Dim Sum and Other Yummy Foods

The first weekend I was here at Lingnan, I had dim sum, but I didn’t know/didn’t really understand the whole concept of it. I just remember about 15 dishes being served throughout the entire time we were sitting at the table. I didn’t know what I was eating, even though the local students tried to explain the dishes; it was just an odd experience, probably because I wasn’t able to actually ‘participate’/order.

I’m not really sure how to describe it, but dim sum is a meal, usually served at breakfast or lunch, where you choose a bunch of different dishes and share with your table. Apparently at some restaurants, they wheel the dishes around on a trolley and you pick and choose what you want to eat.

In the past two/three weeks though, I’ve had it twice and have loved it.

Lingnan has a restaurant above the school’s Canteen that offers dim sum every day for lunch. A few weeks ago, Anna, Lex, Kat and I joined Jessie, an OMIP staff worker for dim sum/lunch. Jessie is a local and was very helpful throughout the entire meal as she was able to easily communicate with the wait staff.  Anna, Kat, Lex and I went back last week for a final dim sum; we ran into a few problems, communication wise, but everything worked out fine.

The meal starts off with the table getting two tea pots- one full of tea, the other with water, and a large empty bowl. You then proceed to wash/rinse all of your dishes because the Chinese don’t trust the restaurants. You pour the dirty water into the empty bowl, which is then removed from the table. At the school’s restaurant, they have paper menus on the table, where you choose your dishes and mark how many you want; then somebody takes away your menu/order and you wait for your food to arrive.

{In the United States, everybody’s meal is served at the same time. Drinks appetizers are served first, followed by everybody’s meal. In Hong Kong though, and especially at dim sum, the dishes are brought out whenever they are done. I’ve been out with large groups and somebody is usually done with their meal by the time the last person gets their meal.}

Both times we had dim sum, we tried a variety of dishes, but I only have pictures from our last meal. Dumplings, rice, noodles, veggies, water chestnut cake (?) and a variety of sauces.

Shrimp Dumplings

Shanghai Dumplings- pork and some spicy things...

Vegetable dumplings; you can also see some fried rice in the background

Water Chestnut cake. It's much better than it sounds, but I have no idea how to explain it...

Veggies.

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Last week, Lex and I also tried this popular desert place. It’s all over Hong Kong, and people rave about it, but neither of us had tried it, so we wanted to give it a go. I have no idea how to describe what I got- basically fruit mixed with aloe balls, ice cream. But they also specialize in various fruit drinks and other things. I think the pictures I took show a little more…

Coconut ice cream surrounded by cantaloupe, strawberries, watermelon, honeydew and kiwi, all 'floating' in aloe balls.

Aloe Balls...