Poached homemade spinach noodles
Yum cha—a meal of dim sum and hot tea—should be unforgettable. It should charge the atmosphere, like it did at the City of Dreams Crystal Dragon’s The Art of Dim Sum lunch last June 25.
Jasmine tea and the dim sum reposing on stylish crockery were plentiful, and the hesitation among the guests to dig in palpable. The pauses were many, like at dessert (the fifth course). Truthfully, it felt sacrilegious to even think of eating the beautifully made snow skin moon cake or crispy avocado kataifi roll.
Chef She Chong Ngooi has been making dim sum since he was 16.
Chef She Chong Ngooi with the Crystal Dragon team
One supposes, going by stereotype, that a dim sum chef is some dainty person pleating dumplings with delicate hands. But Chef She Chong Ngooi, Crystal Dragon’s new chef de cuisine for dim sum, is stocky—and looks like he’d rather be in the kitchen than anywhere else.
This mid-July, Chef Chong takes dim sum lovers on The Art of Dim Sum culinary journey with his new menu (baked, pan-fried, savory, steamed, and sweet) that reveals his attention to taste, flavor combinations (he uses local ingredients), and innovative techniques.
Chong’s physique belies a gentle aesthetic sensibility that’s expressed and seen through his handmade dim sum, to capture the hearts of his diners. (Literally, dim sum, a Cantonese word, translates as “touch the heart,” meaning dumplings must be enjoyed.)
The Malaysian-born Chong began perfecting his art when he apprenticed in traditional dim sum houses, and later joined establishments such as Tim Ho Wan in Singapore in 2013 as chef de partie, Paradise Dynasty Group Malaysia in 2018 as first-person-in-charge for dim sum, and Weil Hotel in Malaysia as dim sum sous chef in 2020. From 2022 to 2024, he was the dim sum head chef of Dim Sum Haus on Jalan Besar in Singapore. He joined Crystal Dragon in February 2025.
Fifth course to be eaten from left to right: crispy fairy swan puff, cranberry red wine snow skin moon cake, kataifi’s avocado lava filling, mango pudding
Shy as Chong is, Max Chua Yong lin, City of Dreams Manila chef de cuisine for Chinese production, took over explaining the dishes arriving at the table and advising us on how to enjoy them. The fifth course, Chua said, had to be eaten from left-to -ight order of the plate. And so, we halved the crispy fairy swan puff, mixing the warm red bean paste filling with the mango lava for that sweet, tangy flavor. Next, we ate the cranberry red wine snow skin moon cake, savored the kataifi’s luscious avocado lava filling, and finished the jiggly mango pudding shaped into a guardian lion.
We halved the crispy fairy swan puff, mixing the warm red bean paste filling with the mango lava for that sweet, tangy flavor
Chong’s five-course culinary experience started with an amuse bouche that was striking for two reasons. First, the “cement” plate with a glass dome cover. Our affable waiter Kong said it was made from salt, and that Crystal Dragon molds salt into any shape of crockery and paints it any color they want. It was Kong who kept our tea cups brimming with Jasmine tea (the other choices were pu’er and oolong), with courses arriving on time.
Jade pear puff
Second, the jade puff pear lying on a bed of shredded potatoes was actually garoupa with prawn, which was crunchy to the last bite. And oh, the flower decor was edible chocolate, but not the potatoes.
Chong places great importance on plating and presentation to make each dim sum pleasing to eye and palate. Take the fifth course: The kataifi roll was cradled by a glazed ceramic hand standing on a thick ceramic plate resembling a rolled scroll.
He explained: “A well-made dim sum is seen in]the dim sum wrapper’s handiwork, such as number of pleats and the meticulous attention to the dish’s other elements. A well-executed shrimp dumpling, for example, is defined by its crisp, clear, and translucent wrapper…The shrimp should be succulent and sweet; the sauce should enhance rather than mask the taste.”
Steamed basket
Chong put a spin on the commonplace presentation of dumplings in a bamboo steamer basket by personalizing it. He put in four dim sum variants for the first course called Steamed Basket. Dipped in condiment or not, the dumplings’ flavors bunny-hopped on the palate. About the condiments: The quartet can be pickled shredded potatoes, XO sauce, pickled chili with soy sauce (Chong’s version of toyomansi), and fermented bean curd, or the first three sauces and marinated seaweed.
Chua told us to eat in a clockwise manner, starting with the tender yet crunchy goldfish dumpling of shrimp, diced pumpkin, and water chestnut followed by the flavorful, succulent mix of crab and scallop of the Imperial crabmeat crystal dumpling. The Chilean codfish with fresh lemon peel was refreshing, and the steamed beancurd bag dumpling of preserved turnip and chicken was juicy.
