Dim Sum

Dim sum (Cantonese: 'touch the heart') is a style of Cantonese cuisine served in small portions — traditionally as part of yum cha ('drink tea'). Originating in ancient teahouses along the Silk Road, where travelers could rest and have tea with small bites, dim sum evolved into an elaborate tradition of over 1,000 distinct dishes including har gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai (pork dumplings), char siu bao (roasted pork buns), cheung fun (rice noodle rolls), and egg tarts. Dim sum is fundamentally a social experience — eaten with family or friends in large, noisy Cantonese restaurants, with dishes arriving in steamers and on trolleys. The Hong Kong dim sum tradition at its finest requires extraordinary craft — the har gow wrapper should have exactly 7–9 pleats and be thin enough to see the pink shrimp through it. Dim sum has spread globally through Chinese diaspora communities.