Also this issue:

Senegal Calling
Another fine addition to West Philly’s array of international cuisine.
-Elisa Ludwig

February 13-19, 2003

food

Ringing in 4701

by Elisa Ludwig

I visited Sunrise Restaurant on the eighth day of the Chinese New Year (4701), the day you are supposed to have a family reunion dinner. My loose interpretation -- I am not Chinese after all, just a cultural tourist -- was a dim sum brunch with friends in South Philadelphia. Sunrise, which doubles as a wedding facility, is parked in a Washington Avenue shopping plaza, and offers traditional dinner and lunch menus in addition to weekend Cantonese dim sum in its enormous, karaoke-equipped banquet hall.

We started modestly, with steamed clams topped with black bean sauce, and a few change-purse-sized pork-filled dumplings. Soon, though, the blindingly shiny steel carts and affable wait staff had us in a bring-on-the-dim-sum fervor. Before we knew it, we had committed appetite suicide by ordering too many deep-fried items too early. Fried "dumplings" -- more like sweet buns stuffed with pork -- and thickly wrapped spring rolls filled with ginger-enhanced pork, shrimp and water chestnuts went straight to the gullet. We were full already.

The strategy then became to sip tea and wait it out, choosing our snacks more judiciously. Dumplings, in all manner of shapes and fillings, were among the most pleasing items. We particularly enjoyed the spinach-flavored variety filled with chives and the delicately knit shumai bundles of scallop and shrimp.

Our third, fourth and fifth go-'rounds brought the most interesting treats. Dense slices of creamy taro cake, richly flavored with dried scallops and mushrooms and fried until golden, is a New Year's delicacy. A steaming bowlful of congee (jook), or rice porridge, was threaded with sliced chives and nuggets of roast pork. What looked at first to be giant mushrooms were steamed shrimp and pork balls topped with mushroom caps. Lotus leaf wraps (lo mai gai) are the Cantonese equivalent of tamales, little packages of rice, chicken and Chinese sausage, sweetened with rice wine. Then there was the generous portion of broccoli greens in oyster sauce, at that moment a welcome vision of vegetable.

Sweet sesame balls, crisp fritters stuffed with lotus bean paste, were the only dessert we sampled (as part of our early deep-fried gaffe). These, too, are New Year's specialties, though available any day of the week at a Chinese bakery.

A few more cups of tea and our little New Year's celebration came to a close. The dumplings had settled and it was time to go back to 2003, though 4701 is looking better all the time.

Sunrise Restaurant612 Washington Ave., 215-271-8838

Dim sum: $1.50- $5 per item

Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.- midnight; Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.-midnight

Wheelchair accessible. Smoking section available. Reservations. All major credit cards.