Cantonese Dim Sum Culture
1 History
 Cantonese love drinking tea very much. Morning tea or Dim Sum could go back to 200
years ago. People loved drinking tea so much so there were a lot of tea houses where
you could drink tea with some refreshment.

Canton became commercially important then and a lot of merchant, businessmen lived
there. They needed to socialize and network, so tea houses became even more popular.

As the demand for tea houses became bigger and bigger, those tea houses owners
started to convert the tea houses to restaurants and offer tea with small dishes.

As people went there in the morning usually, so they called it morning tea. As they
served small dishes which were called Dim Sum in Cantonese, Morning Tea was also
called Dim Sum.
1. Nowadays Morning Tea or Dim Sum

Morning tea can last for several hours, so it is brunch for people.

It is more for socializing and networking for businessmen and businesswormen

It is very important for families as usually all the family members will get together to
have morning tea as brunch.

It is also important for friends as a lot of friends will meet to have morning tea.

It is very popular among retired people. Many of them go to restaurants for morning tea
right after their morning exercise and stay there for whole morning and lunch, say even
from around 6am to 1pm.

Popular restaurants for morning tea usually have very long line ups. And now it is not
only morning tea, but afternoon team evening tea. Tea party start from around 6am and
finish around midnight.

It is relative cheap and casual.

It is not only popular in Canton now, but spread to other parts of China.

There are so many varieties for people to choose. .
2. Tea & Small Dishes

Usually they serve Dim Sum and tea.

You will have to tell people what kind of tea you want when you sit down. There are
quite a lot varieties.

Small dishes are served in small bamboo baskets or small plates. Usually 3 or 4 pieces
each basket or plate.

In very traditional way, waiters and waitresses will walk around the restaurant with a big
cart. In cart there are all different dishes. When they walk to you, you just take whatever
you want. And then the waitor or waitress will stamp on a piece of paper for payment.

The dishes will be labeled from small, then middle, then big and then super and last
special. Prices go up with different labels.

The most popular dishes are
Shrimp dumplings, Chicken Feet, Tart
3. Fun Facts
Cantonese people love tea. The tea tradition can go back to more than 1000 years ago and
there was a story about this tradition. There was a king in Canton area at that time who loved
tea so much. One day he was drinking tea with his officers by the river side. It was the
sun-rise time and with the morning sun, the river became gold which was the color of the
king. The king was so happy and he grabbed some tea leaves and threw them to the river.
Surprisingly the tea leaves changed to a group of flamingos in the air which represented
longevity. The king was even happier. Then the group of flamingos flew around and then
changed to a group of fairy ladies and went to the king and his officers. The fairy ladies
poured tea for them. The king believed tea was so important and the whole kingdom loved
tea from then on. Till now it is still a very important part in their daily life.
When you go to the morning tea, people will pour tea for the senior people (in age and title)
first. They will pour tea for the guests first if there are any. Then tea will be poured to
younger ones or juniors in title.
When someone pour tea for you, you have to tap the table with bending index and middle
fingers to say thanks. Bending index and middle fingers means to kneel down to say thank
you. It came from a very wise emperor who went to check ordinary people’s life with his
servants. He pretended to be a businessman. When he and his servants were having morning
tea, the emperor poured tea for the servants which scared the servants. They were supposed
to kneel down but as they pretended they were just commoners, they could not kneel down.
So the servant bent the index and middle fingers and tapped the table to represent kneeling
down.
In Chinese culture, it is impolite to pour full cup tea as there is a saying” Full cup tea is to let
people go and full cup wine is to welcome people. So you always pour 80% tea and full cup wine.