Enjoying dim sum

[abcdefg]

Dim sum 点心 is one of the glories of the South China Cantonese food world 粤菜。It is the fine art of leisurely early-day munching on an assortment bite-sized delicacies served in bamboo steamer baskets or on small plates. This kind of feast sometimes goes by the name of yum cha 饮茶 because these small tasty morsels are typically washed down by endless small cups of hot tea.

 

I was fortunate enough to have had several memorable dim sum brunches last week during a trip to Macau and Hong Kong. Let me give you a look at how it works in the hope that this will help induce you give it a try, or if you are already an aficionado, to go back for another dim sum adventure real soon.

 

Three days in a row I just walked across the street from my Macau Hotel (十六浦酒店) to an unpretentious dim sum joint that's always busy and popular with locals. Their name sign boasts 御龙海鲜火锅 but their operating hours are only from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. so nobody really goes there for that. Instead 茶市点心 is clearly their principal draw. You always have to wait a few minutes for the busy waitresses to clear you a spot at one of their long communal tables, each of which seats 6 to 8 people. (Upstairs the tables are round.)

 

Reminder: You can click the photos to enlarge them.

 

    

 

 

She brings you a pencil and a check-box menu. You order your big pot of tea (mine was Tieguanyin 铁观音) and study the options, taking time out to do the ritual washing of your eating utensils. It's something I thought a bit strange initially, but by now I wash my own dishes right along with the meticulous elderly grannies. You use the scalding hot tea water from your big pot, emptying the waste into a bowl provided temporarily for that purpose.

 

    

 

 

 

In a few minutes the waitress returns with a receipt to show that your items have been entered into their ordering system. Sometimes these dim sum menus can be really forbidding, providing only the names of the dishes in Traditional Hanzi, with no pictures or descriptions and of course no English. I always try to grab an extra menu to study back in my room in preparation for the next visit.

 

Dim Sum works best if you go with several family members or friends so you can order lots of different items and taste each other's selections. This time I was alone, so I just planned on having some leftovers. Not ideal, but still workable. The dishes arrive in no fixed order. As they are delivered, the waitress scratches them off your receipt with her thumbnail.

 

    

 

 

I always struggle with whether to order my favorites, or to try out new options that might not be as much to my liking. Shrimp dumplings 虾饺, made with fresh shrimp, is one of those things I find irresistible.  I'm also a sucker for well made Cantonese turnip cake 萝卜糕, shown just below the shrimp. This time I accompanied those two with an order of plain cooked caixin 白灼菜心。It's the small tender heart of a member of the cabbage family, immensely popular in the south. I had some of these left over for a late-night snack in my room, heated together with a container of instant noodles.

 

Lingered at table about an hour, enjoying many cups of tea and even some conversation with two neighbors. Set me back under 100 MOP. This unit of currency is the Macanese Pataca, roughly equivalent to the HKD (Hong Kong Dollar.) Time and money well spent.

 

Returned the next morning, intent on variety. Had rolled out early, hit the gym, gone for a swim, and worked up a good appetite. Decided on shao mai 烧卖 as my most expensive item. These are made with dumpling wrappers squeezed around a filling of lean pork and shrimp combined, leaving the top open, sprinkled with crab roe. (Many recipes exist, using other ingredients.)

 

 

 

Accompanied the shao mai with griddle cakes made with whole kernels of sweet corn 香煎玉米饼 and some plain-cooked Cantonese lettuce 白灼生菜。

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The menu designates items as belonging to one of several price categories. For example, today's shao mai and the shrimp dumplings that I had yesterday are both in the 特 category, costing 28 MOP. 大点 dishes, such as the luobo gao, sell for 22 MOP,  and so on down to 中点 and 小点 items. Pot of basic tea costs 8 MOP, including endless refills of hot water. Some places offer gong fu tea 功夫茶 made in small pots, but not here. Today's expedition once again did not break the bank, coming out well under 100 MOP.

