"Hong Kong Dim Sum Magician" – 8 Skillful Creations Combining Local Taiwanese Flavors

Text and photos by /Wisely

Wisely is a big fan of Cantonese dim sum and yum cha, but it’s not easy to enjoy truly authentic flavors in Taiwan. Sometimes he feels like just hopping on a plane for a 3-day, 2-night trip to Hong Kong to indulge to his heart’s content. But now, the Cantonese restaurant at Taipei’s Ambassador Hotel has hired the executive chef specializing in Hong Kong dim sum from the Hong Kong Jockey Club. They’ve launched eight dishes made with local ingredients that still capture the essence of Hong Kong cuisine. This allows him to savor the skillful craftsmanship of years of experience without traveling far—right here in Taiwan.

Over the past year, Wisely has had a deep connection with Ambassador Hotel, trying their Sichuan cuisine Peking duck, aged steak, buffet spreads, and Western pastries, among others. Their Cantonese restaurant is also quite renowned, so being able to taste authentic Hong Kong dim sum this time is truly delightful.

The dining environment is very comfortable, and Chef Chung Kuei-chao, who is in charge of the cuisine, was formerly the executive chef for Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Hong Kong dim sum. With 40 years of culinary experience and the ability to make up to 800 different types of Hong Kong-style dim sum, he is also known as the “Hong Kong Dim Sum Magician”!

The dishes sampled this time combine the flavors of Hong Kong dim sum with Taiwanese ingredients. Each dim sum is not only visually striking but also evokes a familiar and nostalgic taste. The newly launched eight original exclusive dim sum pieces are priced at an average of around NT$180, which is mid-to-high range but absolutely worth it.

The ‘Lychee Taro Swan Pastry’ is made by steaming peeled Dadiao taro and wrapping it with fillings that include shrimp, pork, and roast goose. It looks fluffy and delicious, with a perfect blend of taro aroma and meaty flavors, and the swan shape is also very beautiful.

The highly recommended ‘Vegetable Golden Ham Pastry’ incorporates leek juice into the flour to create a flaky, layered texture. The fillings, including Jinhua ham and scallions, make it different from ordinary pastries, offering a more unique flavor.

The ‘Cheese Chrysanthemum Spring Roll’ is truly eye-catching and surprising. It wraps cheese, minced garlic, and shrimp meat inside, then shapes the spring roll wrapper into a flower form. You can enjoy a rich, aromatic combination with a surprisingly varied taste.

Unlike regular crystal dumplings, this ‘Champagne Mushroom Ruyi Pomegranate Dumpling’ is more premium, adding morels, matsutake, shiitake, truffle, and wild mushrooms. The translucent and chewy dumpling skin encapsulates the essence of all the ingredients. Beyond the umami, there’s also a fragrant vegetable aroma.

The ‘Asparagus Fish Shrimp Crab Dumpling’ mixes shrimp, codfish, and crab leg meat in a 3:1:1 ratio, then adds asparagus, carrots, and crispy water chestnuts. The semi-transparent, chewy dumpling skin captures the essence of all the fillings, offering not just umami but also the fragrance of vegetables.

The fun and adorable ‘Wasabi Scallion Cuttlefish Dumpling’ takes the shape of a cute cuttlefish, complete with playful tentacles. With wasabi sauce forming its “expression,” it includes pork hind leg meat, scallions, celery, and water chestnuts, delivering a bouncy, delicious taste.

The colorful ‘Rainbow Purple Rice Lava Ball’ has the feel of a French dessert. It uses glutinous rice flour and purple rice to create a skin with a texture similar to sesame balls, then adds a salted egg yolk filling and rolls it in colorful rice pearls. Its taste is like a chewy, fragrant salted egg yolk sesame ball, but with even more upgraded and rich flavors.

The final dish changes your impression of bitter melon—it’s a combination of two jellies made from apple bitter melon and green bitter melon. Both are peeled, juiced, and infused with different ingredients. The white apple bitter melon has a milky aroma, while the green bitter melon has a honey flavor. Whether enjoyed separately or together, they both offer a sweet, comforting aftertaste.

A special recommendation, though not a dim sum, is the ‘Abalone Thick Soup Braised Chicken,’ which won the overall championship among 1,081 New Year’s dishes across four major sales channels: convenience stores, supermarkets, online shopping, and hotels. It’s truly unforgettable from the first sip.

It’s made by blanching processed dried scallops (abalone) and chicken thigh meat, then simmering them with broth and chicken congee to create a gelatinous soup base. It’s seasoned with bamboo fungus and Shaoxing wine, resulting in a rich and flavorful taste that complements the dim sum dishes perfectly. This is also a best-selling New Year’s dish at Ambassador Hotel—even Wisely can’t help but want to order it for his family to enjoy together. ^^

Taipei Ambassador Hotel
FB Official Website
Address: No. 63, Section 2, Zhongshan N. Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City
Phone: 02-2551-1111 #2370
Hours: 11:30–14:00, 17:30–21:00

Wisely
A Pisces man who records food, travel, and life,
who enjoys writing down the little moments in everyday life.
Always yearning for the rich and colorful stories of others,
he also earnestly documents his own life experiences in his blog,
so that the footprints of life he has experienced and explored are not confined to memory alone.
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