What is Dim Sum?
It's a snack, it's an appetizer, it's a spiritual experience! Directly translated, dim sum means "touch your heart," an apt reference to these little dishes that both delight the palate and capture the imagination.

Dim sum are Cantonese snacks (known locally as Yam-Cha), tasty little dumplings and pastries stuffed with meats or vegetables. This is perhaps the most popular form of southern cuisine, since a meal of dim sum is a great way to pick and choose a variety of foods without feeling overly full. Waitresses push around carts laden with small, freshly cooked snacks, and diners simply stop them and are served what they want.

Tea and Dim Sum
The custom of tea drinking in China dates back to the legendary Shen Nung, who is said to have personally tried hundreds of grasses and herbs to test their medicinal effects and toxicity. Tea was a popular drink in the Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), and gradually innovations in the tea drinking custom were introduced. In addition to a high level of connoisseurship of the various types of tea and improvements in the quality of tea leaves, a broad variety of accompaniments to tea drinking began to
appear--dim sum.