Order dim sum food full#

'Things like that can expand the popularity of traditional Chinese dim sum dishes, especially with social media now.

Ma, in both Wyckoff and Montclair, New Jersey, told me. I don’t recall many order dining experiences where so many different dishes are brought to your table to see first hand before you actually order it,' Chris Ma, who grew up with and now manages his family’s restaurants, T.S. “I think dim sum is an experience everyone should at least try once.

Order dim sum food full#

It’s a ritual that has slowly but surely returned, but people are still yearning for the full experience. It sounds like a lot, but that’s truly the beauty of the dim sum experience - from the smells, sights, sounds and anticipation to the eventual piles of empty dishes on the table. When my family gets dim sum, we place a huge order with everything from meat to vegetables to dumplings and beyond. We pass the food around, wash it down with sips of hot oolong or jasmine tea, and finish the meal off on a sweet note with egg tarts. And if it’s a special occasion, I’ll also order a whole Peking duck for us all to share and inevitably fight over the last shard of crispy skin. His favorite is shrimp cheung fun (rice noodle rolls) doused with soy sauce, and mine are shrimp shumai (three plates of them, to be exact). My husband is a huge fan of fluffy char siu bao (barbecue-pork-filled bun) and zhaliang (fried dough rice roll), but we love the hot shrimp dishes most of all. My sister loves the flounder, garlic-sautéed Chinese broccoli, jian dui (sesame ball) and lo mai gai (lotus-wrapped sticky rice). My dad’s go-to order includes the steamed spareribs and clams in black bean sauce, and my mom will always get the Peking pork chops. Starting in southern China and eventually making its way up to Hong Kong, dim sum was originally based on the idea of serving an assortment of local foods and evolved to include more foods from other areas of the country. This Cantonese tradition can be traced back to the 19th century, to teahouses in the port city of Guangzhou, where Silk Road merchants would stop in for a meal. Our family celebrated my parents' 50th anniversary at one of our favorite spots, Central Seafood, in Hartsdale, New York. Little did we know at the time that it would be one of the last times we would be all together - or enjoy the full experience of dim sum - for a while.

We had five tables of our relatives, filled with food, laughter and excitement for such a milestone.

We decided to surprise my parents for their 50th anniversary at one of our favorite spots, Central Seafood, in Hartsdale, New York. It was actually one of the last things I did with my entire family before COVID-19 hit. Dim sum translates to “touch the heart” in Cantonese - and it really does just that.