Reviewed by Jay Scott Kanes
Like most long-time Hong Kong residents, I've consumed hundreds of dim sum lunches (what the locals also call yum cha, meaning to sip tea while eating). But being non-Chinese, I knew few proper names for the delicate food items and little about them, except the tastes.
My ignorance evaporated when reading a tiny book, Dim Sum, A Survival Guide (2010, Blacksmith Books, 108 pages). Thanks to author Liza Chu, now I can explain the details of Chinese dim sum to other diners.
In traditional dim-sum restaurants, “nice middle-aged ladies push steaming hot carts around the restaurant floor. Chinese placards on the front of the carts display the names of dishes inside the bamboo steamers and the ladies shout out their delicious offerings. Flag down the cart and order your food. Everything is hot and ready to go.”
Apparently, the Chinese passion for dim-sum snacks dates to the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420 AD). “…in the North, dim sum was originally served only to the upper classes and magistrates, whereas in the South it was the commoners' food.”
What does “dim sum” mean? “There was a great general in the Eastern Jin Dynasty who commanded his soldiers to fight night and day, beating their enemies and winning battles. In gratitude, he ordered his kitchens to make delicious and famous local dishes, and delivered them to his soldiers on the front line (a little bit of ‘heart-felt thanks’). Since then, ‘dim sum’ or ‘a little bit of heart’ has been used to describe these dishes.”
Like most food books, this one shows lots of impressive photos. Seeing the colorful, close-up images from Trio Photo will have readers licking their lips and drooling.
Two Hong Kong eateries, the Golden Bauhinia Cantonese Restaurant and the Super Star Seafood Restaurant, cooked the food that was photographed and then devoured. What a pleasant way to research a book! The author even quotes her dining companions.
Each food item gets identified by Chinese characters, an English pronunciation and what it is. The book shows icons to alert readers with allergies or other special diets.
“Whether you or your friends are vegetarian, kosher, allergic to peanuts or prawns or just plain old conservative, this guide can help you navigate your meal,” Chu said. “New dim sum dishes are being invented daily, but I've tried to include the traditional mainstays of Chinese restaurants.”
One section focuses on dim sum favored by children. In another, a chef discusses cooking methods. Even tea-drinking, table manners and chopstick-use receive special attention. “It's considered impolite to point chopsticks at someone or to stick chopsticks vertically into rice like incense sticks.”
Cleverly, the book's covers flip into charts that allow diners to order food by pointing at pictures. And the author gives more advice as needed: “You have to spit out the bones,” or “Peel the paper off the bottom of the bun before you eat it.”
Her guidance even covers paying. “There's a scuffle at the next table. Chinese people yell and pull at each other. The waiter is caught in the middle looking confused, scared and embarrassed. It sounds like a serious argument and you expect punches to be thrown…. What you are witnessing is a polite face-giving fight over who pays for the meal.”
A Chinese-language teacher, Chu ends each semester by taking her students for dim sum. She enjoys eating and sharing trivia: “It's not uncommon for teams of chefs to make up to 3,000 baskets of dim sum a day.”
Once finished reading this book, there's a big temptation to rush to the nearest dim sum restaurant and order everything by its exact name? “For starters, I'll take char siu bau (BBQ pork buns), harm shui gok (fried egg-shaped dumplings), har gau (prawn dumplings), pai gwat (pork ribs in black bean sauce) and law mai fan (chicken and sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf). After that, let's have fung jowl (chicken feet), au park yip (beef tripe) and chun guen (spring rolls).”
Wow! Chu has made me feel so much better educated, even sophisticated. And the dim sum still tastes delicious, especially my favorite, leen yung gin dui (fried sesame balls with lotus seed paste filling).
Yummy! And yum cha.
Approval rating: 71 per cent.
For more information: www.blacksmithbooks.com
(May 24, 2010)
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