Ding Qua Qua: Unlimited Dimsum Feast! Bonus: Chocolate Frappes from Tablea Cebu

What's up, foodies?! 🤤

Today's post is quite special as I'll be taking you to two places: One with all dimsum food you can find and the other one is a Café that sells all kinds of chocolate goods - both beverages (hot & cold) and pastries. This may also be a bit of an informative post as I give you names of some delish dimsum dishes! 😉 Are you hungry already? I thought so. Without further ado, let's jump right onto it!

Are you familiar with dimsum? Seeing that you're in this community I guess you are. Is it something you are fond of? For me, I grew up loving dimsum because the Filipino cuisine, especially Cebuano food variety, is heavily influenced by Chinese (dimsum) food! The pancit we usually serve during typical Filipino birthdays is the same thin long noodles we commonly find in any Chinese restaurants. What else? Well we've got lumpia, siomai or shao mai, siopao, steamed rice, dumplings and buchi! In fact, these kinds of food are so embedded in our culture that you can see small food stalls along the streets that sell these - and at very cheap prices, too! As these dimsum food are popular, they have became quite a staple food on our table growing up. I remember that our Mama used to cook pancit or bam-i in Bisaya whenever one of us have a birthday. A few Philippine pesos can go a long way in preparing a large pancit bowl that is good for a big family like ours. Even now that we're grown-ups, our Mama still cooks pancit, but not during birthdays or special occasions anymore, as she has a few bucks every now and then since her children all have jobs now, unlike the olden days when both her and Papa were the ones who strive to bring food on our table. So sorry for this dramatic introduction! It's just that food always have a way of reminding us of our past, I reckon.

Having established what dimsum is according to my understanding and how I love dimsum foods, by now you are aware that this kind of cuisine is a favourite among us Pinoys. In fact, there are lots of Chinese restaurants in the country, especially here in Cebu where there are many Chinese-Filipino businessmen/women. The dimsum food industry has quite a long history. One of the quite popular Chinese restaurants here is Ding Qua Qua which is located in J.Y. Square Mall, Lahug, Cebu City. What may puzzle you is that it has been around since I was a kid and I haven't been to this restaurant until last week! Haha. I know - it also feels weird to say that even to me.

I was glad when my colleague suggested that we have our team lunch-out in Ding Qua Qua. I've been craving dimsum goodness for awhile now and what better way to eat than in an all-you-can-eat dimsum house! Yasss. It was a weekday when we went there so the place was not fullhouse. I was able to go around the entire buffet area. My childhood heart is melting with happiness seeing A LOT of my favourites in one big table. After taking lots of photos as you can see below, I immediately got all I can stuff in my tummy haha. (More info will be in the captions of the photos below)

Once we got so stuffed with YUMMY dimsum treats, we wanted beverages to call it a day haha! Our manager suggested that we go to Tablea so we can grab for ourselves some massively yummy cocoa-based drinks. Yay! Once we got in, of course I took photos of the place (for ze blog) and waited for our drinks to be served. I got the caramel cocoa ice-blended frappe - which tastes bitter-y, sweet and chocolate-y; in short, I liked it!

Welcome to Ding Qua Qua, everyone!

Dimsum = Steamed Cooking: All the love! In the photo is siomai - a very popular streetfood in the Philippines. Although be advised that the ones on the street are not authentic dimsum siomais.

All-time favourite Filipino food: Pancit! Fun fact: This food is present in almost all Pinoy birthdays because as the "old" people say the long noodles signify long life; thus, it's a staple food in birthdays.

Vegetable Dumplings - In general, I love dumplings. So I may be a little biased when I say these are good!

Dumplings and Lumpia~!

Pork Lumpia

For dessert Fruit Salad

Now that's a LOT of sauce!

Crispy Wrapper for the ground pork on the side (though not see on photo)

Ground pork

My fave faveeee: Buchis!

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

For the Steamed Rice: Looks and tastes GOOD!

Chinese-style Chicken Feet

It was my first time to pay a visit to this store - and not the last certainly! I will be back and try other choco frappes they sell. By the way if you're unfamiliar, tablea is made of cocoa beans formed in little circles from the powdered cocoa.

As I was so FULL with the great dimsum stuffed in my tummy, I was not able to finish the choco caramel frappe. The drink tastes good but there's no more space for it anymore - so maybe next time.

‘Til the next post, hivers! Remember that you are loved beyond borders and beyond time & space. Okay? Okay. 💛❤️

Ciao for now! 🤗🥰

This original article is written by Jong, the blogger behind writetowander.com. All photos are hers, too.

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