Dim Sum:
Dumpings at Din Tai Fung:
When living in Hong Kong, we enjoyed going out for dim sum, a Cantonese specialty, on Sunday mornings. Dim sum, my friends tell me, literally means, “A little piece of heart,” and is a name for the small dishes of food served with tea for breakfast or lunch. The tradition began hundreds of years ago when people stopped along the silk route to rest at tea houses and indulge in China’s favorite hot beverage. Soon these small establishments began serving small snacks – dim sum – alongside their tea offerings.
Dim sum is a wonderful experience that includes sitting in a noisy restaurant at a large round table with family and friends as ladies push small carts around the room filled with a variety of tasty dishes. Food is mostly served in small steamer baskets containing an assortment of seafood, pork or vegetable dumplings, but also other treats – from Chinese greens to my daughter’s personal favorite, squid. And dessert in our family always means a round of “dan tot” or egg tarts for everyone.
Dim sum is not a tradition of northern China and was something we sorely missed when we moved to Beijing. Our longing, however, has been greatly eased by the discovery of Din Tai Fung. Delicious dumplings, served in a variety of shapes and sizes, dominate the menu at this popular restaurant. We had the pleasure of dining at Din Tai Fung during hairy crab season (hairy crabs are to China what Copper River salmon is to the NW). Our favorite dish that day was Shanghai soup dumplings filled with crab roe and meat.
Din Tai Fung has the added benefit of an English language menu, something one cannot take for granted in Beijing. And while the restaurant’s tasty little dumplings do not constitute the traditional Cantonese dim sum experience, they are – in my view – a little piece of heaven.
Two good children’s books about dim sum include the following: Yum Yum Dim Sum by Amy Wilson Sanger and Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin.
Favorite Hong Kong dim sum restaurants include Victoria Seafood (Sun Hung Kai Centre, Second Floor, 30 Harbour Rd., Wanchai, Tel. 852/2827-9938) and City Hall Maxim’s Palace (City Hall, 2nd floor, Central, 852/2521-1303.