Dim sum at Fisherman’s Terrace

Slipping inside Richmond’s Aberdeen Centre in search of Fisherman’s Terrace, I feel like I’ve been transported to Hong Kong (it’s named after the famous Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong). There’s a large Daiso, the $2 Asian bargain shop, and little shops selling bubble tea and Chinese beef jerky and herbal stores selling shriveled up god-knows-what for whatever ails you.

When I walk into Fisherman’s Terrace a minute or two before ten, there’s nobody there. I mean nobody. I wonder if perhaps I’ve got the wrong restaurant. Or if Mijune is just messing with me.

But a couple of minutes later, she shows up wearing an absinthe-colored short dress and matching green stilettos. She’s also brought a couple of other foodie bloggers with her, David Lang and Amy Sherman. I guess I’m not the only one hoping to have chicken feet with Mijune.

Mijune doesn’t mess around. Within minutes of sitting down (and without consulting the rest of us), she’s circled at least ten different items on the dim sum menu: shrimp dumplings (of course), stuffed eggplant with shrimp paste, shrimp spring rolls, turnip cakes, taro root with minced pork, bbq pork pastries, triple mushrooms in rice noodle wrap, pork blood and chives, sticky rice in bamboo leaves, and the steamed chicken feet.

It arrives in a whirlwind of plates. I want to try the chicken feet first but Mijune won’t let me.

“Always start with the shrimp dumplings,” she says, dropping one with her chopsticks on to my plate. “You see how good these are?” she says before I can even taste one. “They don’t stick to the paper in the steamer. And they have lots of crow’s feet on them. Like at least seven. And look how translucent they are—you can see how delicate the dough is.”

“Can I taste one now?” I ask her.

“Of course,” she says, laughing. “But try it with the XO sauce, which is excellent here. In fact, the XO sauce here is so good I sometimes could just eat that.”

And it is an excellent sauce, with lots of dried shrimp and dried scallops floating in it. But the shrimp dumplings are even better.