Dim Sum - Core culture of Canton and Southern China

by Ellie

        If you have been to Chinatown before, you must have heard about "dim sum" or "yum cha", namely drinking tea.  Yum Cha or Dim Sum culture is essential to lives of residence especially in Guangzhou city, Hong Kong and Macau. 

        

        What is dim sum? It is the Cantonese style of bite size food,that people eat when they drink tea together with friends or family weekly or even daily, usually 3 to 4 pieces per serving. The cooking methods range from steam, bake, fry, boil,etc. Mostly, they taste either salty or sweet. Now, I would like share some photos I took when I "yum cha" with my friend in Chicago Chinatown.

Maybe the most famous dim sum is the shrimp dumplings.

chicken feet in special sauce
i know you may think chicken feet is strange or even disgusting,
but trust me, it's really delicious!

 pork porridge

you see, how exciting my ABC and Suzhou friend!  

rice crepe with deep fried Chinese donut

pan fried water chestnut cake

stir fried sticky rice

almond tea

almond ice-Mt bread

        Yum Cha is a cultural tradition that links people in Canton. That is, every weekend, holiday or family gathering events, people like to spend a hour or two in chatting with each other while they are eating diverse dim sum and tasting fine Chinese tea during yum cha, like cookout in the U.S. family at the weekend, which provides a chance for people to better communicate with each other. 

         So, next time when you go to any Chinatown around the world, you can try some dim sum with your partners and enjoy the exploration of Southern China Culture!

it's me, haha. i love dim sum!