Dim Sum

Chinese Restaurants only represent a small percentage of restaurants in America comparing to

other restaurant such as McDonald. Most Chinese restaurant menus list the dishes in their original

Chinese names, but usually, the menu will have an English description of the dish. Chinese restaurants

are usually decorated with items of Chinese culture, such as dragons, hanging lanterns and statues of

Buddha. Chinese restaurants in the United States began during the California gold rush, which brought

twenty to thirty thousand immigrants across from the Canton also know as the Guangdong region of

China. Normally, Chinese restaurants are owned and operated by small, hardworking ethnic Chinese

families. In Chinese cooking the “wok” is often said to be very important in food making, it's a large

metal pan with a rounded bottom. China is a quite large country so it have several cooking styles for

example, Szechuan, Hu nan, Cantonese and Northern Style in Beijing each with its own culinary style

and flavors. Cantonese food is best known in the US and Canada for its dim sum small bites, steamed

and fried dumplings stuffed with meat or seafood.

Dim sums are individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on

small plates. This style of food is also known as “yum cha”, which means tea drinking. Dim sum

consist of many different variety of food. A traditional dim sum selection includes various types of

steamed buns such as cha siu bao, dumplings and rice noodle rolls which is “cheung fun” in Cantonese,

which contain a large varieties of ingredients, including beef, chicken, pork, shrimp and vegetables.

Many dim sum restaurants also offer plates of steamed green vegetables, roasted meats, congee

porridge and other soups. Dessert dim sum is also available and many places sells egg tarts, its like a

pie crest with yellow egg fillings in the middle. There is also many ways to make dim sum since there

are so many different types of foods. Dim sum can be cooked by steaming and frying, there are other

ways of cooking but these two are to be the most common when it comes to dim sum dishes. The

serving sizes are usually small and normally served as three or four pieces in one small plate. Because

of the small portions, people can try a wide variety of food. However people may not get full from

those small portions of dim sum dishes. So it is usual to order family style dishes like chow mein or

chow fun for sharing among all the people whos on the table. Now I will describe some of the main dishes of Dim sum which includes “ha gao”, “siu mai”,

“luo mai gai”, and “fung jao”. First of all, “ha gao” translates into shrimp dumpling in Cantonese. Its a

small steamed dumpling with whole or chopped up shrimp filling and thin wheat starch skin. “siu mai”

is a small steamed dumplings with either pork, prawns or both inside a thin wheat flour wrapper most

restaurants use wonton wraps. And the top usually have tiny fish eggs or mushroom on it. “Luo mai

gai” translates into glutinous rice with chicken, however it's call the “Lotus Leaf Rice” in English by

overseas people. Glutinous rice is wrapped in a piece of leaf into a triangular or rectangular shape. It

contains egg, dried scallop, mushroom, water chestnut and meat usually pork and chicken. These

ingredients are steamed with the rice and although the leaf is not eaten, its flavor is filled inside the rice

during the steaming. After all “Luo Mai gai” is just a special type of rice dumpling. Lastly I want to

describe about one of my favorite dish the “fung jao”. “fung jao” translates into phoenix claw in

Cantonese however, its not a phoenix claw of course but simply chicken feet. These chicken feets are,

deep fried, boiled, marinated in black bean sauce and then lastly steamed in small baskets. This results

in a texture that is light and fluffy due to the frying, while moist and tender. Fung jao are usually dark

and red in color. But sometimes you may also find plain steamed chicken feet served with a vinegar

dipping sauce. This version is known as “bak wan fung jao” which in English means white cloud

phoenix claw.

In the tradition of dim sum tea is also very important, this is the reason why when many people

go get dim sum in the morning they simply call it “yum cha”, which again means drinking tea. The drinking of tea is as important to dim sum as the food. The type of tea to serve on the table would be

typically one of the first things the server would ask dining customers. Restaurants usually offers

several different types of teas for example, Chrysanthemum tea, green tea, oolong tea, red tea and

many more. There are common tea drinking and eating practices or etiquette that Chinese people

commonly recognize and use. These are practiced not only during dim sum meals but during other

types of Chinese meals as well. The traditional custom that many Chinese people practice is that you

must pour tea for others during dim sum before filling one's own cup. A custom unique to the

Cantonese is to thank the person pouring the tea by tapping the bent index finger if you are single, or

by tapping both the index and middle finger if you are married, which symbolizes 'bowing' to them for

appreciating the tea.

Due to the fact that dim sum is in popular demand, many food companies started the production

of instant dim sum. Certain kinds of instant dim sum have come onto the market in Hong Kong,

Mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore. People can enjoy snacks after a three minute defrosting and

reheating of the instant dim sum in a microwave. Dim sum can be purchased from major grocery stores

in most countries with a Chinese population. These dim sum can be easily cooked by steaming or

microwaving. Major grocery stores in Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Mainland China

Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Australia, United States and Canada have a variety of dim sum stocked at

the shelves. These include dumplings, “siu mai”, “bao”, “cheung fun”, and steamed spare ribs.

In conclusion dim sum is one of the very important style of Chinese culinary which has been

around for many years and are still in great standing in today' s world. Dim sum is popular due to its

uniqueness in that there are many varieties of items to taste from, rather than one big plate of food just

to fill you up. Because of it's uniqueness dim sum is now popular in many foreign countries including

the United states and Canada.