Cook It!: Have You Eaten Yet ?

Delighting in dim sum at Gars

Growing up in the north my experience of good Chinese food was pretty limited – if indeed non-existent. I arrived in London and within days my new friend Kwok had opened up a treasure chest of fabulous oriental delights.
Both his parents worked in Soho, not as strippers or gangland members, no, as chefs. We would visit and Kwok would order. In those days I had no idea what I was eating and I didn’t care. I’m not squeamish when it comes to offal and the like and we ate plenty of that I’m sure.
It was in Soho that I was introduced to dim sum. Dim sum goes back further than the tapas and small plate crazes of the last thirty or forty years in this country but is a similar way of dining.

Back in my earlier years dim sum was served in the bigger west end restaurants from heated trolleys wheeled between the tables, it was not only delicious, but it was fun and it was cheap. I grew to love the many kinds of dumplings, the curried squid and whelks and the steamed buns full of char sui pork. I was crazy for the sticky rice packed into lotus leaves and studded with wind dried sausage and dried mushroom.
Sadly many of those places have gone. Here in Brighton there have been few places to eat dim sun for the last few years – but not any more.
Gars has to be my top place to eat Chinese food in town and now they have a great new dim sum menu served from lunch to the early evening. There are sadly no trollies, the staircase would put paid to that, but the menu has so many of my old favorites that I felt compelled to drag Mr L along on a Sunday afternoon for a bit of a feast. And how we feasted!
Gars have long been recognised as a place where traditional Chinese dishes have been elevated to fine dining dishes – order the beef carpaccio and you will see what I mean.

Their dim sum are pretty traditional in flavour and content – but with a new sense of style, presentation is beautiful and the service is, as one might expect, second to none.
Mr L is always happy for me to take charge of ordering in oriental restaurants and I was like a kiddy in a sweet shop. I chose ten dishes and a larger dish of tempura style scallops from a list of daily specials.
The dumplings were superb, razor clams exceptional, buns sweet and savoury, so good we ordered a second portion. The curry squid was tender and the spice balanced so well – and the sticky rice, well that too we order second helpings of. Gars never fails to please me and within days I was back for a superb dinner.
Gars, 19 Prince Albert St, Brighton BN1 1HF, 01273 321321
www.gars.co.uk