The preserved turnip, as it turned out, is a staple ingredient in Chinese cuisine that blends well with chicken, said Chua, who also let it be known that Chong uses onky natural vegetable extracts for food coloring. He used carrot for the goldfish’s orange color pattern, spinach for the Chilean codfish’s green wrapper, and Chinese wolf berry for the crabmeat dumpling’s orange wrapper.
Dragon King soup
Inspired, Chong surprised everyone with Dragon King Dumpling Soup for the second course. (The catch: It’s not on the July menu. But it can be requested in advance.) Chua said Chong wanted us to taste the richness of dried Chinese seafood, and the soup was pure seafood, fresh and dried. Sitting in the middle of the soup plate, flanked by dried scallops, was a huge dumpling of Chilean sea bass, Chinese abalone, and sea cucumber. The side of the plate was brush-stroked with chocolate (only for aesthetics).
The Chef’s Selection, the third course, ushered in more seafood—a trio of dumplings served on a spiraled white plate angled at 75 degrees. Kong said the spirals guide the diner’s gaze to the center where the food is. Looking at the spirals, we mused on how it’s washed.
The dumpling trio originally consists of roasted duck meat puff with hoisin sauce, shrimp and duo egg roll, and steamed bun with pan-seared wagyu beef. (I am not a beef eater, so my wagyu bun was replaced with a wild mushroom and edamame crystal dumpling.)
Sitting in the middle of the soup plate, flanked by dried scallops, was a huge dumpling of Chilean sea bass, Chinese abalone, and sea cucumber
As always, eating was from left to right: The sliced home-roasted duck was crunchy and warm to the last bite, like the roll of shrimp, century egg, and salted egg yolk. Everyone was in agreement about the small wagyu bun packing a strong peppery punch that contrasted with the mildness of the wild mushroom and edamame dumpling.
The unpredictability of an inspired dim sum chef was most welcomed, especially because he’s been making dim sum since his youth. Chong tucks 17 years of dim sum-making experience under his belt, bolstered by his continued creative experimentations. He first made dim sum in his family’s halal dim sum restaurant and, at 16, sharpened his skills under a Hong Kong dim sum master chef.
For the fourth course, Chong brought out his second surprise—poached homemade spinach noodle in aromatic Szechuan seafood broth. Generally, noodles aren’t part of the dim sum menu, Chua pointed out, but the June 25 lunch was an exception. Chong made the noodles from scratch and wanted everyone to taste freshly made noodles.
The green noodles were served on an irregularly shaped “embossed” plate, but they were hidden under two Chinese-cabbage leaves encircling the tiger prawn stuffed with prawn mousse. A small milk pot of Szechuan broth stood next to it. To enjoy the noodles, Chua said, the spicy broth must be poured over them (a few drops or a flood of broth determines the spicy level). A drizzle was enough punch for me, unlike the others who emptied the pot, having a greater threshold for spiciness.
Chong’s yum cha was a seamless culinary journey. Obviously, the setting was vastly different from the roadside tea houses of Guangdong Province’s trade routes during the 19th century, where travelers et al. were served hot tea and small, “touch-the-heart” snacks. Chong’s tea house was a well-appointed room at Crystal Dragon, which exuded the vibrancy and conviviality characterizing the yum cha experience of today.
The lighthearted ambience stayed from the first course to the last, punctuated by free-flowing conversations on topics ranging from traffic, travel, Israel’s wars, drag racing, the lechon festival, the carved crystal dragons table ornament, to Chong’s choice of plates and how to wash them. (His crockery is unique but should be incredibly difficult to clean, particularly the plate with the 75-degree angle. Someone said it looked like a cover against cheaters at exams. Another said it served as a shield against one dipping into the condiments.)
Chong came out of the kitchen, signaling the end of yum cha. I thought: His smile reaches his eyes. Is he touched by our applause? Or did he realize that we were leaving Crystal Dragon with lighter hearts? Manila, humidity and all, becomes better after plates of exquisite dim sum and cups of premium tea.
Crystal Dragon’s new dim sum menu is available for lunch until 5 pm starting July 15. The restaurant opens at 12 noon and is located on the upper ground floor of Nüwa, Tower 1 at City of Dreams, Manila. For inquiries and reservations, call tel. nos. (0917) 550-2587 or 8691-7782, e-mail: CrystalDragon@cod-manila.com, or visit www.cityofdreamsmanila.com.
