Jon Lin Blog

I’m going to throw this picture up, and chances are that you’ll recognize what it is. It is a succulent looking 蝦餃 (har gao), a shrimp dumpling wrapped in a flour shell of sorts.

If you go to different restaurants, it is likely that this item will vary quality and taste. But you will see this standard dish (along with other staple items) on Chinese carts everywhere at lunch.

And ladies and gentlemen, that is the Failure of Dim Sum. Not the 蝦餃 directly. Let me clarify…

Dim Sum is one of the Chinese cuisines that has barely evolved since inception, and has not changed in the last 100-some years. It always has the same selection, or minor variations of the same staple item. It seems that putting veggies inside the 蝦餃 is the most creative thing Chinese chefs can do.

In fact, when customers evaluate Dim Sum restaurants, the criteria is usually how it tastes, how much it costs, and how much MSG the chef uses – that is it. There is never any discussion on the creativity of the dishes, the different and unique selection, or experimentation of the chef.

Look over the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean, and you’ll new dishes and new flavours being whipped up everywhere in different cultures. Look at the evolution of Chinese Dim Sum, and you’ll see that it hasn’t changed since your great grand parents were born.

Dim Sum is perpeptually the same, boring, staple dishes over and over again.

Sure, Dim Sum is traditional and classic – after all, billions of Chinese people (myself included) can’t be wrong. But please, give this traditional and classic fare some new life before the customers actually catch on…