The changing of Dim Sum - Essay Example

The changing of Dim Sum The term culture in the simplest and most basic sense refers to the way of life of a group of people in a society. This is to say the way the people talk, marry, relate, eat, mannerisms, ethics and anything that is distinctly unique about the people makes their culture. Food and the general eating mannerisms constitute a critical part of the culture of people in any society. This is so because food represents different things to different people, whereby what is considered a delicacy in one society or culture may be a lot less in another culture (Hearst, 11).

This paper will thus focus on the Dim Sum as a Chinese delicacy or food and the cultural weight and implication it bears relative to the Chinese people. Thus, just as the cultural tenets and principles of people do change, so does the Dim Sum as a delicacy and important treat of a meal (Nahm, 152).To begin with, the words Dim Sum in the loosest of translations refers to a light touch on the heart. In the past society and generations, dim sum was served as a unifying meal. This happened since the delicacy revives feelings of friendship in the good way.

Just as culture is learnt and shared from one generation to the next, the dim sum as a concept has also been passed from one generation to the next (Watson and Melissa, 7). This means that even the ingredients and spices that were used to make the original dim sum are slightly different from the subsequent ones. For instance, in the ancient times, dim sum was treated in a casual manner where acquaintances, family and friends shared as an equivalent of “tea testing.” Dim sum was often served to the friends when they were waiting for the main meal, thus it was used as an appetizer.

In principle, the preparation of the dim sum included spices such as prawn, chicken, dumplings, rice noodle rolls which are known as “cheong fun” (Fung, Hung-Gay, Derrick and Yau, 19). As the times have changed, chefs and most restaurants have introduced pork and vegetables to and spice and give variety to consumers. This is aimed at responding to the people who may not be consumers of meat thus, allowing them the option of having dim sum in the form of vegetables (Alperson, 23). This has been necessitated by changing demands of the people in the society who are strict vegetarians but would still wish to enjoy their exquisite cuisine.

It is important to note and mention that the traditional society did serve dim sum for the better part of the morning up to mid-afternoon. However, in the face of the changing dynamic times, restaurants and eateries have had to serve dim sum after the culturally stipulated times. This has prompted the chefs to make the dim sum in form of desserts which could be taken home by the people going to offices or students (Forrester and Draper, 415). For instance, the chefs have been forced to introduce egg tarts so as to make the dim sum desserts more appealing to the young generation and the working class.

In the current times, there has been an upsurge in the way dim sum is served and prepared. In the olden days, it was common for the dim sum was prepared by boiling and steaming, in this days dim sum is fried so as to give it the different taste.Works CitedAlperson, Myra. Dim Sum, Bagels, and Grits: A Sourcebook for Multicultural Families. Macmillan, 2001.Forrester, Victor, and Janet Draper. "The Professional Formation and Learning of New Secondary Teachers in Hong Kong: a dim–sum model?." Teacher Development 9.3 (2005): 413-428.

Fung, Hung-Gay, Derrick Tzau, and Jot Yau. "Offshore Renminbi-denominated bonds: Dim sum bonds." Chinese economy 46.2 (2013): 6-28.Hearst, Marti A. "Uis for faceted navigation: Recent advances and remaining open problems." HCIR 2008: Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval. 2008.Nahm, Werner. "Supersymmetries and their representations." Nuclear Physics B 135.1 (1978): 149-166.Watson, James L., and Melissa L. Caldwell, Eds. The cultural politics of food and eating.

Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.