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| Chinese Dim Sum |
By:
Jamie Hanson |
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Chinese Dim Sum is a popular Chinese dish, but do you know what it is? The word "dim sum" is derived from Cantonese language which literally means "dot the heart". It is a meal usually eaten during breakfast, brunch or tea consists of a combination of a range of Chinese appetizers and snacks in small servings served in small steamer baskets or plates. Dim sum can be deep fried, steamed or baked.
The classic dim sum meal normally include various buns such as the cha siu bao (BBQ Pork Buns) or lotus bean paste buns, dumplings and rice noodle rolls or cheong fun. These dumplings and noodle rolls are stuffed with beef, prawns, pork and chicken. Two very popular dim sum dumplings are har gaw and siu mai. However, if you are vegetarian, you can get it with vegetarian stuffing too. Besides these, you can also find other dishes like lotus-leaf wrapped sticky rice, congee porridge, pork ribs or chicken feet in black bean sauce, steamed green vegetables, roasted meat, chow mein, soups and egg tarts.
Dim sum dining, also known as "yam cha", basically means "drinking tea". This is due to the fact that tea usually accompanies dim sum dishes. A couple of the most common teas that are served in a dim sum restaurant are oolong also called wu lung, Chrysanthemum, and green tea. One more tea that you may find which is commonly recognized to help digestion is bolay, which is a type of strong tea.
It is a Chinese custom to pour tea for other people before pouring your own cup of tea. The recipient may say thank you to the person who pours the tea by tapping his/her index finger several times next to the cup if you are a single or using both the index and middle fingers if you're married. The tapping technique symbolizes bowing to them with thanks. This is done to save time in lively or loud dim sum houses as the person might be conversing or eating when the host is serving their tea. Another gesture used in a dim sum restaurant, which is used to get the waiter's attention, is to leave the lid off of the pot.
It is a custom to get dim sum family style as they are served in a small portion of two or four pieces in one plate. The ordering of family style dim sum allows all members in the table the chance to get a variety of different food to sample. You may order several baskets for each kind of dish if one plate is not enough to go around.
In a dim sum house, you can either order off a menu or in some places, dim sum is served by someone going around the restaurant using a trolley cart. The price of dim sum dishes may vary. There are restaurants that calculate the total by the number and size or even at times by the color of the dishes that are left on the eaters table. There are also those that record the dishes served on a bill at the table. This is a neater method and prevents patrons from hiding or stealing the plates in an attempt to cheat. In some of these places, servers will use a unique stamp to make sure the numbers of sales made through him/her are recorded correctly.
The varieties of dim sum are endless. Some of my favorites are mango pudding, deep fried taro cake, steamed scallop dumpling, fried beancurd rolls with shrimps and stuffed eggplant. Make sure you try them!
For a large selection of Chinese recipes and Chinese dim sum recipes, visit ChineseFood-Recipes.com. |
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