Yum Cha

Last Mother’s Day, I heard the term Yum Chow for the first time and presumed it to refer to Good Chinese Food in a modern way. We took Bianca and Jeanette to the Chinese Restaurant in Wellington for lunch that Sunday. We shared a large round table with a couple of Bianca’s clients, who, in terms of what I could understand, explained that Yum Chow was their equivalent of a weekly meal out, including Chinese tea.

That was really the last I heard of Yum Chow.

Of course, I will never hear of Yum Chow again, either. That’s because it is, in actual fact, Yum Cha.

Driving towards Param from Waikanae the other morning, I passed a large signboard in a property adjoining SH1 at the Lindale turnoff. The board announces Tea Room  - Yum Cha. How’s that for coincidence?

Kapi-Tea:

Yum cha in Cantonese Chinese literally means "drink tea", while ban ming is a more poetic term meaning "tasting of tea". In the US and UK, the phrase dim sum is often used in place of yum cha; in Cantonese, dim sum refers to the wide range of small dishes, whereas yum cha, or "drinking tea", refers to the entire meal.

The Cantonese Chinese term yam cha or yum cha primarily refers to the tradition of morning tea in Cantonese cuisine exemplified by the traditional tea houses of Guangzhou (Canton). Due to the prevalence of Cantonese cuisine outside China, the Cantonese yum cha tradition can be found in many parts of the world. By analogy, yum cha is also used to refer to morning or afternoon teas in other Chinese cultural traditions, even though such meals have different native names.

Just in case you wanted to know. Yum.