So, I had this bright idea a while back, I called it my “get sum dim sum” project. Sounds fun, right? Like, just go out, eat some good food. Oh boy, was I wrong. It turned into a whole thing, lemme tell ya.
The Grand Plan Hatches
It all kicked off when I, in a moment of sheer madness, told my friends I’d organize a big dim sum get-together. You know, relive the old days. Big mistake. Huge. Getting a bunch of grown adults to agree on anything is a nightmare, let alone food.
First, picking a restaurant. That took about a week of back-and-forth texts. One wanted authentic, another wanted cheap, someone else only cared about parking. I was already tired, and we hadn’t even looked at a menu.
Actually Getting the Dim Sum (Sort Of)
Then, D-Day. Or should I say, Dim Sum Day. Getting everyone there was like herding cats. A couple were late, as usual. One almost went to the wrong place. Classic.
When we finally sat down, the ordering began. Or rather, the chaos. Everyone shouting out what they wanted.
- “I need Har Gow!”
- “Get two orders of Siu Mai!”
- “Who wants custard buns? Anyone? No?”
- “Just get a bunch of everything!” – yeah, real helpful, Dave.
The little order card looked like a battlefield. I just started ticking boxes, hoping for the best. Food started arriving, and it was pretty good, I gotta admit. For a while, there was peace. Just a lot of chewing and happy noises. That was the “get dim sum” part. Pretty successful, I thought.
Then Came the “Sum” Part
Ah, the calm before the storm. The storm being: the bill. And my friend, Sarah, chirping up, “Okay, let’s figure out who owes what!” This, my friends, was where my “get sum dim sum” practice truly began. And it wasn’t about the food anymore.
I pulled out my phone, thinking I’d be smart. I’d jotted down some notes during the ordering frenzy. Or so I thought. My notes were a mess. Who had three spring rolls versus two? Did Tom share the turnip cake, or was that all Mike?
It was like trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing and the other half covered in chili oil.
- People started saying, “Oh, I only had a little bit of that.”
- “I definitely didn’t touch the chicken feet!”
- “Can we just split it evenly?” (Always one of those, and always the one who ordered the most expensive stuff).
I tried, folks. I really did. I opened my calculator app. I tried to mentally assign items. My brain was melting. The restaurant was noisy. My friends were getting impatient. It was a disaster. All that happy dim sum energy just evaporated.
What I Figured Out
Eventually, we just kinda rounded things up. Some folks paid a bit more, some a bit less. There were a few grumbles. I think I ended up covering an extra ten bucks just to make it all go away. So much for my brilliant “get sum dim sum” idea.
What did I learn from this practice? Well, for one, dim sum is best enjoyed with fewer people, or with people who are cool with just splitting the bill equally, no questions asked. Or maybe I just suck at math under pressure.
More than that, it kinda showed me how something so simple – eating food – can get super complicated once you throw a bunch of different expectations and unclear records into the mix. It’s like those group projects back in school, you know? Or trying to get any big company department to agree on something. Everyone’s got their own little angle, and suddenly, “getting sum” of anything becomes a massive headache.
Next time? I’m just ordering for myself. Or maybe I’ll just stick to pizza. At least with pizza, you can count the slices.