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Tue 21 Sep, 2004 02:41 am
The Chinese lady I'm getting acquainted with at the moment introduced me to the Chinese feast known as Yum Cha last weekend. One of the best meals I've ever had. It was a gastronomic delight.
I've also discovered that the Chinese restaurants in this area are very "Australianised". Where she lives there is a large Chinese population and the restaurants are much more traditional. And it's been great having a "guide" to the cuisine. Since there was only the 2 of us, I didn't get to try as many dishes as I could with a large group of people (which we're planning to do sometime soon).
I never would have believed that chook feet could taste so good. I'm also quickly becoming quite adept at using chopsticks. Knives and forks are starting to feel very uncultured by comparison.
I adore yum cha - have since the seventies when the Chinese restaurant I worked in served the real thing on Sundays to the Chinese community - and knowing westerners. We have a few fabulous restaurants and palces for it.
I have never coped with the chooks' feet, though.
I htink the Americans call it Dim Sum, or something like that.
Ahh, Dim Sum, yes, I love it.
There's a great dim sum place at Broadview and Gerard, Pearl Court, and another very good one on Spadina, across from the old synagogue, but i don't recall the name. Toronto is th fourth or fifth largest city in North America, so you would expect that. It's not as easy to find in smaller cities.
I've never heard of Yum Cha. What is it made with?
It's not a single dish. It's a banquet. You sit at the table and they come around with trays of all different foods, and you pick which ones you want.
It's more like a style of eating, the same way we could barbecue, meat, fish, chicken etc.
Oh yummy! Sounds like a poo poo platter and I love poo poo platters :-D
Ah, yes, dim sum. What's a chook? Is that a kind of chicken?
here's what a Hong Kong travel guide says about Yum Cha / Dim Sum
http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinations/hongkong/hkteatime.html
Quote:HONG KONG
Teatime Traditions: Yum Cha and Dim Sum
When in Hong Kong, visitors should do at least one thing that is quintessentially Cantonese - have morning or afternoon tea.
Hong Kong restaurants cater extensively to the territory's seemingly insatiable appetite for tea and snacks.
Quote:Music and dancing were not allowed in the ancient teahouses, nor was food. In the 3rd Century AD, Hua To, one of the most respected Imperial physicians of ancient times, advised that "Eating food and drinking tea at the same time only results in excessive weight gain."
Following their customary anti-authoritarian approach to life, the Cantonese of South China ignored the physician's advice. They developed their unique culinary art of dim sum, and turned sedate teahouses into boisterous eating places where the merits of particular dim sum chefs and their culinary prowess would be enthusiastically debated. The Cantonese, like the French, proudly proclaim that they live to eat, not eat to live. It is no coincidence that dim sum literally means "to touch the heart"!
Stop it!!! You make me hungry.
I introduced me fella to yum cha last time he was here - only he got all the fried stuff, while I adore the steamed!!!
Is Setanta yer fella, by any chance?
That is so unfair . . . i only eat like, two, three dozen fried dumplings with my meal . . .
mmmmmmmmmmm
dim sum
my favourite dish is some eggplant stuffed with some kind of fish with a lovely gooey black bean-y sauce
or maybe it's the deep-fried tofu dumplings on steamed bok choy with a bit of that black bean sauce
or maybe it's the sticky rice steamed in lotus leaves with bits of different meats hidden inside
or the fresh steamed cake
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Seafood dumplings ? ! ? ! ?
At your warren ?
Will you marry me ?
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