An alternative early Christmas celebration
With Christmas coming up next week and my other siblings all spending Christmas with their own family, we decided to have our own early siblings Christmas meal this weekend. Originally we were going to have dinner at either one of our home. Even if we all bought a dish along, hosting a big dinner for 10+ people a week before Christmas was still a lot of work. In the end, we decided to eat out, going for a classic Chinese dim sum yum cha.
What is dim sum yum cha?
Some of you may be familiar with dim sum. These are the little plates of food, normally steamed in bamboo baskets like dumplings, or deep fried like spring rolls. Normally there will be at least 20 to 40 different dim sum on the restaurant menu. Yum cha literally means drink tea. Cha = tea. When we say we go to yum cha it basically means we go for a dim sum meal, where drinking tea forms a big part of it.
However, note yum cha is part of Hong Kong culture. You may find it in places nearby or influenced by Hong Kong culture. If you go to say Beijing or Shanghai or cities far away from southern China, its not commonly known.
How to order dim sum
If you've been to the traditional big dim sum restaurants, you may see staff pushing trolleys around with the dimsum. They have a sign in front of the trolley to say what dim sum they
have, and you flag them down if want to order. These restaurants are quite rare nowadays. You need a lot of customers who order a lot of food to make the operation effective because you need more than one trolley to serve all the different types of dim sum and to ensure they sell out whilst they're still nice and fresh.
So nowadays, dim sums are ordered on a sheet like this. You tick what you want, and in our case today how many portions we want.
Dim sum towers
The beauty of ordering dim sum this way is that everything is freshly cooked. And then the fun part! Everything is served more or less at the same time and we end up with a table full of food. Because we have a big family, whenever we go to yum cha, we always order a lot of food. Today we ordered 38 dishes 😋 . I know, it sounds like a lot, but there's 11 of us so it's really not that much as these aren't full size dishes. It's just when it's all served at the same time, the bamboo baskets stack up like towers
it's quite a scene. We often get looks from the other diners!
This isn't a traditional Christmas dinner as you all know it. Our family aren't religious so we don't celebrate Christmas in the traditional way. For us, Christmas celebration is all about being together, that everyone is healthy and that we all made it through the year as a family. Whether we go the whole hog with turkey and trimmings, or an alternative dim sum meal, it doesn't really matter. Though of course having good food is a bonus and we had no problem finishing everything off.
We spent a lot of time chit chatting after the meal. By the time we left it was already 4pm. Everyone else had left and the restaurant was getting ready for the evening dinner service. Bring on Christmas next week!
This is so lovely! I really want to go yum cha now :) I have never had the chance to try this dining experience, and I feel like I have missed out. Well, Christmas is the same for us, too - an occasion to be together and have a good time. Although for many years the family hasn't gotten together, so I have had been doing it with friends. Now I'm going to be on a look out for authentic yum cha spots to have dim sums. You and I have a mutual friend who is a huge fan of dim sums but I bet she also doesn't know authentic places like these :D
I believe Amsterdam and Rotterdam has some good places to yum cha, worth checking them out.
I hope you'll be able to spend Christmas with your family, even some members if not the whole family very soon. Till then, enjoy Christmas with your friends this year
You gotta tell me which ones. I'd really love to go and have the whole experience. The bamboo bowls, the tea, the selecting menu and all that!
My sister went to Oriental City in Amsterdam a while ago. You just need to look for chinese Cantonese restaurants, they're the ones that does dim sum. Let me know if you go and what you think, enjoy
It's always great getting together with family, especially siblings, and when it's over a meal, it get even better!
I've never been to a Dim sum restaurant but enjoyed authentic Chinese dumplings from a food hall in Rotterdam.
With life being so fast nowadays, it's a great idea to sit back and enjoy each other's company while being served, what a treat!
Us siblings are blessed that we all live close together except for my youngest brother who lives aboard, so fortunately we get together quite often. The only thing that stops the whole family gathering is when people go away as there's nearly always one family who's on holiday!
This is one of my favorite Chinese food to eat on special occasions... My boss usually bring to a yum cha restaurant here... Foods in the afternoon is quite cheaper hehe...
HK has some awesome places to yum cha, lucky you!!
Looks quite good.
It is in deed !!
I love the settings of this place. I will also be having my own Christmas dinner on Friday
Hope you have a great time
Yes, hope you are also having a great time and season
It's almost time for some amazing adventures again @livinguktaiwan! Almost!
I still have to work till Thursday though but from friday I'm on leave till the 15th of Jan!!! It's going to be a wild one!
Have a great one and I hope the holiday season will be loads of fun for you where ever you may go!
Much !LUV
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That's like 3 weeks holidays, lucky you!! Do you have anything nice planned ? Whatever you do, have a great time!
That is quite a long time hey 🤣 we don't have anything planned that's set in stone but we are going to a place where you'll never run out of stuff to do so we will take each day as it comes. It worked well the previous time so let's hope for the best!!
You have an amazing adventure yourself hey!
