Dim sum: the Cantonese art of touching the heart

The trolley advances between the tables with a clatter of stacked bamboo baskets. At each stop, a server lifts a lid: a cloud of steam escapes, revealing four translucent dumplings, or golden bites, or a small dish of braised tripe. You point, you take, you set down the empty basket. All around, whole families talk loudly, the tea steams, the conversations stretch on. This is dim sum.

Dim sum designates the whole array of those small savoury and sweet bites that are shared, accompanied by tea, in the Cantonese culinary tradition. Far more than a meal, it is a social ritual of the morning and midday, born in southern China and exported the world over. To understand dim sum is to grasp a Chinese way of taking one's time, together, around a teapot.

At the roots: the tea houses of the trade roads#

Dim sum was born in the province of Guangdong (Canton), in southern China, tied to tea culture. Tradition has it that, along the ancient trade roads, tea houses welcomed travellers and merchants come to rest and refresh themselves.

At first, only tea was served: it was even considered improper to eat there, for fear of putting on weight. Then the keepers began to offer small bites to accompany the brew. Step by step, these snacks became an art in their own right, and the tea house a place of social life where people met to discuss business, family and neighbourhood news.

Originally, people came for the tea and tolerated the food. Today, they come for the bites — but it is still the tea that gives its name to the whole custom.

The ritual of yum cha#

To go to a dim sum restaurant is to practise yum cha, and this obeys precise codes. One sits as a group — dim sum is a collective affair — one chooses one's tea (pu'er, jasmine, oolong…), and one begins to nibble. The dishes arrive in small portions, often by threes or fours, made to be shared at the centre of the table.

A gesture of politeness is part of the ritual: when your tea is refilled, you thank by tapping two fingers on the table. Legend attributes this custom to a Qing emperor travelling incognito: his servants, unable to bow without revealing his identity, are said to have saluted him in this discreet way. To signal that you wish your tea refilled, you simply leave the teapot lid ajar.

The great repertoire of bites#

Dim sum counts dozens, even hundreds of varieties. A few classics embody Cantonese art all on their own.

The har gow, a shrimp dumpling with translucent, pleated skin, is the test of the great cook: the dough, thin as paper, must reveal the pink of the shrimp without tearing. The siu mai, an open bite of pork and shrimp in a thin yellow wrapper, is its eternal companion. The char siu bao, a soft steamed bun stuffed with sweet barbecued pork, melts in the mouth.

There are also the cheung fun, supple rolls of rice dough coated in sweet soy sauce, braised chicken feet, assorted balls, and on the sweet side, the indispensable dan tat, a small egg-custard tart in flaky pastry, a legacy of the blending with Portuguese Macau.

Hong Kong, capital of dim sum#

If dim sum was born in Canton, it is Hong Kong that carried it to its peak and spread it across the world. A cosmopolitan and gourmet crossroads, the city multiplied the vast trolley restaurants, where the ceremony of yum cha paces family weekends, Sunday-morning reunions and the long mornings of retirees reading their newspaper before a teapot.

It is also in Hong Kong that the grandmother taking her grandchildren "to do yum cha" passes on, from generation to generation, the codes, the tastes and the memory of a cuisine. Dim sum there is less a menu than a family institution, an affective landmark as much as a culinary one.

From the trolley to the whole world#

With the Cantonese diasporas, dim sum spread across every continent. The Chinatowns of San Francisco, Vancouver, London or Sydney made it a weekend ritual adopted far beyond the Chinese community. The Sunday brunch around the bamboo baskets has become a universal experience of Chinese cuisine.

Today, the traditional trolleys sometimes give way to ordering by slip or tablet, and young chefs reinvent the classics. But the spirit remains: to share, to take one's time, to multiply the small bites while chatting. Dim sum remains one of the finest examples of a cuisine conceived for the bond.

To discover dim sum is to understand that eating, in southern China, is first a matter of conviviality and sharing. To learn Chinese is also to savour these words — dim sum, yum cha, har gow — that tell how a simple bite can, truly, "touch the heart."

FAQ#

What is the difference between dim sum and yum cha? Dim sum (点心) designates the bites themselves; yum cha (饮茶), "to drink tea," designates the custom of gathering to share tea and dim sum. One does yum cha by eating dim sum.

What are the best-known dim sum? Har gow (translucent shrimp dumpling), siu mai (pork and shrimp bite), char siu bao (steamed bun with barbecued pork), cheung fun (rice rolls) and, on the sweet side, dan tat (egg-custard tart).

When is dim sum eaten? Traditionally in the morning and at midday, as a brunch. Yum cha is a social ritual, often a family one, particularly prized at the weekend.

Why does one tap the table while having dim sum? It is a gesture of thanks when your tea is refilled. Legend attributes it to a Qing emperor travelling incognito, whom his servants discreetly saluted with two fingers rather than bowing.

Photo credits: the images used in this article come from Pexels and Unsplash and are royalty-free.