BEST PLACE FOR DIM SUMS IN BANGALORE

Shanghai Siew Long Bun.

You don't walk into this restaurant and ask for "momos". That would get Rahul Uppal's goat — he's the Restaurant Manager of Yautcha, a contemporary-Michelin-starred version of the traditional dim sum tea houses of China. 

"Because  dim sums are not momos," he says. (By the way, he is the grandson of the man who gave Bangaloreans the institution called Casapicola) 

"Dim sum means...a touch of the heart," he continues.  You will hear this aplenty if you care to listen to the people at Yauatcha, situated on the 5^th floor of 1MG mall in Bangalore. 

At Yauatcha they take their dim sums seriously. Chef Khushal (who often gets asked : "Are you Malaysian/Chinese" but he is Indian — from Kolkota) is known as the King of dim sums;

Chef Khushal

he has spent the last eight years polishing his craft to an art form. Shanghai Siew Long Bun is proof enough. There is a technique to eating this bite-sized delicacy — tear the skin a little with your teeth, suck in the duck broth and then eat the dim sum filled with minced chicken and prawn, served with soya and slivered ginger sauce. Never gobble up a Shanghai Siew Long Bun — unless you want to scald your mouth. 

This dim sum tea house serves 45 varieties of dim sums — steam, pan fried, poached, baked et al. Dim sums are traditionally served in threes and not fours because the latter is considered unlucky by the Chinese, except the pork and prawn shumai dim sum — it's served in twos. 

Dim sum is one food that can never be reheated and eaten. It has to be eaten fresh and hot. Its life span is short — it dies when the steam evaporates and the cold settles on it like wrinkles on an aged skin. That means you don’t ask for doggy bags here.

How do you differentiate a good dim sum from a mediocre one? The filling. Follow the old Chinese principle and you will never go wrong: The less you eat, more the flavor; the more you eat, less the flavor. A good dimsum should have the right amount of filling — read not to the brim — for it to be flavourful. 

Turnip Cake

Proof is in the eating. I had the fried Turnip Cake, Poached Peking dumpling, Pork and Prawn Shumai, Chicken Shanghai dumplings and the crispy prawn cheung fun. Both the taste and the flavour were right — every single time.

In the traditional tea houses in olden days China, dim sums would always be the choice of snack to be served with their teas. The two make a good combo, especially on a rainy day.  

Yautcha serves 25 different kinds of teas — white, black, green, blue and the Indian varieties too. (On a cloudy evening, I had the delicately flavoured Cammomile, Dragon's Well (green tea, Anxi tie kuan vin - a blue roasted tea from Fujian, China and Golden Orage Pekoe from Darjeeling, India. Yeah, even I didn't know I could have that many teas at one go. But I did. And it was a 'refreshing' experience.)

Most of Yautcha's teas are imported from China in bulk, once in six months. The teas are fermented and non-fermented; some are rolled by hand, some are long, some are powdered and sun dried. But all are delicious. That could be because it is brewed with utmost precision. The brew master, Meenamit, originally from Bhutan, poured hot water

Meenamit

over 8 gms of tea leaves and allowed it to stand for three seconds (except for the Indian Darjeeling tea which was brewed for 10 seconds), before straining it into a tea pot that served 5-6 cups of tea. The colours range from light green to dark. Only the Indian tea is had with a dash of milk and a pinch of sugar, the rest are good to go without either. 

Sitting in the glass-walled Yautcha, overlooking a Bangalore skyline that's a mix of both old and new, sipping tea and eating hot dim sums on a cloudy day made me wonder how it would've been in those traditional tea houses of eons.

It would've been noisy, with an open kitchen, the sound of the hissing wok, the pleasant commotion in the kitchen, cackle of the patrons, click of the chopsticks, the warmth of the steamers bearing hot delicious dim sums, music in the air...the smells, the sounds, the flavours...it must've been a throbbing life. Yautcha has modernized this. The tables, chairs and lights are aligned, the air is perfumed, masking the smells of food from the open kitchen, the plates and spoons are placed just right...the kitchen is open, the woks hiss, you get to witness the pleasant cacophony in the kitchen.But, if you close your eyes for just a moment and soak in the flavours of the tea and the deliciousness of the dim sums in your mouth...you might, a wee bit at least, allow yourself to be transported to those traditional Chinese dim sum tea houses. 

By the way Yautcha has the Yum Cha promo of unlimited dim sums (24 varieties) and teas (4 varieties) running the entire month of August. You can eat as many dim sums as you want for Rs.1,100 + taxes or 2,100 + taxes for a couple. This is from 3 pm to 8 pm, Monday to Friday. Yes, you will also get complimentary macaroon for dessert.

Bon appetite!

Yauatcha

Level 5, 1 MG Road Mall,
MG Road,Opp Vivanta by Taj, Bangalore 560 008
For reservations call:
1800 266 1000