Six rules for eating dim sum like a Hong Kong pro

A New Yorker going to Hong Kong to enjoy an authentic dim sum experience may walk away a little deflated: largely gone are the traditional carts, loaded with delicately flavoured bite-size dishes, that diners flag down as they pass by in many American restaurants.

In the home of the cuisine, they’ve largely been relegated to history and replaced with à la carte menus.

However, what you’re guaranteed to see in both New York and Hong Kong, are traditional dishes such as steamed buns stuffed with sticky-sweet pork, xiaolongbao [delicate pork dumplings filled with a piping-hot broth], and chewy chicken feet that will test the carnivorous mettle of the more timid meat-eaters.

Sweet sits alongside savoury, often in the same bite-size dish, washed down with plenty of jasmine tea.

The methods of presentation are changing, but the rules governing how you eat dim sum remain the same everywhere.

We asked the world’s first Chinese cook to earn three Michelin Stars, Chan Yan-tak, executive chef of Hong Kong’s Lung King Heen restaurant at the Four Seasons, about what to do – and more importantly – what to avoid.

1. Nibble, don’t gobble

“It’s better to take small bites rather than eat a whole piece of dim sum in one gulp.

“The flavours are enjoyed more when consumed slowly. With xiaolongbao, pick them up just a bit below the very tip, where the dumpling skin folds together.