Tuesday, October 1, marks the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, a milestone that Hong Kong—under British rule at the time—doesn’t share. In the 48 years before the colonizer turned the island back over to the mainland and up until the present, Hong Kong has maintained its own identity, not a small part of which is its standing as the world capital of Cantonese food—probably the most internationally recognizable regional Chinese cuisine among so many. And that’s also definitely true of its particular subset of dim sum, the ritualized brunch of tea and small bites also known as yum cha.
More so than regional differences, the question on everyone’s mind when it comes to the dumplings, buns, rolls, cakes, and pastries that make up the universe of dim sum is whether they’re prepared in-house or stamped out en masse, frozen, and trucked to the back door by some outside vendor before they’re steamed or fried, stacked, and then dutifully wheeled out on pushcarts through crowded dining rooms.
It doesn’t say much of anything that D Cuisine is serving the best dim sum in Lincoln Park—if not the whole north side. But dishes such as those make the restaurant a rare place of reward for Cantonese food outside of Chinatown. v
2723 N. Clark 773-360-7239 dcuisinechicago.com
