I love dimsum. But there aren’t many chuva-approved dimsum restaurants in Manila. That’s why I am so happy that Tim Ho Wan opened just around the corner at SM Megamall.
Since it opened last May 2014, I have been there no less than 15 times. I’m not scared of the line. I have lined up for one hour, and I have lined up for five minutes. The trick is to go during off-peak times like mid-afternoon.
Tim Ho Wan is known for its baked pork buns, but it’s not my favourite. I prefer conventional pork asado pao.
So I usually go for the pork siomai and the shrimp dumplings.
But after the tenth time I got tired of it.
That’s when I found my current favourite—the fried shrimp puffs with wasabi dressing. Unfortunately I don’t like wasabi, so I tell them to skip that.
These are really good when piping hot and crunchy.
The downside of eating at Tim Ho Wan is they will refuse to serve you plain rice if you’re not a kid. So for the last 15 times I would do something I don’t normally do—I would drop the name of the owner and I hate doing that.
Finally last week I saw the owner at his other restaurant, Todd English at SM Aura. I asked him if he could give me a calling card with instructions to give me plain rice.
It worked like a charm! Not only that, I would get extra smiles from the servers.
The card has a special place in my wallet. I am actually thinking of laminating it.
When I showed the card to my friends they were kind of impressed, until Dinna Vasquez said, “You should get a card that says ‘Please don’t make her line up.'”
She has a point there. But then, I have some shame, hehe. Thank you Eric Dee 
