Yum Cha at dawn

Well, not quite. But almost. Crystal chandeliers and rouched sheer curtains at 10am makes sense only when there are mature chinese ladies pushing around stainless steel carts loaded with steam baskets, leaving a trail of drooling diners in their wake. Yum Cha at Kam Fooks in Chatswood rates one of the better reviews for yum cha in Sydney. And with good reason - $20 each brought us steamed sweet doughy pork or chicken buns, dim sim densly packed with pork and steamed in its wonton paper wrapping, spinach dumplings with little shrimp suprises inside. The breaded and deep fried shrimp balls in the picture and the sweet donuts were favourites when I was a kid, but after all the steamed goodies they seemed too dry, too fried, tasteless. We eased the dumplings down with green tea and diet coke. After a frenzy of eating, pointing through fragrant steam and lifting dumplings from the pot-sticky paper we all sat back, stuffed like a fois gras geese. Yum Cha for breakfast is a sort of parallell universe of the foodie kind.