Qing Ming, or Tomb Sweeping Day, is a national holiday in China held every spring, in which people honor their deceased relatives. Many people go back to their hometowns or to the country side where their family has been buried to light incense or fireworks, or leave flowers. And then the families generally will have a lunch or picnic after, maybe go hiking or do something a little more upbeat.
My lovely friends, left to right: Jess, Fei, Me, Champagne
I like this tradition but like many things in China while the idea is good, due to the mass amounts of people, the execution is not ideal. Today at dim sum, my friend Fei was telling me that she went to visit her relatives’ graves and it was overcrowded with people, noisy with too many fireworks, and generally the opposite of a peaceful time of remembrance.
And so, the holiday was yesterday, Thursday, which means many people also had today off, so three lovely ladies and I went to dim sum today. Dim Sum, translates to morning tea in Cantonese, and is traditionally many small plates of a variety of foods (read about my first time eating dim sum, Yum..Dim Sum). Most Americans would recognize some of these foods, like dumplings, wontons, and egg rolls. That’s because most of the Chinese that came to the USA were Cantonese and brought with them their dim sum food. Unlike in the states where you see egg rolls on the menu any time of day, dim sum in China is typically a morning/brunch affair. Also, restaurants specialize in dim sum so it’s not available at every restaurant.
Today, we had egg rolls, black pepper beef ribs, several dumplings (the first time I had a dumpling with ground beef, veggies, and peanuts), sweet radish and green tea cakes, and you can’t have dim sum without chicken feet! Jess and I both declined, despite strong encouragement from our local friends. I have no doubt the flavor of the sauce used on the chicken feet is good, but I just can’t bring myself to eat the skin and tendons, let alone stomach the fact that chickens stand in chicken shit every day of their short lives.
from left to right: minced beef wrapped in rice noodles, shrimp dumplings, sweet radish/green tea cakes
The Chinese fan favorite and foreigner gag inducer: chicken feet.
Oolong tea at Sun Loft, a dim sum restaurant in Guangzhou.
And of course, you need to have tea at dim sum! Today at the restaurant we had a choice of six or so different teas; green, black, flower (like rose and jasmine)-we chose the Oolong. Most of the time in China, tea comes loose, meaning you can use the leaves much more than if it came in a bag. So, add water to the existing leaves in the pot, and you have bottomless tea!
Milk and sugar is not served with tea (that’s something the British started). Personally, the tea is good enough on its own, that I think sugar and milk would mask the flavor.
A Cantonese desert: mango ball rolled in coconut
After dim sum, and even though we were all full, we couldn’t pass up this little Cantonese desert cafe. We had ‘mango glutinous balls’ and and ‘glutinous peanut balls in hot ginger tea’. Mouth watering? Right, but they were surprisingly light and tasty. FYI, ‘glutinous’ is a common mistranslated word; I came across it often in Korea too.
Me and Fei
I’ve mentioned my friend, Fei (aka her English name, Sophie), in a previous post, Yum…Dim Sum, but we used to work together at EF and she used to live in Minnesota! The friendship was immediate, and she is a very smart and sweet girl. As a going-away present, she gave me a gold necklace (in addition to the Chinese Lucky Cat piggy bank she gave me for my birthday. Lucky cats are ceramic statues that vary in size, popular in both China and Japan, and can be found in homes, restaurants, and shops as a sign of welcome).
Although the weather has been miserably humid and rainy, today was a lovely day with great food and even better company.