 

If I'm with others, which I prefer, we always order a bowl of porridge 粥。It is offered in many varieties and goes very well with all of these other dishes. My personal favorites are the fish slice porridge 鱼片粥 and the century egg porridge 皮蛋瘦肉粥。These bowls are just right for 2 or 3 people. Sometimes, in a group, we will add a plate of fried noodles 炒面 or fried rice 炒饭。Sometimes a plate of sliced roast pork 叉烧 or goose 烤鹅。Cantonese roast pork, in particular, is a recommended specialty item, slow cooked and glazed with honey.

 

Here was day three. No fear of monotony. One could come here lots of times without it becoming boring. On weekends, one usually sees extended family groups from grandparents to toddlers, making a real project out of it. Cousins and nieces coming to join the big round table as others are leaving, maybe one withdrawn uncle reading the newspaper, an auntie with her knitting, empty bamboo steamer baskets piled high. Merry conversation is the order of the day. They also love to praise and show off the babes in arms.

 

How can a restaurant handle the logistics of putting a large variety of food on all these tables, given such close quarters? They don't use magic, but they utilize available space extremely well. Food is prepared in a remote kitchen upstairs and then sent to the waitresses by means of a "dumb waiter" on the guest levels. One cashier handles all the checks, guarded by a red-faced, bearded kitchen god and and equally iconic "Hello Kitty." (Could he be 关羽, General of Shu and blood brother of Liu Bei 刘备?)

 

 

 

Here's what I enjoyed this time around. More Cantonese specialties. No trip is complete without at least one batch of 肠粉，which are a type soft steamed rice noodle rolls, built with an interesting stuffing. Mine were 韭王鲜虾 fragrant garlic chives and fresh shrimp, served with a brown sauce. Nicely balanced, while still following the 清淡 (bland, non-spicy) dictates of Cantonese cooking. Lots of these dishes probably would not sell well in Kunming, where seasoning is more "forward."

 

 

 

Had them with an order of plain-cooked 芥菜，usually translated as "leaf mustard." I like that it has a slightly bitter note, even though it's not very aggressive，does not entirely take over the mouth.

 

    

 

 

These steamed dumplings are something I saw my neighbors eating the day before. So darned pretty I had to try them. Made with translucent rice skins and stuffed with a mix of lean pork and a vegetable I don't know how to translate (Latin name Rubia cordifolia.) The Chinese name of the dish is figurative more than it is descriptive.  瑶柱茜草。You dip them in dark aged vinegar 老陈醋。

 

It's borderline bad manners to ask your neighbors too many questions about their food. OK to maybe just inquire, "What is that called?" 这是什么菜？You enter a troubled zone if you add, "Does it taste good?" 好吃吗？because then they will usually smile and offer you one of their three or four bit-sized pieces whether they really want to or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So it was another great meal for under 100 MOP,  rough actual cost about 70 Chinese Yuan or $11 US Dollars. And being a "tea nut" you probably guessed I would have to play with the leaves at least once. (Tieguanyin again. 铁观音)

 

If you go to Guangzhou, Hong Kong or Macau, be sure to make time for at least one Cantonese dim sum meal. It's a regional specialty and culinary treat not to be missed. It is now copied all over the world, but this is the source, and it remains the original Mother Lode.

 

 

[lips]

Not even a single mention of 凤爪 !?

瑶柱茜草 - is it the same as 香茜饺 in other places?

[roddy]

@abcdefg Many thanks as always for these posts. If you ever want to take some menu photos and send them to me, I'd be keen to post them up on Signese. 

[abcdefg]

41 minutes ago, lips said:

Not even a single mention of 凤爪 !?

 

You got me, Lips. They are one of the few things I don't really enjoy. I have secretly said that the day you see me tearing into a big plate of chicken feet with a smile on my face is the day that I will have finally become Chinese! But the restaurants I visited did have several varieties on offer.

