Dim Sum

Taste: sweet

Sugar-coated haw, which is called "Tang Hulu" or "Bingtang Hulu" in Chinese, is a traditional Beijing snack of candied fruit. Although "Hulu" refers to bottle gourd in Chinese, this snack actually doesn't use bottle gourd for ingredients, but most commonly use haws. Similar to Basi Digua, Tang Hulu is made by dipping a stick of haws into hot molten rock sugar syrup, and after it cools down, a harden, glittering and crystal sugar coating comes out. The bamboo skewer used for penetrating haws is approximately 20cm long, which is suitable for placing around 7 haws on it. Before the snack fully prepared, there is usually a second coating that should be attached outside the sugar coating, using sesame sprinkles for most of the time. However, recently, some vendors will also use chocolate for the second coating. Different recipes have been created with the main fruit ingredients.Traditionally, the fruit used has been Chinese hawthorn, but in recent times vendors have also used various other fruits, such as cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges, strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, kiwifruit, bananas, or grapes.

Taste: sweet, or salty

Tofu pudding is a popular Chinese snack made with very soft tofu, which is made from raw soybeans.Flavors of tofu pudding vary by region. In the Northern China, people like to have salty toppings on tofu pudding, which consists of soy sauce, meat and spring onions. However, in the southern China, people prefer the sweet version with ginger and brown sugar syrup, and fruits toppings on it. In recent years, there is a trending joke popular among Chinese kids that eating salty or sweet tofu pudding will affect your friendship with others.

Taste: sweet and salty

These BBQ pork pastry puffs are what commonly seen in Guangdong-style dim sum restaurant. Attributes to first generation of Chinese immigrants from Guangdong province or HongKong, this snack is extremely classic and popular in nowadays Chiangtowns around the world. It’s one of the favorites to order when foreigners eating dim sum. The pronounciation of its Chinese name differs in the accent of mandarin and cantonese. While in mandarion, it pronounces as "Cha Shao Su", in cantonese, it pronounces as "Char Siu Su".

These delicious and flaky pastries are filled with diced BBQ roast pork yellow onions, hoisin sauce and other flavorings. With this fillings all fried and cooling down (to avoid sauce leaking out during the baking step, the filling needs to be cooled thoroughly)，roll the pork filled pastries into little pillows, and then bake them in the oven until the pillows turn into golden and crispy. One of the huge difference between western pastry puffs and Chaoshaosu is that traditionally, recipe uses lard instead of unsalted butter for baking the pastry.

Taste: sweet

This type of glutinous rice flour dumpling is round-shape and sweet, for that its fillings consist of sweet fillings such as sugar, sesame, osmanthus flowers, sweet bean paste and sweetened tangerine peel. This snack is eaten in both northern and southern China, while southerners refer them as "Tangyuan" and northerner refer them as "Yuanxiao". And "Yuanxiao" also refers to a traditional Chinese festival which is also known as Lantern Festival in each lunar year's January 15th. The two Chinese characters literally means "first evening", being the first full moon after Chinese New Year, which is always a new moon. And due to its round shape and the homophone of family union, Chinese people imply the meaning of best wishes for families into this dessert. While tangyuan was originally a food eaten during festivals, it has evolved into a dessert consumed all-year-round rather than simply a festival food. For instance, tangyuan is traditionally in white color. Yet, in order to cater to consumers’ needs and changing tastes, dessert specialty shops create new flavors or colors of tangyuan by substituting the traditional filling with chocolate, mashed potato and pumpkin paste.

Taste: sweet

This is a classic and special dessert originating from Southern China, especially the Hubei Province where lotus are widely planted. Lotus root is stuffed with sticky rice, boiled with sugar until tender, then served with a sweet and refreshing osmanthus syrup. During the fully steaming or simmering process, the lotus root will lose most of its crispiness and crunchy texture. The sticky rice tastes gooey, sweet, and infused with a nice aroma from the lotus root. The osmanthus syrup has a flowery fragrance, an amber color, and sweet taste. All of these add a fantastic taste to the whole dish. Although the dish is sweet, is referred to as a appetizer in many restaurants. Lotus root is a popular ingredient in Chinese cooking and Chinese medicine due to its health benefits. Fresh lotus root can be added to stews, salads, soups, and stir fried and braised dishes. It can be ground into powder to make drinks, or to processed to make lotus starch. It’s a very important part of Chinese cuisine, in the same way the potato is to American food culture.

Taste:light salty

This is another classics Guangdong dim sum dish, with a pretty glittering and translucent appearance and tasty juice seafood flavor. Also it has another Cantonese name, "Har Gow", and sometimes is called as " Shrimp Siumaai" for its pleated shape. Different from general dumplings, siumaai is cooked with steam without soup. Therefore, it is more important to avoid overcooking and lock the savory broth in the ingredients, or it will taste too dry to be delicious. The proportion of shrimp to meat should to be appropriate in order to reach a balanced flavor. The amount of meat could be generous, but still do not forget about the shrimp. Due to the difficulty, this dish is said to be the one that the skill of a dim sum chef is judged on. Traditionally, Har Gow should have at least seven and preferably ten or more pleats imprinted on its wrapper. The skin must be thin and translucent, yet be sturdy enough not to break when picked up with chopsticks.

Taste: salty

This is a more snack than dessert, for that it use clams to make a salty fried pancake. It originates from Taiwan, especially popular as the "late night snack", which, in Chinese called "Ye Xiao". Typically, you will find many street snack stands serving this clams pancake in Taibei night markets, which bring a lot pleasure to people who work overtime. Kind of similar to the pancake with egg introduced in breakfast, the clams pancake has a golden coating made by sauted egg wash, and the main ingredients in it is the fried clams with spring onions on the top, and some other vegetables at the bottom. The seafood sauce is the highlight of this snack, which would differ a lot from chefs. Sometime, the chef will also brush some strawberry or orange jam on o the pancake -- all depends on what the customers wants!