Yam-cha at Maxim in Sungai Dua…

We went for ‘yam-cha’ at Maxim in Sungai Dua area this morning. Yam-cha the Cantonese word for drinking Chinese tea actually means more than that. It describes the whole event of having dimsum and drinking tea (including reading newspapers or bringing along your pet birdie in a cage) for breakfast at the dimsum restaurant. The newspaper and pet birdie scene is pretty common in Hong Kong flicks.

Dimsum are dainty pieces of food served in small dishes. Dimsum originated from China and made was popular by Hong Kong. I think that’s why most of the dimsum names are in Cantonese (Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong)…

There are various types of dimsum and the variety is endless as chefs keep coming up with new recipes. Each restaurant may have their own specialties, but you can find the standard ones like ‘shu-mai’ (steamed pork dumplings), ‘har-kow’ (steamed prawn dumplings), ‘char-siew bao’ (steamed bbq pork buns), ‘lobak kow’ (fried carrot cake), ‘loh-mai kai’ (glutionous rice with chicken) and ‘tan tat’ (egg tart) in almost all dimsum restaurants.

Apart from dimsum, restaurants may also serve other dishes like noodles and porridge. Truly a heavy breakfast indeedy…