 

40 minutes ago, roddy said:

If you ever want to take some menu photos and send them to me, I'd be keen to post them up on Signese. 

 

Will do, Roddy. Good idea.

[roddy]

Or actually, any photos of interesting uses of Chinese characters. Thanks!

[eion_padraig]

Eating great dim sum was one of the joys of living in Guangzhou. I've found some okay places in Shanghai, but nothing as good as back down south. 

I was asking a couple I know from my time in Guangzhou, who returned to New York a couple years back, how the dim sum was in NYC. The woman is Chinese American (father from GZ) and the guy is a white American fellow with solid Cantonese language skills. They said it's not bad, but they felt like people were just recreating what they remember from living in Guangdong. They felt like the dim sum in Guangzhou was more adventurous and lively than NYC. It surprised me a bit.

 

Eion

 

PS - The use of traditional characters, flowery language, and non-standard script on dim sum menus in Guangzhou made it a challenge for me to order for the first two years of living in GZ. Eventually, I got to the point where I could order as effectively as my Chinese friends.

[abcdefg]

Agree, I've had some excellent dim sum meals in Guangzhou too. And dealing with those menus is definitely no easy trick.

[DrWatson]

Fabulous write up! Thank you so much for sharing this!!!

 

I just have to say I am insanely jealous, it all looks great. I've never had real dim sum in Guangzhou. I've only really had it in Taipei, Tokyo, Bangkok and New York at various restaurants. How much better are these small shops in Guangzhou than something like 鼎泰豐? I love the 小籠包 at 鼎泰豐 so I guess that is my baseline. Is there something especially to look out for on the menu that tips one off? Or should I instead look at the length of the queue of the patrons?

[abcdefg]

@DrWatson -- Thanks for your kind comments.

 

11 hours ago, DrWatson said:

Is there something especially to look out for on the menu that tips one off? Or should I instead look at the length of the queue of the patrons?

 

Assessing whether the establishment is busy or not is probably the best test. The menus tend to be pretty similar, with the main "old standards" available everywhere, with small variations by an imaginative chef.

 

I think it's extremely hard to compare restaurants. When I sit down and dig in, I always think "Wow, this is the best ever." Seldom have I hit a dud dish at these popular places, something I just didn't like at all . Truth is, I'm probably not really knowledgeable enough to be able to spot the small differences.

 

The places I visited in Macau and Hong Kong were all "locals" places. None had any other foreign guests that I saw. Open Rice is a good program for your mobile phone for searching out reviews of these kinds of places. Some are in English, but most are in Chinese.

 

Here's a link: https://www.openrice.com/en/hongkong

 

After Macau on this trip, I returned via Hong Kong and had another dim sum meal there. That place was up two flights of stairs and really busy, partly because I was there on a weekend. I was solo, and the waitress just put me at a round table with several other people. Just found me somewhere with an empty spot. I actually liked that, because it meant I could ask the other people questions and chat.

 

They spoke very little Mandarin, being older Hong Kong natives and Cantonese speakers, but they were friendly enough. I had ordered too much just out of a desire to try lots of things. Offered them some of my surplus, and that broke the ice. One of the ladies waved me off from using the wrong dipping sauce for my dumplings. A gentleman called me back when I almost forgot my jacket.

 

This particular restaurant had a menu divided logically into categories. That made ordering easier. I'll come back in a minute and post about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[abcdefg]

The menu for the restaurant mentioned above, Fulum in Wan Chai 富臨酒家, is divided into logical sections, which makes it easy to use. Wish all restaurants did that, but unfortunately they don't. Here's how this one was set up:

 

烝点 = steamed food -- Examples: dumplings and buns. Shrimp dumplings 虾饺， meat and vegetable buns 上海菜肉包。

炸点 = fried food (deep fried) -- Example: garlic shrimp spring roll 蒜茸虾仁春卷。

煎点 = sauteed food -- Example: pan fried turnip cake 香煎萝卜糕 (this isn't really cake at all.)

