Take notes: dim sum 101
By Ling Ho

It would not be an uncommon sight for the people on my wing to catch me up early on Saturday mornings. I recall a few of them who would stumble into the bathroom and ask me if I had mistaken it for Friday. As always, I would reply, "I'm going out of town for brunch."

"Where to?"

"I don't know yet. We'll either go to Grand House in Oklahoma City or Purple Box in Edmond or someplace new, I suppose. It'll depend on everyone's palate for today. But I know that it's going to be dim sum for sure."

"Oh, really? That's interesting…but you do realize that it's going to be a one or two hour drive, don't you? And who's 'everyone'?"

"Uh huh, we do it almost every other Saturday. I'm going to be with my other Asian friends, four of us in all."

"So you're telling me you guys are going to drive two hours to and two hours from somewhere just for brunch?"

"Yes."

Silence. My friend looks at me in amazement and exits the bathroom.

Conversations like these never fail to entertain me as I ponder into the food and culture differences between Chinese and Americans. What is Dim sum?

Dim sum means "little heart" or "touch your heart"-an apt name for these little dishes that both delight the palate and capture the imagination. Dim sum is a Cantonese cuisine that comes mainly in the form of steamed and fried dumplings containing a wide array of mouth-watering fillings. The quantity of each dish in dim sum is kept small.

The delicacies are served in tiers of bamboo steamers or on small- to medium-sized plates, so that as many as 25 different varieties can be sampled at a seating: crisp croquettes, boiled dumplings, translucent crystal dumplings, roast pork buns, mandarin duck pastry, combination pot stickers, custard tarts, juicy steamed dumplings, bean curd rolls, shrimp wontons, steamed savory glutinous rice dumplings, pearl balls, chicken congee with 1000-year-old eggs, spring rolls (not egg rolls), fried rice, etc…and oh, did I mention chicken feet sautéed in black bean sauce as well?

Dim Sum and Tea

Long before the Spanish created tapas and Americans discovered finger foods, the southern Chinese would gather for yum cha (drinking tea) and sample savory morsels known as dim sum.

The custom of tea drinking in China dates back to the legendary Shen Nung, who is said to have personally tried hundreds of grasses and herbs to test their medicinal effects and toxicity. Tea was a popular drink by the Sung (Song) Dynasty (960-1280 A.D.), and gradually, innovations in the tea drinking custom were introduced. In addition to a high level of connoisseurship of the various types of teas and improvements in the quality of tea leaves, a broad variety of accompaniments to tea drinking began to appear, such as dim sum.

Among China's provinces, dim sum and tea drinking are most closely interlinked in Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province, where dim sum and tea comprise an entire meal. In the Cantonese yum cha ritual, varieties of dim sum are served one after another, along with one's favorite tea, be it Oolong, Jasmine, Dragon Well, Tie Guan Yin (Iron Buddha) or Green Tea.

Finger Tapping

When you see tea-drinkers tapping the table with three fingers, do not think it is a superstitious gesture. It is a silent expression of gratitude to the member of the party who has refilled the cup. The gesture recreates a tale of Imperial obeisance.

The story tells of a Qing Dynasty emperor who went out on his lands on incognito inspection visits. While visiting South China, he would switch clothing with one of his servants. During one visit, they entered a teahouse. The real emperor would pour tea for his companion, the pseudo king, to preserve his true identity. His shocked companions wanted to bow to him for the great honor he was doing. However, instead of revealing their identity, they cleverly came up with a "code" to tap three fingers on the table. One finger represented a bowed head and the other two represented prostrate arms. Eating Dim Sum Today

In today's China, dim sum restaurants are big and spacious with bright lights. They often have several floors and are packed with hundreds of guests eating, reaching, shouting and gesturing for dim sum. Servings are stacked on trolleys, which are wheeled from table to table by servers. They either shout the name of the dish they have or there is a sign hung up on the front of the trolley indicating what is being served. Guests simply wave at the server when they hear or see what they want, and the server brings it to them. Guests can also walk up to the trolleys to make sure they get what they want before it is gone. As one can imagine, the sound level in these restaurants is very high.

For the Chinese, yum cha or eating dim sum is not only a daily form of food consumption or an occasion to spend time with family, not just an opportunity to establish a business relationship and to experience social congeniality-it is also an idiom of social existence. Dim sum is usually consumed for breakfast or for lunch and on Saturdays and Sundays, it is exceptionally popular as a family brunch or breakfast. On those days, arriving early or knowing someone at the dim sum restaurant is a necessity. Although it is very noisy in the restaurant and many have to wait in line for a long time to get a table, the Chinese still love it. Some parents even send their children to wait for a table for the family a couple of hours in advance on Sundays. Ah, the things Chinese people do for good food!

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