Sunday, September 26, 2010
Tea, dim sum, and more tea
Since I haven't visited any truly foreign countries, I would like to speak a bit about an interesting tradition that Chinese people have. Anywhere from early morning until late afternoon, families and friends will go to a restaurant to drink tea and eat dim sum. It is called going "yum cha," which translates literally to "drink tea." Although that is the name of this phenomenon, I would say that the food is equally as important as the tea. There are many great dishes that somehow, just go well together with tea. But then again, what doesn't tea go well with? That is not to say that only Chinese people do it, because anyone can just go to one of these restaurants (very prevalent in chinatowns) and enjoy the food and tea. Even though I have been going to "yum cha" for a long time now and it's normal to me, I can see how interesting it can seem to those that are not in the know. People getting together to drink tea? Don't they have anything better to do? Whether or not that is the case, it is a good place to be and the social aspect of it is usually the reason many come together to this event. As a kid, I used to go about once every two weeks, but there is no set date for when you can go. It is available every single day of the year. As I got older, I went to these gatherings less and less, so these days I'm kind of looking forward to the next I go. In hindsight, I really didn't have anything better to do, so I went and enjoyed some nice hot tea.
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"Yum cha" that is Chinese people tradition culture. In the US and UK, the phrase “dim sum” is often used in place of “yum cha”. In China, people usually go to restaurants in the morning for their breakfast. They can eat different kinds of “dim sum”. For example, like rice noodle, dumplings, pork bun and so on. So, we can see how different from America. In America, people usually have coffee, cake and so on. That is a different between America and China.
ReplyDeleteHi Will!
ReplyDeleteI love tea also, preferably ginger tea..and with cookies! In the Indian culture, tea is a must for social gatherings, and people usually drink like 3-4 cups a day. I think you should keep going to these restaurants so you could keep this aspect of your culture alive for yourself and for your children (if you plan to have any), and because tea is simply awesome =D.
Hello, Will, thank you for sharing the tradition with us on your blog. It does seem strange from the first sight. But you would be surprised to hear that the Russians have similar tradition of drinking tea (they used to have samovars - big tea pots to boil water for 10 people). Interestingly enough the British also have similar tradition of drinking just tea (unlike the chinese, they add milk to it)...And then the Italians or the French drink coffee and almost make at a tradition to a certain extent...Again, it makes me believe that from the first sight cultures seem to have completely different traditions, but if you look closer, they have a lot of similar customs...I guess, it's just a matter when a certain tradition was born or adopted and how it was interpreted by other cultures later on....
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