More and more people ask me where to eat dim sum in Las Vegas. The phrase is literally “touch the heart” in Cantonese, the dialect of Canton Province in China where the style of eating originated.

But the Cantonese rarely utter the phrase. They say “yum cha”, which means drinking tea, when they go out for this food. Dim sum are sweet or savory pastries, cooked meats, vegetable dishes, or any other small plates that go with tea, and the dishes are supposed to be eaten quite  slowly, the better to socialize over them.

Of course, we Westerners go to dim sum parlors, fill the table with dishes, wolf them down, pay the check, and go on about our business. That’s anathema to the ritual. In fact, in Cantonese, maan-maan sik, or “eat slowly”, if literally translated, is their way to say “enjoy”.

My friend Val was in town from Orange County last weekend, and he was hungry for dim sum. There are various places to eat dim sum here in Vegas, such as Cathay House, Wong’s and Orchard Garden, but I like Ping Pang Pong at the Gold Coast best.

There are few kwei-lo in here on weekends, and almost always a wait for tables. This is a roomy, casino floor space decorated with Chinese red and gold banners. The restaurant is semi-circular, and most tables face slot machines on the casino floor.

Servers hawk their wares from rolling carts they push through the dining room, just as they do in Hong Kong or Canton. If you are a kwei-lo, they’ll try to push the more boring dim sum at you, ha gow, or shrimp dumplings, the deep fried egg rolls called chun gyn, and spare ribs with a sugary glaze. Don’t even bother. You can get stuff like this at Panda Express.

Tea is important to me, and I fancy bo lei (Cantonese), known as pu erh in Mandarin, and probably understood if you just call it red tea with the servers. If you don’t ask for this, you’ll get jasmine, which I cannot stomach unless it is of the highest quality. It isn’t, here.

Val balked, at first, when I ordered lo mai gai, a rice dumpling wrapped in a lotus leaf, but the taste grew on him, and by the time he finished it he declared true love. The rice is filled with Chinese sausage, chicken, and perhaps a little cooked egg. You remove the leaf, and dig in.

Sometimes there is Chiu Chow fun gor, a thin wrapper of rice flour with a minced pork, peanut, water chestnut and cilantro fillings. If you want to incur the wrath of Rick Moonen, ask for shark’s fin dumpling, or gyn tong gao, “half soup dumpling”, in Cantonese. Pierce the top layer of skin; a rich soup awaits underneath.

Val also became a convert to foong jao, or “Phoenix claw.” That’s just a braised chicken’s foot to you, buster, and if the idea of sucking skin from bone, the fragrance of star anise wafting through your nostrils as you do, makes you blanch, you won’t have to turn in your Chinese dive membership card.

Other dishes are good here as well, not only the dim sum. I almost always eat Night Market Fried Rice when I come here, a huge platter of spicy rice mixed with beef, onions, tomatoes and hot chilies. I’d bet the dish will make you rethink the chicken fried rice you take from the supermarket Panda Express.

There are also wonderful soups, like hot and sour, the very Chinese Westlake beef soup, and varying specials.

Ping Pang Pong is owned by Karrie and Kevin Wu, who own the very good Noodle Asia across the hall. The staff, mostly Chinese speaking, will guide you through the experience. This is the only dim sum parlor in Vegas that stands up to ones in L.A. or San Francisco.

Val was so happy, he insisted on treating.

In the Gold Coast, 4000 W. Flamingo Rd. 702-367-7111.

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