白灼时蔬 = seasonal vegetables -- Example: green cabbage in oyster sauce 蚝油菜心。

肠粉 = rice noodle stuffed roll -- Example: Steamed rice roll with honey BBQ pork 蜜汁叉烧肠。

鲜鱼靓粥 = "dressed up" rice porridge -- Examples: fish slice porridge 鱼片粥 and lean pork and century egg rice porridge 皮蛋瘦肉粥。

甜点 = sweet bites -- Example: wolfberry and ozamanthus cake 枸杞桂花糕。

[Alex_Hart]

Nice post, abc! You hit most of my favorites and gave me a real hankering for some 肠粉. 

 

I'm a big fan of dim sum, and partook several times in my recent visit to Shenzhen/Hong Kong. It really defines everything I love about China (well, OK, could add some spice!). The building which housed our hostel had a basement place full of old timers reading the newspaper which served up some delicious bites. In Shenzhen, I regularly went to a neighborhood spot - good, but definitely didn't compare to even the cheap local spot in HK. We had devoted an entire day to going to "the best" dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong (I forget the name - mainlanders apparently hold it in very high esteem, so my girlfriend had read about it for years on blogs), but the typhoon struck that night and every restaurant in town was closed in the morning. A reason to go back.  I also wanted to go buy a knife that day, but that didn't work out either.

 

My first close Chinese friends were two guys in my freshmen year of college (back in NYC) and our weekly ritual was Friday morning dim sum. The plates tended to be cheaper during weekdays. We'd gather at 9 am and spend several hours eating and drinking, arguing politics or what have you. Good memories.

 

I'm surprised you don't like the chicken feet! I've been a vegetarian for something like 9 years out of the last 24 (with a 2 year break in the middle), and I actually don't miss any meat except two things: liverwurst from the German butcher near my home, and chicken feet from dim sum (also chicken feet given to you with a plastic glove from those meat take out windows scattered across China). Sitting in Hong Kong watching the aunties push their carts, I almost gave in and had a nibble. 

 

萝卜糕 is still my favorite. I've had it with the sausage (lap cheong?) cut in and without it, and my favorite version so far has been from a Taiwanese Buddhist restaurant whose owner had lived in Hong Kong and tried making vegetarian versions of Hong Kong specialties. Doesn't sound like it should work, but something about those slices brought me to a state of ecstasy every time: the fluffy insides with the crispy exterior and a smidge of the the luxuriously thick black sauce (supposed to be oyster sauce, I guess. No idea what they used). When asked to bring our favorite dishes to a "Chinese Christmas Pot Luck," I spent hours (actually two days) trying to make the 萝卜糕 of my memory. I failed miserably. I will try again one of these days.

[abcdefg]

The restaurant I visited in Hong Kong on the way back from Macau had phenomenal 萝卜糕, made with little crumbs of sweet Cantonese sausage. I've never tried making it at home. Some things are just better in a restaurant.

 

 

They also had a featured egg roll 春卷, thin, light, crispy and stuffed with shrimp and garlic. Deep frying is another thing I don't do at home, so I enjoy having it as restaurant fare.

 

[Flickserve]

Should have got in touch with me for an impromptu meet up. 

[abcdefg]

Thanks, @Flickserve--I didn't think of it. Maybe next time. It would be a real treat to share such a meal with a local person who knows the ropes.

[Christa]

This is the sort of simple, unpretentious restaurant I love and have grown up with. Yes, making this sort of thing at home never seems quite the same to me. The traditional characters can be somewhat daunting to those not used to them. This is why they must be reintroduced to the mainland and the silly simplified done away with forever!

[abcdefg]

 

11 hours ago, collinsk said:

Literally drooling. Dim-sum has always been my family's favorite. I tried to make my own version but always fail.

 

Lots of things can be made just as well at home, but I agree that dim-sum is one of those special eat-out treats that would be difficult to duplicate in one's own kitchen. I don't mind paying for a fine dim-sum feast!