It belongs to a group of dishes popularly called dim sum (literally, to touch your heart); it includes a variety of dumplings, steamed or fried, buns, tarts and other assorted small dishes. Usually the portions are bite-size and they are served in small plates or in tiers of bamboo steamers. Trolleys are frequently used to carry the dim sum, moving slowly from table to table with customers making their selection on the spot.
In Guangdong province, people frequent teahouses to eat, socialize or conduct business over cups of tea and some type of snack food was served to accompany the drink. This practice was called “yam cha”—going to tea because drinking tea is usually accompanied by dim sum. Hong Kong chefs refined the art of making dim sum and today over 600 kinds of dim sum are produced, while new ones are constantly being invented.
Chinese fast foods have always been popular in the Philippines. Preciosa S. Soliven (The Restaurant experience from the 50s to the Present) once wrote that “after shopping in Escolta, Echague or Avenida Rizal, we would have…siopao and mami in Ma Mon Luk restaurant.” When she and Max married in 1957, it was a honeymoon in Hong Kong and a taste of the real thing – Hong Kong cuisine.
Ten years later, your favorite food columnist had eaten in the same restaurant, savoring the same snacks because portions were huge, filling an ever-growling stomach of an economically deprived student at that time. Visiting Ongpin (my interest with food was then at an infant stage), I was fascinated by bizarre-looking live sea creatures sold and the strange food ingredients on display. Even the air was perfumed by food cooking in the restaurants in Binondo (add a dash of equine excrement, so many calesas!); but wallets were emaciated, so back to Ma Mon Luk na lang.
In 2004, I wrote about an article Siomai, Siopao ug Uban pa and the varieties of dim sum such dumpling, buns, fried or steamed dim sum, rice rolls, animal-shaped dim sum, vegetarian and dessert. I also described the more popular types served in Hong Kong such as the hakaw (har gau or steamed shrimp dumpling, crystal dumpling…) and the cha siu bao (barbecue pork bun).
We do have these varieties here in Cebu, often served in the better restaurants. Unfortunately some siopaos have fillings so dreadful it could only be made by people pretending to be Chinese chefs. That year, I also had a wish that I could savor some of Hong Kong finest dim sum, such as the:
1. Shark’s fin dumpling in soup
2. Mini abalone -chicken nest
3. Wealth and rank dumplings
4. Immortal fruit in water caltrop pond
5. Four-happiness steamed dumplings and
6. Fragrant king of durian
Four years later, your favorite food columnist finally had a taste of one of these six dim sum dishes, the Shark’s fin dumpling in soup (also called Double Boiled Shark’s Fin Ravioli in Superior Soup) during a press preview of the “Touch the Heart” food festival at Tea of Spring, Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa. Hong Kong Chef Yip Kam Wing demonstrated his expertise (20 years only) in preparing such a wonderful lunch, a 10-course tasty journey into the world of sophisticated dim sum as shown in these photos.
This dim sum odyssey will be available only for a limited period, from April 10 to 18, unless Chef Yip (on loan from Makati Shangri-La) conveniently loses his plane ticket and linger around a few days more for sun and fun here in Cebu.
For your favorite food columnist, it was worth the wait (one dim sum dish in four years, 20 years to go!) but I still have my sights on the dim sum, excuse me, for the culinary elite. It is the bird’s nest bun that cost 25 US dollars per steamer (three bite-sized pieces, 1985 prices!). Its skin is made from milk and large grain sugar, which makes it smooth, white and soft to bite. What makes it expensive is the filling, which is first grade bird’s nest.
If you think you have tasted this in your favorite soup, the Bird’s Nest Soup, often a first entry, in many lauriats in Cebu, you are dreaming. The only thing related to birds in the soup is the quail eggs; one soup bowl of the real stuff is equivalent to the cost of the entire banquet itself.