NYC Chinatown

The best part of having dim sum as lunch, breakfast or maybe as tea snack is that you can try many different dishes, gives you more choice and varieties. You cannot get the same eating experience in other dinning restaurants. And that is the best part of eating Dim Sum in NYC Chinatown.

Dim sum or Dum sum are usually served in a small steam basket or plates with pricing range from about $1.50 for small to $3.00 to large and $6.00 for “special.” Since they are severed in small portion and have many varieties, you can try many different one without worrying about ordering too much because most dim sums are relatively small in size. Besides that, you can actually see how each cooked ready to eat dim sum looks like in a steaming cart before you put them on your table, so that you won’t have to worry about end up ordering something that look weird to you.

How to order?

There will be steaming carts filled with plates of dim sum being pushed around. They usually speak out the name of the dim sum in Cantonese, you will have to stop them and order the dishes you like. You can also ask to see what they have in the cart and what kind of food if you cannot figure out from the look of the dim sum. They will try their best to tell you, more often they will say something like “ It’s pork,” “beef ball”, shrimp dumpling” “veg mix” or maybe “chicken feet” if you ever wonder why they are in red color

Here are a list of popoular dim sum in Cantonese and how each looks like:

Siu-Mai ??: Small steamed dumplings with either pork, prawns or both inside a thin wheat flour wrapper. Usually topped off with crab roe and mushroom.

Shrimp Dumpling (?? har gau): A delicate steamed dumpling with whole or chopped-up shrimp filling and thin wheat starch skin.

Rice noodle rolls or cheong fun (?? cheong fun): These are wide rice noodles that are steamed and then rolled. They are often filled with different types of meats or vegetables inside but can be served without any filling. Popular fillings include beef, dough fritter, shrimp, and barbecued pork. Often topped with a sweetened soy sauce.

Potsticker (??, woh tip) Northern Chinese style of dumpling, usually with meat and cabbage filling.

Phoenix talons (?? fung zao): These are chicken feet, deep fried, boiled, marinated in a black bean sauce and then steamed. This results in a texture that is light and fluffy (due to the frying), while moist and tender. Fung zau are typically dark red in color. One may also sometimes find plain steamed chicken feet served with a vinegar dipping sauce. This version is known as “White Cloud Phoenix Talons”

Char siu baau (???, char siu baau): the most popular bun with a Cantonese barbecued pork filling. It can be either steamed to be fluffy and white or baked with a light sugar glaze to produce a smooth golden-brown crust.

Turnip cake (??? lo bak go): cakes are made from mashed daikon radish mixed with bits of dried shrimp and pork sausage that are steamed and then cut into slices and pan-fried.

Water chestnut cake (??? maa tai gow): cakes made of water chestnut. It is mostly see-through and clear. Some restaurants also serve a variation of water chestnut cake made with bamboo juice.

Steamed meatball (??? ngau juk kau): Finely-ground beef is shaped into balls and then steamed with preserved orange peel and served on top of a thin bean-curd skin.

Egg tart (?? dan tat): composed of a base made from either a flaky puff pastry type dough or a type of non-flaky cookie dough with an egg custard filling, which is then baked. Some high class restaurants put bird’s nest on top of the custard. In other places egg tarts can be made of a crust and a filling of egg whites and some where it is a crust with egg yolks. Some egg tarts now have flavors such as taro, coffee, and other flavors. There are also different kinds of crust. There is also a flaky crisp outer crust with layers and layers of crunchy crumbs.