Saturday Morning in Chinatown

Check out the audio-slideshow Chris and I made about our most recent Eating San Francisco escapade to Chinatown:



When we started brainstorming for this project, Chris and I were leaning in the direction of paralleling the Americanization and "Disneyification" of Chinatown and how it depicts Chinese culture to visitors, with the similar deviation of Chinese cuisine from the traditional once it hit American soil, focusing on our Dim Sum experience. After doing some research, however, we discovered that while many facets of Chinese cuisine have indeed been Americanized, the ritual meal of Dim Sum seems to have been the only surviver of emigration.

Like we mentioned in our slideshow, and according to Information China, the Chinese people regard food as one of the most important things in life, according to an old proverb. The first restaurants and teahouses in the world were opened in China prior to 1000AD, where owners used steaming and boiling as their main cooking methods. The oldest book on food science in the world, a sort of cookbook and agricultural encyclopedia called "Qi Min Yao Shu" or Guide to a Wealthy Life, was recorded in China. Not only is food valued for nutrition and enjoyment by the Chinese, but also for medicinal purposes. Foods are cooked using healing herbs for certain ailments, for example: cinnamon and ginger for colds and flu, certain soups for stomach bleeding or insomnia, and gruels made with a Chinese berry for fevers. The drinking of herbal teas is also a valued Chinese tradition that has been upheld for thousands of years. China is the native place of tea, being the first country to grow and drink it over 3000 years ago. It is no wonder, then, that an activity ecompassing both steamed or boiled food and tea has grown into such an important tradition in Chinese communities around the world.

According to the Encyclopedia of China, Dim Sum literally means "heart's delight" in Cantonese. It is a tradition that got its start on Silk Road in China, along which tea houses opened as rest stops for traveling traders. At this time, and for a while after, it was against Chinese etiquette to eat while drinking tea, but when societies began discovering that tea aided in digestions, teahouse owners included small snacks in their service. Dim sum became a light snack to be enjoyed with afternoon tea in southern Chinese culture. The dishes were influenced by the region, and included steamed southern foods like meat dumplings, sesame balls filled with bean paste, spring rolls, fried meats and vegetables, and rice soup. As the size of the meal grew, so did the variety of the tradition. The people of China now enjoy Dim Sum lunches, have business meetings in the teahouses, meet for social gatherings around Dim Sum, and get together with their families in the mornings on the weekends passing dumplings around on lazy susans. There are no menus, only carts filled with steam plates pushed around by servers who keep track of the dishes you choose.

Though the mention of Chinese food in America usually evokes images of greasy chow mein, deep fried orange chicken, and soy sauce soaked processed potstickers, Dim Sum is the excluded Chinese culinary institution that preserves the time-honored fresh and natural cooking methods of China in America. In traditional Chinese cooking, the most efficient, natural foods are used. Soybeans, cabbage and other local vegetables, fish, poultry, pork, rice, and wheat are all common ingredients that yield a lot of food for little money. More metripolitan areas in China have been infiltrated by more processed and less local cuisine in this more global society, however it is a middle and upper class privilege. The traditional cooking methods still apply in villages and small towns in China where residents are less likely to have access to any ethnic or imported foods.

Some of our other sources:

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

The Chinese Historical and Cultural Project

Dim Sum Wiki

American Chinese Cuisine Wiki