Ming Hin - Top Shelf Dim Sum in Chicago

By Lu

Dim Sum Plates

I promised you on one of my older posts, when I made a mention of this restaurant, that it deserves its own posting. So, I am keeping my words and here it is!

It really does deserve its own article as this place just became an instant favorite of mine for any Chicago Chinatown joints. Not only that the place serves great food, but it is also clean and modern - definitely not your typical Chinatown restaurant.

My first experience there was back in February. I was invited for a Chinese New Year party there by CK and Sabrina. We had a feast of (over I believe) ten course Chinese dinner. It was mind boggling. However, I didn't even realize we were eating at Ming Hin, as I was just following my friends in getting there. I wasn't paying attention to the name of the place. It was dark anyway.

The next time I went there was when my sister, Ri, was here. She wanted dim sum really bad. I asked some of my friends if they would like to join as dim sum is always better with more people. Then, Ming Hin was suggested. I wanted to go the the usual Phoenix Restaurant where people usually go for dim sum in Chinatown. Sandrine informed me that Ming Hin is so much better than Phoenix. She also told me to try their Pineapple Buns and their BBQ pork belly. I was game, so I said ok as I have never been there before. Sabrina said to me "Yes you have been there!" Then she told me we were there for Chinese New Year.

Oh.

By the way, dim sum or yum cha is a Chinese breakfast consists of small plates of food served in a bamboo circular steam container. Yum cha actually means to drink tea as that is what we do when eating dim sum, you drink tea with it. In China, people young and old go for dim sum in the weekends, and they talk for hours over tea. Some quietly sip tea and read newspaper. In America, we just gobble it up and order more! You can also refer to it as Chinese style tapas - it is almost the same concept of small portioned food that you share with friends on the table. In a typical Dim Sum place, there will be carts being pushed with these offerings on it, and when the cart passes you, you can take a look of what they have on the cart. Then you order what you want. The cart pusher will then mark your tab with what you took for your bill to pay later.

When we went for dim sum with Ri, we had about ten people. It was a perfect size for a round ten top table and it also meant that we could order a great variety of foods. If you go with a small party, you could only order so much as you will get full rather fast. Then, you will get jealous as usually there are so many things you can order. Every other thing will look even better than what you just ordered.

BBQ Pork Buns

We ordered quite a bit of stuff - shumai which is a pork and shrimp steamed dumpling, harkau which is a shrimp dumpling wrapped in rice paper, tofu skins stuffed with with bamboo shoots, BBQ pork belly, chong fun (flat thick noodle stuffed with meat or shrimps), several different kinds of congee (rice porridge), Malaysian steamed cake, egg custard pastry, BBQ pork buns, Bean stuffed buns, BBQ Pork Belly, and the Pineapple cake.

Ri was in heaven. She hasn't had dim sum in awhile living in Nepal at the time. I agree with my friends as well that Ming Hin has the better dim sum than the others I have tried in Chicago Chinatown. Sandrine didn't lie about how good the pineapple buns and the BBQ pork belly. The pork belly had a very crispy crunchy skin, and it just crunched in your mouth as the inside of your mouth is coated with the succulent fat from the belly part. It's definitely not a health food, but damn good treat once in awhile. Too bad I didn't have picture because as soon as the plate hit the table, they're gone!

Stuffed Tofu Skins

Shumai or Pork and Shrimp Steamed Dumplings

Addicting Pineapple (Egg Yolk) Bun

The pineapple bun, now I had the misconception thinking it is bun stuffed with some type of pineapple jam. I love pineapple jam and  I'm also a big fan of pineapple tarts, nastar, and the sort. But no....no buns stuffed with pineapple jam here at Ming Hin. Turned out, pineapple bun was a bun filled with this thick runny yummy goodness made with sweetened egg yolk that was so decadent and rich beyond belief. I was in cloud nine eating it, as well as my friend, Nate, whom I called the "Egg Meister." The guy just simply loves eggs. It's called "pineapple bun" because the top of the bun resembles a pineapple because of the sweet streusel like topping on it. Oh, it's just so delicious. So delicious I dreamt about it that night.

My friend, Heather, was also in town from Milwaukee, and she's a vegetarian. She joined us for dim sum that day and had a ball. I was afraid she wouldn't have much to eat. I was wrong! She had plenty to eat. She does eat fish and shrimps - so we had her eating many of the shrimp dumplings and its varieties, the vegetarian chong fun, tofu, and fish congee. She wants to go back for some more!

I told my friend Tina about the place and she has never tried dim sum. Then, I arranged for another dim sum outing so Tina could try and I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to land my hand on that precious pineapple buns again. From the small plan with Tina, it ballooned to about 20 people in the party! Guess what, Ming Hin has a private room with this huge table that fits 20 people, equipped with the biggest lazy susan I have ever seen! That table was humongous!

We had an international party eating Chinese breakfast. There were Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipino, Koreans, and one German. My friend, Rebecca, was the only Caucasian in the room. Heather was supposed to join us, but she had to cancel. Rebecca was looking forward to not be the minority as it happened quite often that she was the only white girl amongst us Asian girls. However, nope! her wish wasn't granted this time either. She still had a great time though. Rebecca who had dim sum in Phoenix before also said that Ming Hin was a mile ahead than Phoenix.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Phoenix. I think they're food was also good and I had plenty of time eating dim sum there. The line for table for Phoenix is still out the door. If you want a typical, traditional Chinese dim sum with carts in Chicago, you definitely should go to Phoenix.

Ming Hin to me is just a more upscale version of a dim sum joint. The place is modern and new with no sticky table tops and nicely decorated. They offer private rooms, and their foods just scream quality and finesse. Yet, there's no cart here for dim sum. I actually don't mind the no cart style. In the past, I had a hard time waiting for the right cart to pass my table. You ended up waiting or you had to order what you wanted to the waiter anyway. At Ming Hin, they gave you an order form with colored pictures. You just write down how many you want next to each picture. Simple.

Noodle with BBQ Ducks

Their regular foods are also great. They serve various different type of Chinese food, from the regular items people usually eat for dinner, noodles, as well as party or specialty foods that will be a lot pricier than regular foods. CK, Sabrina, Sandrine, Evi, Nate and I also went again for dinner the Sunday before the big party dim sum, and we ordered some light dinner of noodles and soup. The BBQ duck noodle soup was yummy! They were so good. Evi was craving the fried spicy flat noodle again a couple days later. I told CK that Ming Hin is becoming like a church if we go there every Sunday. Yikes.

Chicagoans, this is the place to go for dim sum, I'm telling you. You will be addicted in no time to that crack called pineapple bun.

Special thanks to Kinzie Chye for the photographs. Photos used with permission.