Dim Sum at San Want Hotel - Chao Ping Ji

神旺大飯店  San Want Hotel

潮品集        Chao Ping Ji 2F,3F

Lunch  Hours: Weekdays   11:30AM - 2:30PM; Weekends  11:00AM - 2:30PM

Dinner Hours:                   5:30PM - 9:00PM

Phone:     02-2772-2687, 02-2772-2688, 02-2772-2689

Address: 台北市忠孝東路四段172號2F;  2F, N0.172, Sec. 4, Zhong Xiao East Road, Taipei, Taiwan

Through 28 years of rigorous training.. i have been bred to immediately dive into any food that is thrust in front of my face.  There will then of course be mouth shaped pieces of food missing from pictures on occasion... bear with me.  Once the picture taking was done.. got down to the business of chowing down on my first dim sum meal since the move back to the homeland.

Either the Dim Sum in Asia sucks (almost a mathematical impossibility) or I just haven't been exposed to quality as of yet.  Turned out I had just been deprived after all, since Chao Ping Ji is far and away the best place i've had yet (again.. that's with the caveat of my relative lack of exposure) in Taiwan or Hong Kong.  The food can be described as Chaw-Chao in style, which if wikipedia hasn't lied to me, is suppose to be less heavy handed in its use of flavoring, which i can concur based on my experience this afternoon.  

Marinated Goose Slices, a Chaw-Chao specialty 

It is a massive space, spanning two floors in the Sun Want Hotel.  The decor is nothing to write home about, but its clean and spacious and that suits our purposes just fine.  Like many of the restaurants that serve dim sum, they have gone away from the cart pushing aged Asian ladies.  Logically, this makes perfect sense to me.  There is no waiting for the off chance that the desired cart will roll by, the food is fresher, and the restaurant cuts down on overhead costs.  That is the logical thinking, but there is a side of me that yearns for the nostalgia of the rolling carts and the subsequent excitement of each dish being revealed to you as if you were choosing between mystery boxes on a game show.  

Fried Turnip Cake in XO sauce.  Fave of the day.

But a complaint like that really is just me being nit picky and harking back to the memories of younger days.  Chao Ping Ji is located in the one of the hubs of Taipei and offers Valet parking (cannot be underestimated in such a metropolitan area).  Those are just perks however to the real issue at hand, which is all about the high caliber of Dim Sum and other offerings from this establishment.

'Other Goodies' - Fujian Fried Rice & Cabbage Seafood Au Gratin