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 I'm so excited to report that Cai Xi, out at the C.X. Silver Gallery in West Brattleboro, is now offering dim sum once a month. The e-mail I got said they would serve on second Sundays, 12 - 8 pm, year round except July.
Also from the e-mail: Reservations suggested: (802) 257-7898 ext. 3 and (802) 579-9088.
We are going this Sunday for Mother's Day, and I will report back after we eat. Adam Silver assured me that most of the dishes would be vegetarian.
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If you've ever had dim sum in a big American city (that's the only kind I've ever had), you may have shared a huge table with strangers and had a cart brought around to you full of delights - most of them full of meat, some of them greasy and heavy, and even (as with the famous Phoenix Feet), full of tiny bones. Perhaps you will have topped it off with a sugary, glutinous, and fatty root-vegetable confection.
If that is the experience you associate with dim sum, you will not get it in West Brattleboro. Instead you'll get something much, much nicer.
No crazed bustle, no huge tables full of strangers, nothing greasy - and definitely NO phoenix feet! There was a lot of very tasty, traditional, and perfectly seasoned vegetarian fare, including steamed buns, pan-fried dumplings, sticky rice topped with dried fruit, scallion pancakes, and - my favorite of the day - spicy marinated eggplant that was beautifully flavored and just hot enough for me without burning my face off. There were also some unexpected choices, including a delicious (but Indian, as far as I know) mango lassi.
There were plenty of meat dishes as well, though we did not try them. I hope someone else who went can speak to those. I'm guessing they were of equally high quality.
As for the atmosphere, it was much better than my prior - though admittedly limited - dim sum experiences. The meal is served in the gallery itself, which in this case was hung with some very interesting dynamic line work by Chinese-American artist Le Xi. (see http://www.cxsilvergallery.com/html/Xi-Le-life-on-line01.htm)
I should note that this is a monthly tea-house event, not a full-time restaurant, with service provided by Cai Xi and Adam Silver's daughter and son, who are middle-school age. They did a really great job, but they are obviously not professionals. If you're looking for a high-end server to recite the tea list to you in seven languages, you should look elsewhere. But as far as we were concerned, this was a wonderful, amazingly tasty, and reasonably priced culinary experience for our family, and we will definitely go again in the future. The current menu, BTW, is available at http://www.cxsilvergallery.com/html/Dim-Sum-Teahouse-Brattleboro-VT.htm.
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