Dim Sum Palace: a mouthwateringly good picture book
I took my kids to a big Chinese restaurant last month. This place was on a more grand scale than the ones we’d previously been to - it was housed in a giant, palace kind of space. My kids, having had not much prior exposure to the sheer abundance and variety of Asian food items on offer in such a vast eatery, were excited to the point of being almost giddy.
The lobsters in the tank, the trolleys of dim sum and desserts, the Asian iconography on the walls and the placemats, in the form of animal drawings and temples - all of it! The only thing that would have prepared Ruby and Max for the sumptuous eating experience that they were about to take part in would have been if we’d previewed the experience through a picture book. A picture book as fine as this one:
Liddy, our protagonist, falls asleep knowing she’s going to the Dim Sum Palace the next day, a place she’s never been. That night, she dreams about an epic adventure involving dim sum, and then the next day she realizes that the real Dim Sum Palace is nothing like her dream - it’s actually better!
The book pays homage to Maurice Sendak’s classic tale In The Night Kitchen. The author and illustrator, Taiwanese American X Fang, says: “My book is both a nod to In The Night Kitchen and a tribute to the countless dim sum memories I’ve had with family and friends over the years.”
After reading the book, which is a glorious celebration of eating, you’ll want to head to your closest Dim Sum Palace, and bring your kids, too. The book will also make you want to find your copy of In the Night Kitchen and reread it, too.