[Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks digest, Vol 1 #2334 - 12 msgs

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Peldyn at aol.com:
>  > > Avraham:  Correct, except I remember being told that "dim sum" translates
>>  to
>>  > "small
>>  > foods".
>>
>>  Someone told you wrong.  It's Cantonese.  "Touching the Heart" is another
>>  interpretation.  Of course, the book from which I learned that is at home
>>  and
>>  I'm at work.  I think it was THE DIM SUM BOOK BY Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.  Amazon
>>  says
>>  it is out of print and quite collectible, gee!
>>
>>  Selene Colfox
>>
>>
>
>I have "Dim Sum" by Rhoda Yee and she says nearly the same. That dim sum
>means close to the heart.

I've heard that interpretation. It's also quite possible that in
Cantonese, which dialect is deeply infused with puns and
colloquialisms with more than one meaning, it could mean either.

The Toysan Cantonese usually seem to call this type of meal 'em chlem
(standard Toysan pronunciation shift for dim sum) or cha ngow. Tea
meats. Although cha ngow seem to be more of a quick meal than dim
sum, which is a little on the refined side by comparison. A cha ngow
meal sometimes includes larger buns the size of a softball, and not
especially dainty, tastiness notwithstanding. Chicken, shrimp, black
mushrooms, barbecued pork and lop cheung sausage with boiled duck
eggs in a large steamed bun, for example, is a classic, but a little
coarse for dim sum. Cha ngow you eat out on the steps of the shop, or
at least at the formica counter ;-).

I'm sorry if I have seemed to ignore the [Morgana's?] question; it's
been a rough week, and a serious response will require more time than
I've had in the past several days.

I agree with HG Cariadoc, though, that there are probably appropriate
recipes for little dishes in the Ni Tsan Cloud Forest Whatchamacallit
(Drakey? You getting this?) and in A Soup for the Qan. I mean, if the
justification for doing a Chinese meal with tea is that it is more
period than an afternoon "tea", then you probably need more in the
way of period Chinese recipes, or you'd just be substituting one
non-period thing for another. It also adds credence to the erroneous
theory that ethnic food is period by default.

Adamantius

--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER