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Literally meaning "to touch your heart," Dim Sum consists
of a variety of dumplings, steamed dishes and other goodies. They are quite similar to hors d'oeuvres,
the hot and cold delicacies served at French restaurants or Tapas, the Spanish small appetizers.
Originally a Cantonese custom, Dim Sum is inextricably linked to the Chinese tradition of "yum
cha" or drinking tea. Travelers that journeyed along the famous Silk Road needed a place to
rest, so teahouses sprung up. Rural farmers, exhausted after long hours working in the fields,
would also head to the local teahouse for an afternoon of tea and relaxing conversation. The
tradition of Dim Sum was born when tea house proprietors began adding various snacks to the
tea.
Today, Dim Sum is served worldwide through Chinese migrants, with some of the best dim sum
found in Canton as well as here in Bangkok. Our restaurant has hired some of the finest
Dim Sum chefs from Hong Kong. Therefore, the restaurant is able to serve you the most
superb and innovative Dim Sum outside Canton. In the original Dim Sum tradition you choose
from a wide assortment.
What types of foods can you expect from a typical Dim Sum lunch? When it comes to cooking
methods, many of the dishes are either steamed or deep-fried. Among the former, you will find
everything on the menu; from steamed pork, spareribs and char siu bao - steamed buns with
roast pork - to har gao, those wonderful shrimp dumplings with the translucent skin. Deep-fried
treats include mini spring rolls and Wu Gok, a type of taro turnover.
Many of the finer dim sum selections, however, may not be available during the quiet spells,
when the harassed dim sum cooks take a break from their literally steaming kitchens.
First, one must be prepared to do polite battle, and grab the first vacant chairs available in a dim
sum restaurant. Then, you should not be shy of summoning all the dim sum trolley ladies as they
wheel their fare around the room. Everybody else will be doing the same, or asking them what
dim sum items are hidden in the trolley's bamboo baskets or covered dishes. If you cannot speak
Cantonese, no one will mind if you lift up the lids of the baskets and dishes to see what is in
them.
Keep the emptied baskets and plates on your section of the round table:
they are the "counters" your table waiter will use to calculate your final bill when you leave.
Alternatively, you will be given a small card which waiters and waitresses will stamp with a small,
numbered chop each time you choose a basket or plate of dim sum. A polite way to let the restaurant
know that you have finished is to lay your chopsticks across each other on your bowl or plate. If the
waiter is dashing hither and thither so much that he misses your sign, grab his attention the best way
you can!
Do the same if your teapot has run out of its strong and cheering Bo Lai tea.
You will have been given your first pot once you are seated - probably in a very unceremonious
way if the restaurant is packed and your waiter is worn to a frazzle.
There is a polite way to ask for the teapot to be refilled
with fresh hot water: by lifting the lid off and letting it hang loose by the wire or cord that binds
it to the pot, or balanced in the handle.
Should you see fellow dim sum customers washing their cups
in the first pouring of tea, do not be alarmed. This is the traditional way to heat and cleanse the cup,
the waste being poured into the nearest empty container. |
