Located in the heart of Chinatown, Yea Dim Sum is completely renovated and is a new Asian inspired restaurant founded by Edward Lam and Jonathan Tung. Chef Edward Lam has over 10 years of experience in the restaurant and food services industry, as well as serving as the executive head chef for a private Alberta resort.
Jonathan Tung also has over 10 years of experience in the restaurant business as his travels have taken him to Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton. The Tung’s former family business, well over 20 years was the former Dim Sum Garden, which was sold back in 2007. They’ve since taken the business back and renamed it as Yea Dim Sum Asian Cuisine.
Yea Dim Sum restaurant serves the traditional taste of dim sum with a new, modern twist. During the busy lunch service, carts of hot steamy dim sum roll through the two-tiered restaurant. The lower level seats approximately 70 people while the top level section at the back of the restaurant can accommodate 130 people. Dim sum happy hour is Monday-Friday, 2pm-10pm and Saturday/Sunday all day excluding holidays.
Many of the items you’ll find on the Yea Dim Sum’s a la carte menu are inspired culinary dishes that have originated from regional Chinese communities in Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Indonesia. While keeping true to traditional Chinese dishes, Chef Edward Lam brings elements of different regional cooking techniques, preparations and spices in Yea Dim Sum dishes.
You can expect a majority of their dishes to be spicy. In fact, one page in their menu is dedicated to the sauces used in their dishes. XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce invented in Hong Kong. Belachan/belachan is a Malay style sambal, which is composed of freshly pounded chilis with sugar and lime juice. Sambals are popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Several dishes that use the sambal sauce include beef with sugar snap peas (B4), or their minced pork with deep fried peas in a XO sambal sauce. According to Chef Edward Lam, many of the dishes can be toned down on the spiciness scale to accommodate the varying palate desires of customers.
Here’s a sneak peek at some of their dishes:
The Eggroll is a Japanese inspired dish that incorporates the Japanese art of making rolls. A crispy crepe is stuffed with shredded pork tenderloin, cilantro, cucumber and carrots.
Coming from French & Italian cooking, their crispy chicken coated with garlic butter is lightly marinated, deep fried and tossed in garlic butter.
Asam fish is a Malaysian preparation that has a spicy, sweet and sour sauce poured over a deboned filet of either kanakura, halibut or pickerel and served with eggplant and okra.
You can find out more about Yea Dim Sum on their website at YeaDimSum.com or visit their Facebook Page. Business hours are Monday – Sunday 11am – 10pm.
Photos by Ron Cantiveros | Filipino Journal
