Yum Cha

These dumplings may be found more in specialised dumpling restaurants rather than at Yum Cha.I think they are more of Northern origin.The first time I came across them in China, I thought they had done something wrong, or were not good chefs.
I have certainly come to love them now though.
Good to use various sauces with them.
Oyster, chilli oil,yakisoba sauce, soy sauce, red vinegar, black vinegar sauce.

No, I saw some at Yum Cha today.
I was too full at this stage to want to order any.

Well we were offered some easy (Cheaters chopsticks with a sort of hinge y thing) chopsticks, but they may have sold as poorly in our shop as previously in the wider marketplace.
Good to practice with the real ones in your spare time.
Great collector's item too.THere are quite a few styles around.Even some made of Crockery we have.Our Jade ones have long ago sold out.A little fragile, do not fling them about.Nor the ceramic ones.
Do not collect them from your Restaurant though.Oh, I see that Cheater's chopsticks are back on the marketplace.
I wonder if I should get some for our shop?

Other vinegars are,
plain white rice,
black rice and chin kiang,
umeboshi vinegar,
raspberry vinegar,
balsamic vinegar,
sherry vinegar.
Some of these are not Chinese,
but if people can drink wine and XO amber coloured cognac
in their Yum Cha Restaurant,
then I think you should enjoy a range of vinegars that exist.
Certainly we do at home.

This is often the sauce used for Peking (Beijing) Duck,
and can be placed in a lettuce leaf with roast meats and cooked
rice vermicelli.
The Pork in the BBQ pork bun may have been marinated in this before roasting.

A little tip is to try Yaki soba sauce.
Basically made similar to Oyster sauce, but with addition of scallops and other seafoods.
I break it down with a lovely oil and maybe mix in a little sweetening
before using it as a dressing.
Chilli sauce mixes well with oyster sauce too.
Sometimes little plates of Bak Jam Gai ( White cut chicken) comes out,
and this will make a great dip for that poached chicken.

It does make a difference in cooking as to whether you use the light or the dark soy.
These are quite famous mainstays of Chinese and indeed general cooking.
The light soy mixed with a little black rice vinegar and cooked fragrant peanut oil is often tipped over, on request when served,the Chaang Fen rice rolls.

These ready made pastries can be turned into dim sum.
Wrapped and steamed,filled and fried,
eaten with great gusto.

These have found uses in modern cuisine
as quite rightly,
your imagination is the limit when it comes to
how to find a filling for them.

They can also be a soup.
Strained or not,
soup sweetened with rock candy,
sometimes a dried mandarin peel
is boiled with it.

It is the mushroom of choice in the dried beancurd skin rollup that usually also has pork and bamboo shoots with the whole ensemble being steamed.

Get a mixing bowl,
add boiling water to this flour in it,
and then mix very well.
Cover the bowl for about an hour or less.
The result should be very pliable and slightly translucent.
The mixture is very able to be sculptured, and if steamed are very edible.
Most people flatten the dough and fill it before steaming.
Prawns or shrimps lightly seasoned
are very popular.

Found in many dim sum,
certainly in meat balls.
They also have a beneficial side effect of lowering hyper tension too.
So if you get hyper tension, you know what to do.

White Teas in China can be rather expensive.
Drink lots of tea when at yum cha.
It will balace the fattiness
if anyone
is worried.

A very nice and popular tea over the years.

Another sauce for hot dipping.
It can also be used for cooking chilli hot things.

Red bean curd is nam yu.

White bean curd is called Foo Yu.

Both are cheeses made from Soybeans.

The Foo yu can be with or without chilli.

Into this can go a little oil, or a slip of paper with steam venting holes

This example is made in Japan.
Now the little ditty about making baskets that can be eaten needs expanding.

So what you need to do to make an edible basket...
Lay some strips of...potato,sweet potato(Kumara in NZ),Taro,fresh steamed egg noodles,fresh hokkien noodles,fresh Shanghai noodles into the bottom basket.Put the top basket down onto the strips ,and when you deep fry the food into chips,it will now be in the shape of an edible basket.Voila! as some say.

Here at Yum Cha you can use it for Soy sauce or vinegar, or sesame oil.

So for chillies or oils or vinegars or even a mixture of all of the above?

Sometimes, you can put in a pepper salt on one side, and chilli on the other.

Doers not hold much, but as it has an angle on the side,you can start to drink your tea straight away.

Hand painted designs,available in Red, Green, Yellow.

Are Rice grains put in to be burned out upon firing?Is that how they did it?

You can use these not only for mincing up your meat or waterchestnuts for filling,
but also to squish your wheat starch dough into thin rounds ready for filling!

Most of the following Dim Sums will be from my Easter Sunday Yum Cha Lunch at The Grand Harbour Restaurant.Interesting that they asked what we would like to drink,as it would always usually be Tea.But Kids are asking for Iced Water or special ground fruit lovely things now, and of course,an internet reviewer chided them for not offering alcohol.As they are licensed, I guess this would only help the bottom line anyway.

I never got to try this one,too busy photographing.
I think I would like it lots though.
Bor Choy is spinach.

Crispy just on the very tip of its skin, and a little chewy on the pastry, the filling is just divine heaven,meaty, saucy and juicy.

The waitress will ask if you want it cut with a pair of scissors,
and will tip over a sauce made of soy and black rice vinegar.
This is one of different versions that has Prawn meat in it.

The 18 Lohan were famous warrior/monks of Chinese History.
When we were told it was vegetarian we declined, but when it was described or named as the Lohan Cheong, we accepted.The Lohan inspired Vegetarian dishes are usually very tasty.They must have been scholars,warriors,spiritual leaders, and great cooks.

My Mum often attempted these sort of things at Chinese New Year, but whilst provably not as good, I still miss hers.

This is also waited for for toddlers, and often extra is ordered in order to take home.
The Leaf is The Lotus Leaf.

Shamefully,
this practice has come about because diners found ways to trick the system when it was done by plate counting.
This really is a sign of cultural decline.
People used to redistribute their plates to other tables of recently departed guests.
I would like to see a return to the old system,
and a return to days in the East and Hong Kong where you could leave your doors open and not to have to have several see through grated doors.

Sometimes you are asked if you would like the dim sum cut in half to release excess heat too.
This would have been good at a chain of pie makers called Georgie Pie that would burn out your mouth lips and stomach.
Its flavour was pretty good though, and started by a Chinese person.

Often the prawn toast looks more "Western",and on a flat piece of bread,and, perhaps cut into fingers.

My kids did not like the stri=ong fresh ginger flavour, but I thought the taste was quite delicious and agree it might have been a little sophisticated and more for grown ups with slightly or very jaded palates.

One Ramekin has chilli oil, perhaps made in house and not lethal in scoville units.
Perhaps ask to take your own if you want mouth burning deliciousness/madness.
The other dish has soy sauce.Perhaps a mixture of light and dark?Or just light?
Secrets of the house perhaps.