Dim Sum: Traditional Chinese Snack Food
By Michael Moore
Travelers in ancient China often needed a break from the rigors of travel and would stop for tea at teahouses located along the way. The teahouses were also frequented by farmers in the afternoon after a long day in the fields. Initially tea was the only thing served, but eventually the tea drinkers began consuming snacks as they chatted and sipped their tea. Eventually the custom of drinking tea, snacking and chatting led to the creation of an array of traditional snacks that are now consumed as 'dim sum'.
Dim sum is a Cantonese phrase that means to touch the heart, a fitting phrase for such delectable food. Although drinking tea and snacking is done all over China, it reaches its zenith in Hong Kong and Guangdong (Canton) Province. Today, Cantonese style dim sum is consumed not only in Canton, but throughout the world where enjoying dim sum on weekend afternoons has become a family tradition for many Chinese, including those living in Bangkok. In keeping with these traditions, dim sum is rarely served after about 3.00 in the afternoon.
Dim Sum Cuisine
Dim sum is always served in small portions and usually consists of a small plate containing three or four items. Cooking methods vary and include steaming, frying and stewing. Steamed items, predominate, particularly here in Bangkok. You will be given a variety of sauces in which to dip your dim sum. These always include plum sauce, a bowl of red chilies in vinegar and soy sauce with vinegar. To give you an idea of what dim sum is all about, here are brief descriptions of some of the dishes we enjoyed, listed by the cooking method. We received our dim sum education at four of Bangkok's leading dim sum restaurants: Shui Xin at the Novotel Bangna, Hai Tien Lo at the Pan Pacific Hotel, The Mayflower at the Dusit Thani Bangkok, and Garden Court at the Chaophya Park Hotel.
Steamed Items
Har gao is probably the most popular of the steamed dim sum items. Made from a filling of shrimp, bamboo shoots and seasonings that are sometimes blended with pork, enclosed in a wrapper of gluten free wheat flour and potato starch, then steamed until translucent. It is staple at Bangkok's dim sum restaurants and comes in many forms. The wrappings vary considerably and are often shaped to represent a shell. We enjoyed the Crystal Har Gao at Hai Tien Lo as much as the magnificent view out of the restaurant's 26th floor window. It was piping hot, slightly chewy and packed with flavor.
Siu mai are little steamed dumplings made by pinching a little wheat flour wrapper around a filling often made with pork and seasonings. Siu mai are frequently topped with crab roe that adds a little crunch and salt to the mix of flavors. Our favorites were the versions made with a filling of crab meat and spices. Siu mai deteriorate rapidly and are best when steamed just before eating.
Bau (salapao in Thailand), are fluffy white steamed buns found at all dim sum outlets. They are usually filled with pork, but can also be found with a sweet filling made from egg and seasonings. At the Mayflower our very efficient and friendly servers brought us an interesting version. Instead of appearing inside a bun, the sweet mixture was served on layers of steamed dough, much like a layer cake.
No mai gai (lotus leaf rice) illustrates that dim sum steamed items don't have to be served in an edible wrapper. In this dish; egg yolk, dried scallop, mushrooms, water chestnuts, pork and/or chicken and sticky rice are steamed in a lotus leaf that isn't eaten. We enjoyed this at Hai Tien Lo and found the flavors a welcome variation from shrimp/pork mix in many of the steamed items.
Fung zau (sometimes called Phoenix talons) are chicken feet that have been deep fried, boiled, marinated in a black bean sauce and then steamed. This results in a texture that is light and tender. A remarkably good dish from very humble ingredients; the version served at Garden Court is excellent and a credit to the restaurant's dedicated dim sum chef. Steamed spareribs and steamed fish are also popular dim sum items. You get a small plate with two or three pieces of meat or fish. They are often served with bean sauce and shredded scallions. We found the steamed fish at Garden Court to be excellent and were especially enamored of the steamed fish with ginger at Shui Xin.
Steamed crab claws served with a mild curry sauce was a unique dim sum that we found at Garden Court. It provided a good change of pace from the sometimes monotonous parade of dishes made with minced shrimp and pork. Another interesting steamed item was the pork, shrimp and broccoli that was rolled with seaweed and then steamed at Hai Tien Lo.
Fried Items
Wu gok, usually listed as taro dumplings on menus, is one of the most popular fried items on Bangkok's dim sum menus. Here taro is mashed and stuffed with diced shiitake mushrooms and minced pork. It is coated with a batter and then deep-fried. The batter often gives them a hairy appearance. An excellent place for these tasty morsels is at the very popular Shui Xin at the Novotel Bangna. This dish is sometimes a bit bland, but the spicing at Shui Xin added lots of taste.
Lo bak go, or fried turnip cakes, are a real treat. In this dish, minced daikon is mixed with pieces of dried shrimp and pork sausage, steamed. It is then formed into flat cakes and fried. Although a bit greasy, they are delicious. Essentially the same dish is also made with taro. Although good at all the restaurants we visited, we found the version at Shui Xin to be very tasty.
Spring rolls are always popular and a common item in dim sum restaurants. Since they are so readily available, we recommend trying something a little different. A good change of pace is a roll made with tofu skin rather than with a traditional spring roll wrapper made from flour. At Hai Tien Lo, Chef Lam wrapped shrimp paste in bean curd and deep-fried it into a tasty little tidbit that we thoroughly enjoyed. Another tasty variation was the whole shrimp that was wrapped in bean curd paper and deep-fried by the chef at Shui Xin.
The fried lamb chop we had at the Mayflower was an interesting deviation, and delicious change from traditional dim sum items. In this dish, the chef fried a single lamb chop and sauced it with a Chinese style sauce. We were pleased with the result and wished other chefs had done the same as the parade of steamed items tended to get a bit monotonous.
Sweets
Mango pudding is a popular dim sum sweet served everywhere. We found, however, that not all mango puddings are created equally. Some are made with more mango than others (a plus) and some have more chunks of fresh mango in the pudding than others (another plus). All of them are topped with a dairy product and we vastly preferred the versions that broke with tradition and used real fresh cream rather than that nasty canned milk many places use. Our favorite pudding was found at The Mayflower.
Dan tat (egg tart) are very Western looking sweets composed of a flaky outer crust with a middle filled with an egg custard and then baked. They make for a fitting conclusion to a glutinous afternoon of dining on dim sum. We found the version served at Shui Xin to be especially good.
The foregoing list is meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive. Some restaurants in Hong Kong, for example, serve well over 100 different dim sum dishes!
In closing, we'd like to emphasize that eating dim sum is always meant to be a convivial experience where drinking tea and chatting with friends, relatives as well as acquaintances is just as important as eating. The next time you want to dine and have a good time, try dim sum. We promise you'll enjoy yourself.
|
