Welcome Inn Tea House, Northbridge

First, we attacked rice flour rolls stuffed with prawns. The silky soft noodles and plump prawns inside were delicious, but I thought there could’ve been more sauce.

I think it was love at first sight for Zoe and the rice flour roll. She devoured the soft noodles then immediately asked for more.

Next: loh mai kai (glutinous chicken rice, also known as sticky rice). In the rice was har mai (dried shrimps), lup cheong (Chinese sausage) and chicken. I didn’t think there was enough chicken, but it was pretty tasty. Ruby, Zoe and my brother especially enjoyed the sticky rice. We had to get two serves for the table. In fact, we got two serves of a number of the dishes. :)

The deep-fried prawn balls were crispy and delicious. One of the nicest versions of these crouton-encrusted balls that I’ve eaten is from Emma’s Seafood and Dim Sum Restaurant in Victoria Park – theirs are crispy deep-fried prawn and banana balls! I’m a big fan of deep-fried banana anything.

One of our must-have items at dim sum – har gow (steamed prawn dumplings). Sometimes when you get har gow at dim sum, the dumpling skins stick to the bamboo steamer, which is really annoying, as the more you pull on a dumpling with your chopsticks, the more it falls apart. These har gow did not stick at all and were full of bursty fresh prawn filling.

This is Jac’s must-have dim sum item – siew mai (steamed pork dumplings). They were meaty and juicy, the pork mince nicely seasoned.

And the food kept coming! Next: crispy deep-fried squid tentacles, a family favourite. The plates aren’t piled as high as they used to be, but the tentacles are as yummy as ever. I’m always tempted to forget my manners, ditch my chopsticks and just grab tentacles with my fingers.

These are my sister CW’s favourite – deep-fried meat dumplings. The pastry outside is chewy, the minced meat filling inside is quite sweet.

I guess this is as close as we got to vegetables – bean curd rolls filled with assorted vegetables. I love the chewy elastic texture of that saucy bean curd skin.

The pork spare ribs in black bean sauce were delicious! The last time I was in Sydney I ate a dim sum spare ribs dish that consisted mostly of inedible bits of gristle and bone, but Welcome Inn’s pork spare ribs were flavoursome bite-sized morsels of succulent fatty and lean pork in a totally drinkable garlicky black bean sauce. If pork fat grosses you out, don’t get these spare ribs – don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Another family favourite: deep-fried crab meat balls. These bouncy bean curd-wrapped meat balls contain pork and crab meat, spring onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms. They are always served almost too hot to eat and I always burn my tongue trying.

We also enjoyed a round of char siu pow (steamed BBQ pork buns). I’ve loved char siu pow ever since I was a kid. My late grandma Mama used to make char siu pow. We kids would eat them fresh and hot straight out of the steamer. And later, there would be an ice cream container full of char siu pow (and sometimes, another container of tow sar pow, red bean buns) in the fridge, ready for breakfast, snacks or supper.

Ruby was a picture of concentration as she carefully peeled the paper off her char siu pow.

We also had baked BBQ pork puffs – BBQ pork enclosed in puff pastry. We really should’ve completed the BBQ pork series and eaten baked BBQ pork buns. And rice flour rolls filled with BBQ pork. At dim sum, BBQ pork becomes my bacon – the more the better!

Jac was hanging out for her favourite dessert to eat at dim sum: mango pudding. She shared the pudding with Zoe, who thought it was fantastic!

My must-have item at dim sum is dan tart (egg tart). Once, many years ago when we ate dim sum at Welcome Inn, the unthinkable happened – they ran out of egg tarts. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I was devastated. I must finish my dim sum with an egg tart, otherwise I go home feeling dissatisfied and a little sad, regardless of how delicious the rest of the meal was.

The egg tarts were still wonderfully warm. To look upon that bright yellow, glistening custard, to feel that warm pastry in my hand, to hear the crackle of the patty paper as I lift the egg tart to my mouth, to bite into that soft, smooth, sweet custard – it all makes me so happy.