So my night last night was relatively pleasant.  Around 4:30 pm I started getting hungry, as we'd done our traditional Stat Holiday sleep in and have brunch at 10:30 am thing, so it was time for me to eat.  It rained the entire day (actually rare in Vancouver for how much annual rainfall we see here) so my planned trip to the PNE was cancelled.  Anyways, since I had been planning on trying deep fried butter, I decided I'd keep up the idea of being adventurous in my food choice, and decided we should eat dim sum for lunch.  Now, I have had dim sum one other time, but that time was with a chinese couple I had met when I first moved here, and I merely went along as they ordered for me, and it was great.  Especially since it was real, authentic dim sum and I didn't have to deal with the waitresses.  So there are a number of dim sum places near where we live, so I looked up a couple to try, and off we went.  The first place we didn't even really bother with - by the time I took the dog for a walk, showered and got ready, that place was guaranteed to be jammed packed.  So off to choice #2 - a little chinese restaurant that has great reviews from every vancouver food blog I've ever read.  So we get there, park, walk in and get seated.  Then we notice on the menu a note: "$50 minimum purchase for debit or credit cards."  Well that's great, we don't believe in cash, so we figured we'd just have to eat a lot.  But then we start looking at the dim sum menu.  There was barely anything on it.  And it was all double the price of most dim sum places.  So we called the waitress over, told her we didn't have any cash so we'd have to move along.  Phew.  Bullet dodged.

So, on to chinese restaurant #2.  Now this place was low on the list because, although it has the best food reviews and apparently excellent prices, it's known for given you the authentic Chinese service along with the authentic chinese food.  But hey, good food is good food, right?  So we get there, sit down and get our menus.  The thing is huge, and we flip back and forth... no dim sum.  That' can't be right, this is the best dim sum place in Burnaby, right?  After something like 20 minutes the waiter finally comes over to see how we're doing (authentic service all right - there was only one other table in the restaurant) and informs us that they only have dim sum from 9am - 3pm.  How'd we miss that?  Anyways, we left there as well (btw they also had a minimum transaction for debit and interact - $30).

This whole ordeal took 45 minutes.  And I was starving.  And I get ragey when I'm starving.  So at this point, we have the option of picking a random chinese restaurant of the 100s we'll drive by on our way home, or go to my favourite pub.  Out of fear of another failure to locate dim sum, or of finding another unreasonable minimum bill to be able to use credit or debit, we hopped over to my favourite pub, had some beer and wings, and all was right in the world.

And that is why I hate dim sum.  Next time, I'm just making a chinese friend take us.  Oh yeah and Dan Ellis has money problems?  What??  To learn more about this horrible disaster, check out the hash tag #DanEllisProblems on twitter.  My favourite?  From @uzworm:

Original childhood dream of producing musical theater didn't pan out, instead forced to let goals in for a living #DanEllisProblems

Put your favourite in the comments... and onto your Leaf Links!

From The Branches