Dim Sum Guide

Your Ultimate Field Guide to Chinese Dim Sum

February 4, 2013

Dim Sum Guide

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Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings)

These delicate-looking, translucent shrimp dumplings are the hallmark of dim sum, and the single most recognizable menu item. While dim sum offerings vary from one tea house to another, this is one food you can always count on finding. Here, shrimp (and often pork) and bamboo shoots get wrapped in a wheat skin and steamed in a bamboo steamer for the most succulent of results.

Photos: Camilla Salem and Sara Yoo

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by Susannah Chen 15

Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings)

Photos: Camilla Salem and Sara Yoo

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15 Comments

Susannah Chen 14 weeks 4 days

PLS38, so glad you like it! Let us know what you think of the chicken feet. :)

PLS38 14 weeks 5 days

I've not been to this website before but I saw the teaser for guide to dim sum on huffpo and I had to take a look. All of those dishes look so delicious! I live in Tampa which is not exactly one of the gustatory metropoles of the world. But I have recently found a spot that serves dim sum and have indulged on a few occasions. The steamed pork buns are great and after reading this, I think I'll give the steamed chicken feet a try.

Nicole Perry 18 weeks 2 days

I'm so hungry looking at this! Clearly I'm going to have to get my dim sum fix this weekend. Also, I second just how amazing taro turnovers, turnip cakes, egg custard tarts, and har gow are, my other favorite is the donut that's in the glutinous rice noodle roll, though I can't remember what it's called. Really, I love pretty much everything and anything dim sum.

hebrew hunny 1 year 10 weeks

oooh, I want some.

TheFitCookie 1 year 11 weeks

Love dim sum! I have tried some of these. but I want to try them all!

Susannah Chen 1 year 12 weeks

@Gaston2336655 Hilarious! And true.

Gaston2336655 1 year 12 weeks

Loh Mai Chi - the peanut paste-filled gummy balls - I first tried them in San Francisco with an elderly Chinese doctor I knew professionally. He was known to all of Chinatown and we were treated like visiting royalty. The headwaiter personally guided the trays to our table, and my host selected wonderful items that I had never eaten. The meal ended with the loh mai chi balls. I still remember the unique texture and taste, and trying to politely eat them -- they seemed to expand in my mouth as I chewed! They are actually pretty good to a western palate, but don't try to eat one whole - they may look tiny but they are a lot bigger and gummier than you realize. You may end up looking like those funny dogs who try to eat peanut butter.

kurniakasih 1 year 12 weeks

Mmmm...chicken feet...<3

Susannah Chen 1 year 13 weeks

@Elka Karl I still remember your amazing story about being from a small town and never having tried a certain kind of cheese! ;-)

Anna Monette Roberts 1 year 13 weeks

Beautiful! Reminds me of my childhood dim sum with my best friend and her family! ^_^

Elka Karl 1 year 13 weeks

Yum! I took my grandma and great aunt for dim sum in Oakland Chinatown a few years back (they were in their 80s at the time) and they ate everything with relish, but I think it blew them away a little. They're from a WI farm town, population 600, and it was definitely different than their usual fare.