I am sure you had a great time in this early Christmas celebration. This holiday is indeed about being together. :)
A few weeks ago we went with our friends to a Chinese restaurant, well, we do it every time we see each other. We had a small tower of bamboo baskets with food that looked like dumplings, but each of us ordered from the menu many other things too. Didn't know about the tea part (yum cha) 🍵
Did they serve you tea with the dim sum? Dim sum is actually a bit like Spanish tapas, everyone shares all the dishes of different food, so I'm a way, it should be quite familiar for Spaniards
No, there were no tea. But yes, that is true that is is similar to tapas in that way of sharing and having a bit of everything. 🥢
This is such a beautiful time to spend with your family. I think that's what Christmas is about. Laughter and love with people you love over a nice meal. And this Dim sum restaurant couldn't have been a better option. I'd love to bring my family to a place like this soon. And then we'll yum cha all the way.🌺
We had to drive about an hour to get here as the food at our local place isn't that good, but it made a nice day out
That looks lovely. Great to do a get together with all before Christmas.
Have a lovely week 👋🏻😊
Siblings pre Christmas dinner, followed by own family dinner , perfect arrangement
Yes, perfect arrangement 😁🎄☃️
As my "cookie-eating-part" already mentioned, we saw those bamboo baskets in our local Chinese restaurant and tried some of those "dumpling-type" things... :)
I saw just once the paper with the menu like the one that you shared, but it was in a Japanese restaurant where we had to pick a number of portions...
There are many sorts of dim sum apart from dumplings, but some may not be to westerners palate so I won't mention what they are 😉
Great to gather with family this time of year. A good way is going somewhere where the stresses of cooking, hosting and attending is on someone else. Not to mention the time and energy cleaning up afterwards. It allows more attention and relaxation with each other :) The food looks delicious and I haven't enjoyed this cuisine quite like this.
Oh goodness Christmas a week away! Early wishes to you and your family!
Catering for 10+ people is quite a task, I hosted my family a couple of times, its really hard work 😅, do this was s perfect arrangement , saves a lot of work and hassle.
Hope you have a great time with your family as well
That colour and dragons in the background creating a strong impact in the room.
Most Chinese restaurants have it as part of their decor, adds to the ambience
I've never had dim sum but it looks fun. Great tradition (or newly started one). The towers are pretty cool. Is there some sort of system for getting rid of the empty bamboo containers to free up space? Or do you just stack them the same way and leave them on the table?
I don't know whereabouts in Canada you are, but I hear both Toronto and Vancouver have some good dim sum places as so many people from Hong Kong emigrated there over the years.
The waiters collect the empty baskets once the food is eaten, particularly important in our case as we need to free up table space as we have so many dishes!
Yeah there are a lot of dim sum places in Toronto. I'm a couple of hours away from the big city but it's such a pain in the ass you go there in terms of driving and parking g and all that so we barely ever go. Maybe one day I'll find a dim sum place and try it out.
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A wonderful way to enjoy Christmas! This is one of my favourite dishes, however there are no such restaurants in my area. As a result, I'll have to settle with two varieties of dim sum at a neighbouring Sushi restaurant 🤣
I think many Asian restaurants are all starting to serve neighbouring country foods now, so we get to see Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Korean etc all in the same place. It's good that you can get your fix
Yes, those little bamboo basket towers are a spectacle, but what they contain is even more spectacular and tasty, because I'm already hungry from the sight of it. Well, I'm just going to prepare my lunch.
This is how I celebrate these days, since I am not attached to those religious customs. I will be with my parents and I will visit the family on my mother's side. I assume it is a time to enjoy with my family and say goodbye to the year. With very good vibes to go all out for 2024.
Nice meeting you had.
PS. I think I'll make myself a cha, or Yum cha is appropriate for after lunch hahaha.
Sounds like a perfect nice and quiet Christmas with the family, sometimes that's most important.
Hope you enjoyed your cha 😊
Cha de anise and chamomile, I liked it very much.
Thank you 🤗
The funny thing about Chinese food is I have no idea of any of the names unless I look it up. Dim sum, for example, is tenshin in Japanese. Same characters, very different pronunciation. With dim sum I knew the Chinese name since it's fairly common in America, but many other Chinese foods I only learned about them using the Japanese name. So I get confused a lot.
Anyway, looks like a fun time with family. Quite a big family. It's great that you had a good time!
Good morning!
Your post made my mouth water... And here in Portugal it's still only 4.30am! Ahaah
I haven't been to a dim sum restaurant in a few years, but not because I don't like it. The last time I went I even managed to convince my mom and bro to join me. It was my mother's birthday last year, and even though she's a bit of a traditional foodie, she really enjoyed the experience.
I think that most people who like Dim Sum are essentially interested in the presentation and the very healthy way of cooking the food... I love feeling the finished steaming heat of a nice Dim Sum!
The restaurant I chose on that particular day was quite full. And very fortunately with a lot of oriental people, which means that poor quality would certainly not be an issue in those parts!
Yum Cha, it's impossible not to relate it to the roots of the name "Cha", which is spelled exactly the same way, with just an acute accent added to the last vowel "Chá"!
It's one of the drinks I drink every day. Either in the form of "commercial" sachets (at work, because it's very practical), or even as an infusion of crushed leaves that I buy in organic stores. I get enormous satisfaction from drinking tea! I'm sure I picked up this habit from my maternal grandmother, with whom I spent a lot of time during my vacations and even during school days.
I loved your post about your traditional "non-traditional" Christmas lunch! After all, religion is also a set of rites and meetings between believers ;)
Cheers🍀
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