in. The dishes are divided by small, medium, large and extra large.  Your final tab then is the sum of all the dishes you were served from the carts.

Here is one of the carts with various dishes on it.

Shrimp crepe or I have also seen this called shrimp fun, medium dish. It is a soft dough with shrimp inside.  They pour a sauce over it before they put it onto your table.  The sauce is soy sauce based yet with a slight sweetness.

Baby octopus with curry sauce, extra large dish.  This was just ok.  The octopus is very tender, but I didn't think it had a very curry taste to it.

Pork shu mai (top) and Ha Gao (shrimp dumplings), both medium dishes.  I love both of these.  The pork shu mai  is made of a pork stuffing with, I think, water chestnuts and mushrooms.  I am not sure what the yellow is that wraps it.  Maybe thin wrap of egg?  And below it is shrimp dumplings.  Inside is a stuffing of chopped shrimp.  It holds together when it wrapper is off of it.  I think there must be some egg holding it together.  The wrapper is similar to the shrimp fun, but firmer.  There is not much flavor to the wrapper, just to the shrimp.

Pot stickers, medium dish....similar to what I made from Trader Joe's, but fresher.

This is steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce.  This is considered a small dish. These have little nubs of bones and is one of my husband's favorite dishes.  He loves to suck off all the  bits of meat.

This is a treat....sweet tofu.  Not sure what category (size) this dish fits into - such a treat it doesn't matter.  On the left is a simple syrup (sugar water) and the right bowl is warm, silken tofu.  They make is fresh and it only available on Saturdays and Sundays. The texture of the tofu is a mixture of pudding and egg whites.  You spoon the tofu into a bowl and then pour just a bit of the sugar syrup on it. Sounds gross but I love it!!

This is from the window of Phoenix.  You can see the whole city.  

This is one of the main streets.  Along this street is all kinds of stores that sell food and junk.