Dim Mood? Dim Sum!

"here it is: this must be the spring to come, outside the vexing world: lotus blossoms opening?" -jakuren, from zen poems

leave behind the chill, vexing world and step into china fun, where lotus leaves open to expose clumps of sticky rice, doused in soy sauce, enfolding succulent strips of roast pork ($4.50).

this festive restaurant, decorated with bright red firecrackers for the chinese lunar new year, is the only upper west side chinese restaurant offering dim sum treats every day, and an expanded dim sum brunch on weekends. both my shanghai lotus concoction and a simple roast pork bun ($2.50), stark white steamed bread surrounding a ball of sweet tasting pork, are peasant fare, simple and sustaining.

yet i recommend moving 95 cents above my $6 snack limit and ordering six "mini soup buns," making sure to plop each on a spoonful of black vinegar sauce. wow, i don't even have to trek below canal street for these soup dumplings that seem to defy physics. how do you get soup inside the thin dumpling wrap? i tried my theory on owner albert wu. "it's ice, right?" "close. gelatin." however they do it, nibbling a corner of the plump "bao" to slurp the delicate broth is surely enough to keep "the vexing world" at bay. -- china fun 246 columbus ave. (betw. 71st and 72nd streets) 212-580-1516

got a snack attack to share? contact nbrand@aol.com