To the people of southeastern China, particularly those of Canton, and Hong Kong, Cantonese Dim Sum is far more than food. It is a custom rooted in history and mythology. It is brunch with tea. It is the Chinese equivalent of the business lunch. It is the core around which families gather.

1. FARE OF THE COUNTRY; WHY DIM
SUM IS 'HEART'S DELIGHT'
To the people of southeastern China, particularly those of Canton, and Hong Kong,
Cantonese Dim Sum is far more than food. It is a custom rooted in history and mythology.
It is brunch with tea. It is the Chinese equivalent of the business lunch. It is the core
around which families gather.
In Cantonese the words dim sum mean ''a dot on the heart,'' or more broadly, ''the
heart's delight,'' and the seemingly unending dishes of beautifully shaped dim sum that
are carried or wheeled by as you sit in a teahouse sipping green or black tea do indeed
bring a sense of wonder and joy.
On the mainland of China itself, dim sum is virtually unknown outside the area around
Canton - and, of course, the British colony of Hong Kong that adjoins it - although in
cosmopolitan Shanghai there are both dim sum teahouses and a few Shanghai-style dim
sum dishes. In Peking there are steamed breads and small buns that are similar, but
they are not consumed in the tradition of the dim sum teahouse. Rather, they are meals
themselves or accompaniments to courses.
The atmosphere of the teahouses in which dim sum is served is often as important as the
food. In a little teahouse such as Hing Wan on Queen's Road in Hong Kong's central
district, you sit beneath a ceiling hung with bird cages. They belong to elderly wealthy
men who cling to the tradition of carrying their birds while taking a walk before tea. You
might prefer to indulge in a restaurant on Nathan Road in Kowloon called the
International, which seats 1,500 people on each of three floors; nevertheless customers
must wait for seats on Sundays.
And what is worth waiting for? The following are perhaps the most famous of the many
dim sum:
- Har gau (shrimp dumplings), crescent-shaped dumplings filled with shrimp and pork.
- Fung ngan gau (phoenix eyes), which look, as intended, like women's eyes - almond-
shaped and dotted with minced shrimp and egg whites.
- Fun guor (rice noodle fruit), half-moons filled with ground pork, mushrooms and
shrimp.
- Siu mai (cook-and-sell dumplings), basket-shaped dumplings that earn their name by
being the first made, the first sold, the first eaten.
- Char siu bau (barbecued pork), steamed or baked buns filled with chunks of roast pork
- known to many Americans.

2. - Siu lung bau (soup dumplings), made with gelatin, shrimp and pork so that when they
are steamed, the gelatin becomes soup inside the dumpling.
- Nor mai gai (lotus leaf rice), pillow-shaped masses of glutinous rice into which have
been folded mushrooms, chicken, pork, shrimp and Chinese smoked pork sausage, the
whole then wrapped with dried lotus leaves and steamed. The leaf imparts a slightly
sweet aroma and taste.
- Jook (thick rice soup), or congee, as the Cantonese call this soup, which resembles
porridge because of the preserved eggs and pork, or pieces of chicken, that are usually
added.
- Yeung hai kim (stuffed crab claws), claws around which chopped shrimp are mounded,
then deep-fried.
- Chun guen (spring rolls), tiny log-shaped fried rolls filled with pork, shrimp, water
chestnuts, bamboo shoots and scallions. They are not to be confused with that American
invention, the larger egg roll.
- Woo gok (dumplings fashioned from mashed taro root and stuffed with pork and
mushrooms) are football-shaped and deep-fried until crisp and brown.
- Lor bok goh (turnip cake), a translucent cake of turnips, ginger, shrimp and rice
powder that is cut into slices and pan-fried before serving.
And there are many more, all to be discovered in serendipitous fashion. Waitresses
traditionally wheel the dim sum in on carts in such restaurants as King Bun in Hong
Kong's central district and the venerable Luk Kwok on Gloucester Road. You select by
pointing or asking for what you want as you drink one of several varieties of tea - green,
black, jasmine, chrysanthemum or oolong.
The tea has been important since the eighth century, when Lu Yu, China's historical
master of the beverage, wrote his ''Classic of Tea.'' It set down for the first time how tea
leaves should be grown and processed, how the product should be brewed and steeped,
how it should be served. He wrote that tea is a drink for body and soul, a mental
stimulant, perhaps even an aid toward eventual immortality.
T he beginnings of the dim sum meal go back to the Sung Dynasty, when travelers on the
highways of southern China in the 10th century would stop at small roadside teahouses
to refresh themselves with tea and light meals. It was centuries before the practice took
root and the Chinese of the south devised the small bite-sized foods that became stylized
into dim sum.
These days you will see businessmen discussing what is most dear to them, sales clerks
around a table chattering, family groups of three or more generations clustered together
for a Sunday morning reunion, all enjoying dim sum, perhaps the most inexpensive of
Chinese foods.

3. One of the more memorable dim sum meals I have had recently was in the 1,000-seat
Maxim's Palace in the new World Trade Center extension of Hong Kong's Excelsior
Hotel. It is a huge barn of a restaurant hung with gold and red dragons supported by
green-painted pillars around which curl gilded phoenixes. Maxim's Palace is busy and
noisy and the wagons of dim sum come by at an almost breathtaking rate.
First we had har gau, those delicious moist shrimp dumplings, then bowls of jook filled
with chunks of preserved eggs. We also had a specialty of Maxim's Palace, gum yueh gau
- or golden fish - which is a dumpling sculptured in the shape of a goldfish and stuffed
with shrimp and pork.
Next came slices of fried water-chestnut cake, with siu mai, those basket-shaped ''cook-
and-sell'' dumplings; and another specialty, gun jing ngau yuk kau, tiny beef meatballs.
Before finishing with sweet egg custard tarts we had kim ding guen cho, pigs' feet and
egg cooked with shredded ginger and black, sweet rice vinegar. Wonderful!
One pays for dim sum by the plate. Each preparation comes on a different sized and
shaped plate - round, oval, deep and saucerlike, in bamboo steamers, in metal fluted
pastry tins. And when it is time to pay the bill the waiter simply counts the plates and
matches price to size and shape. Most dim sum cost from 50 cents to 75 cents for three
or four dumplings. For only a few dollars a party of four can snack to their heart's
content. Or even their heart's delight.