Even with eight days, plenty of time to experiment, I wasn’t planning on eating any Chinese food in Bangkok. Luckily for Mei Jiang, I’m a sucker for Gourmet recommendations. The magazine twice listed the restaurant as the top Chinese restaurant in a city of six million people. That was enough to get me to take a taxi across the Chao Praya River into Thonburi.

Mei Jiang is the ground floor restaurant in the swank Peninsula Hotel. Other restaurants exist on higher levels. Inside was a plush dining room that I more or less had to myself, since I got to the restaurant right as it opened at 11:30 AM.

From my chair, I had river views of a wedding party on the hotel’s lawn and water taxis passing by on the river.

Almost the moment I sat down, a waitress brought me two dipping sauces: chili and soy spiked with green and red chilies.

A complimentary plate of “sweet walnuts,” pan fried in sesame batter, was delicious. I took my time, ordered a smooth “Fuding super white peony” tea (120 Baht, $3 U.S.), served the traditional way, with the tea leaves in the cup.

I ate an unheard of dim sum amuse bouche, a lightly-fried seafood ball (fish and scallop) coated with sesame. Delicious.

I finally got around to ordering. There were no carts, just a 21 item menu. I ordered five dishes, three pieces to an order, a pretty good showing for a solo diner.

I began with “steamed snow fish dumplings” (80 Baht), which were incredible: silky, translucent wrappers holding chunks of snow fish, shrimp and chives, topped with shrimp roe.

“Garlic and shrimp spring rolls” (70 Baht) were crispy outside, but with some give, filled with huge chunks of prawn and finely chopped garlic. It came with a plum dipping sauce, which held strands of candied plum.

“Crispy taro and duck dumplings” (65 Baht) were great, shattering crisp balls with whispy fried flour tops, filled with a layer of sweet taro paste and a core of juicy ground duck.

Pan-fried crab meat dumplings (115 Baht) were silky, browned in the pan, with thin flour wrappings, filled with 95% crabmeat and just enough cabbage to bind it. They came with a red vinegar dipping sauce with strands of ginger.

I closed out the meal with one “chicken and fish maw rice noodle roll” (129 Baht), which was very good. Shredded white meat chicken and fish maw came in a velvety rice noodle wrapper, topped with ginger, served in a light brown gravy.

The quality and flavor of Mei Jiang’s dim sum blew away any I’ve eaten in the United States dim sum capitals: San Francisco and Los Angeles.

I can’t wait to try Thai food in China.