Dim sum thrives ‘in the country’

I grew up in Waipahu, which has always been home to several chop suey houses, but even as a child I knew that for the best stuff you had to go to Chinatown, especially for dim sum, which just didn’t exist “in the country,” as townies always teased.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I wandered into Waipahu Plantation Marketplace, in the former Arakawa’s building at 94-333 Waipahu Depot Road, and found the Dim Sum House stall (not related to the Bishop Street dim-sum specialist, but an offshoot of Ocean Dim Sum).

It was odd to wander through the mostly vacant space and feel all the same slopes and inclines in the floors that I walked hundreds of times as a child. The ambience is hardly that of the bustling market it once was. Arakawa’s is where I had my first experience of globalism, awed by the wares — from toys to home decor — imported from Japan.

Dim Sum House brings globalism you can taste, with Hong Kong-style favorites. Shrimp look fun rolls (cheung fun) and char siu look fun rolls ($5 each) were meaty, although the thickness of the rice-flour noodle rolls left something to be desired. But steamed pork hash (four for $3.75 or five for $4.50), chive and shrimp dumplings ($4.25) and lotus leaf-wrapped mochi rice ($4.25) hit the right notes.

I don’t usually order manapua because of its bready blandness and scant fillings, but the char siu bao offered here (three for $3.75) is perfection, a hybrid a little larger than what you’d find in Hong Kong, but far less bready than local versions, and packed with char siu.

OK, so my lame townie friends were kind of afraid to be in Waipahu. If that sounds like you, Ocean Dim Sum is opening another food stall in the Ohana Hale Marketplace on Ward Avenue (the old Sports Authority). Tentative opening date is Dec. 1.