Some Popular and Delicious Dim Sum Dishes

Dim sum is the Chinese style of serving an array of small plates of savoury and sweet foods, that go towards making up a delicious meal. These feasts are traditionally enjoyed by groups of family and friends over long brunches, accompanied by piping hot cups of tea.

The most popular dim sum dishes include steamed, boiled, and fried dumplings, bite-sized meats, steamed buns, spring rolls, rice and noodle dishes, and creamy desserts. These are served in no particular order, and the fun is in sharing the different dishes, and enjoying the variety of tastes. 

Here are a few of the more popular ones:

1. Har Gow (Chinese Steamed Shrimp Dumplings)

No dim sum experience would be complete without these popular steamed shrimp dumplings. Sweet shrimp are put inside translucent wrappers with mild Chinese vegetables, creating a tingling if the senses. Coat your fingertips, equipment, and work surface with a thin coating of vegetable oil when working with the thin, stretchy dough to keep it from sticking.

2. Lo Mai Gai (Sticky Rice with Lotus Leaf Wraps)

Opening up a fragrant lotus leaf to discover the filling of sticky rice, meat, and vegetables is a culinary adventure. The delicious, aromatic filling includes steamed glutinous rice (available at supermarkets), marinated chicken breast, seasoned sausages, and soaked dried mushrooms. Each ingredient requires care before being stir-fried together and enclosed in the leaf wrapper, but the result is yummy!

3. Paper Wrapped Chicken

Tender, marinated chicken breast chunks, mushrooms, and scallions are folded into parchment paper envelopes, and deep-fried until they are hot and fragrant. Fry the packets in batches, letting finished packets drain on paper towels, and serve them unopened. 

4. Jiaozi (Chinese Dumplings)

Whether you serve them steamed or fried, these tasty dumplings filled with ground pork or beef (or any other meat of your choice) and Chinese vegetables, are sure to disappear from the table. You can follow the instructions for a homemade dough, or make life easier with store-bought wonton wrappers. Don't overcrowd the pot when boiling the dumplings, to prevent sticking. 

5. Dim Sum Shrimp Toast with Water Chestnuts: 

Delight your guests with scrumptious, open-faced fried shrimp and vegetable sandwiches. Use a crusty bread for this recipe, such as country loaf or French baguette, and pre-bake the bread slices as suggested, to prevent them becoming soggy when deep-fried. Add toasted sesame seeds at the end, for an appetising presentation.

6. Chinese Fried Shrimp Balls: 

Seasoned balls of juicy minced shrimp and crunchy water chestnuts are deep-fried in oil until crisp and golden, in this dim sum recipe that also makes a fabulous party appetiser. 

7. Char Siu (Chinese Style Barbecued Pork)

Lacquered barbecued pork is a traditional Chinese dish enjoyed at dim sum meals, either on its own, on top of noodles, or stuffed inside of doughy buns. Typically, pork shoulder is used for this recipe, which marinates the meat for a few hours in a sweet and tangy Asian barbecue sauce, and is oven-roasted to perfection. 

8. Chinese Sausage Fried Rice:

Chinese sausage adds its sweet flavour to this quick and easy fried rice recipe, which makes great use of leftover cooked rice and makes a pleasing weeknight meal. It is full of nutrition and flavour from sausage chunks, scrambled eggs, frozen peas, shredded carrot, rice, oyster sauce, and soy sauce. 

9. Mango Pudding:

This favourite, fruity, creamy dim sum dessert can be made at home with a 5-ingredient recipe. Ripe mangoes are pureed in the food processor or blender, then combined with coconut milk and sweetened gelatin, and refrigerated for at least 2 hours to set. 

10. Cheung Fun

Cheung fun is a dish composed of wide, semi-translucent rice noodles that envelop an array of fillings and are then steamed. The stuffing of cheung fun can be shrimp, pork, or even veggies, and the entire dish is usually bathed in a light soy sauce.

11. Pei Guen

In English they can be described as tofu skin rolls or bean curd rolls. Pei guen is either fried or steamed but the steamed version is the variant most often found in dim sum trolleys. Tofu skin rolls are made by wrapping seasoned minced pork in tofu skin which forms on the surface of the vat during the production of tofu.

12. GAM CIN TOU: STEAMED BLACK BEAN BEEF TRIPE

Don’t be afraid! This is another famously delicious steamed dim sum dish you need to try in Hong Kong. The springy honeycomb section of the beef stomach is steamed in a deliciously fragrant and spicy black bean sauce and served in a bamboo steamer.

13. HAI KIM - DEEP FRIED CRAB LOLLIPOPS

Crab claws have all the shell removed except for the pincer and are wrapped up with either shrimp or crab flesh and coated in bread crumbs and sometimes sliced almonds. They are golden delicious and very nice when dipped in the provided sweet chili sauce!

14. WAT GAI CHEON GUN - CHICKEN SPRING ROLLS

Spring rolls! Perhaps the most famous dim sum dish overseas found in almost all Chinese restaurants around the world! Here in Hong Kong, they are brought to another level! Extremely crispy and stuffed plump with chicken and vegetables.

15. Steamed Beef Meatballs

One of the best dim sum dishes to order is the steamed beef meatballs with water chestnut and cilantro. They have a slightly crunchy texture from the water chestnut and a fresh hint from the cilantro.

16. WŌTIP - BEEF POTSTICKER DUMPLINGS

The wotip beef or pork potsticker dumplings are one of the most famous Chinese dumplings you can try. Known as guotie in Mandarin, they are fried in oil until crispy on the outside and dipped in a red vinegar that is sour and fresh at the same time. 

17. WODAN NIUROUFAN - STEAMED RICE WITH BEEF AND EGG

This is super famous in Hong Kong. Minced beef loaded with light seasonings and cilantro is served with a raw egg and steamed overtop of rice.

18. CHAOZHOU FUN GUO - CHAOZHOU DUMPLINGS

Another famous dumpling to try is the Chaohou Fun Guo, a plump and deliciously filled pouch of pork, cilantro, peanuts, mushrooms, and celery. 

19. Dan Dan Noodles

Surprise your taste buds now, and later on, surprise family and friends by making them this truly authentic and famous Sichuan noodle dish.

20. Steamed Ribs in Black Bean Sauce

These juicy pork ribs  are a  dim sum hit! The sauce is so fragrant and savoury, you’d better make a bigger batch or you’ll regret not having leftovers.

21. Instant Pot Chinese Sausage Rice

This mostly hands-off recipe comes together in a flash. Your reward are hunks of sweet Chinese sausage mingling with crunchy water chestnuts for a speedy and tasty meal.

--Raja Mitra