Last Monday, some mates and I went for Dim Sum brunch at the Jia He Chinese Restaurant.
Dim sum is the English word based on a Cantonese pronunciation of 點心. If I have to translate 點心, I would say it means a morsel / small bites / bite size / appetizers / or a light snack.
In some respect, it is something like the high tea in western cultures except that dim sum is usually brunch or early afternoon, whereas high tea is mid afternoon.
Dim sum dishes are usually served with Chinese tea and together, they form a full tea brunch. Due to the Cantonese tradition of enjoying tea with this cuisine, yum cha (飲茶), which means "drink tea" in Cantonese, is also synonymous with dim sum.
The practice originated in China, Guangdong, a long time ago. Nowadays, you will can find dim sum where there are Chinese communities, where there are Chinese restaurants.
Yum cha generally involves small portions of steamed, pan-fried, and deep-fried dim sum dishes served in bamboo steamers, which are designed to be eaten communally and washed down with hot tea. Since it is communal dining, people often go to yum cha with family members, or friends for informal gatherings and celebrations.
Dim Sum has a very interesting history. But that’s material for another post, perhaps.
In a traditional Dim Sum restaurant, the staff would go round with pushcarts bearing the dim sum dishes. As she approaches your table, she will rattle off what’s on the cart and if it is something you like to have, she will serve it to you.
Since Jai He Chinese Restaurant is not quite the traditional Chinese restaurant, all the items are listed on the menu. As usual, I left the ordering to my mates. They eat out more often, so they have a better idea what is good. I am also not fussy about food. So, I have the luxury of sitting and waiting to be served.
This is the menu. I think we had almost every item on the menu. It is a Special promotional menu for a minimum of 4 persons.
These were what we had. I will try to give a basic description of the items I am familiar with.
Deep Fried Yam Dumpling with Minced Meat. Minced meat wrapped with dough made of yam.
Deep Fried Bean Skin Roll with Seaweed. Minced meat wrapped with bean curd skin and seaweed.
Deep Fried Prawn Dumpling. This is quite self explanatory.
Steamed Crystal Dumpling with Mushroom. The ‘crystal’ comes from the translucent dumpling wrapping.
Steamed Bean Skin Roll with Chicken. Chicken meat rolled with bean skin and steamed.
Steamed BBQ Pork Bun. Buns with barbecued pork filling.
Steamed Siew Mai with Fish Roe. A favourite dim sum item. It is an open-face steamed dumpling made with minced pork and prawns, wrapped with dough.
Steamed Spare Ribs with Yam and Black Bean Sauce. This is quite self-explanatory.
Steamed Glutinous Rice with Lotus Leaf. This is another classic and popular dim sum dish. It is sticky rice, chicken, salted egg yolk wrapped with lotus leaf and steamed.
Steamed Chicken Feet with Spicy Sauce. This is a Chinese delicacy.
Steamed Wanton with Spicy Sauce. Wantons are minced meat and vegetables wrapped with dough.
Steamed Ba Kut Teh Xiao Long Bao. This is another classic and popular dim sum dish ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants. It is spare ribs in herbal soup wrapped with a thin skin.
Fried Carrot Cake with XO Sauce. This is actually radish cake (different from the western pastry), stir-fried with egg, bean sprouts and a sauce. The sauce varies – some uses a dark sweet sauce, and some do without the sauce.
Century Egg Porridge. Congee or Chinese porridge served with Century egg. Century eggs are preserved eggs. They are another Chinese delicacy.
Peking Duck. A popular dish in Chinese restaurants, this is a dish from Peking since the imperial era. There are two parts to eating Peking duck. The first part is the duck skin. You wrap it with spring onions, and cucumber in a simple wrap, and dip it in peking duck sauce.
The second part is the duck meat. You can have it as presented, or for a small charge, you can request to have it stir fried with spring onions, or noodles or however you wish to do with it.
Signature Creamy Custard Bun with Salted Egg Yolk. This is their signature dish. Buns with creamy salted egg yolk filling.
Egg Tart. This is common enough. No explanation needed.
Warm Silky Beancurd. This is as per named – warm, silky beancurd. A favourite of mine.
Dishes I forgot to take a picture of -
Steamed dumpling with Prawn and Diced Asparagus.
Diced Asparagus and Steamed Rice Roll with Mapo Tofu. It looked something like this. This is mapo tofu. Rice rolls are sheets of rice dough rolled up.
This is rice roll with stuffing. Imagine it without stuffing, and in the mapo tofu dish.
Vietnamese Spring Roll. The one we had at Dim Sum is similar except for a slight variation of the ingredients. Vietnamese Spring Roll tends to be bland. The secret is in the sauce/chilli sauce.
Dishes which some of my mates had, but I didn’t partake.
Jia He Laksa. This is an image from the web. I don’t think there were prawns in the Laksa at Jia He’s restaurant. Just so I don’t give the wrong impression.
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Chilled Jelly Royale with Plum.
It was a very enjoyable brunch all in all - good food at a reasonable price, the best part being we got to try so many dishes. And as always, good company, good laugh ... all good.
There was a queue at the door when we left. If you are thinking of paying Jia He a visit, do book in advance to avoid disappointment.
I did a post on Jia He Chinese Restaurant recently. You can read about it here https://anetizen.blogspot.com/2020/08/dinner-at-jia-he-chinese-restaurant.html
Jia He Chinese Restaurant
The restaurant was recently opened in November last year. Located at 1 Farrer Park Station Road, #01-15, Singapore 217562, the restaurant is just above the Farrer Park MRT station. Very accessible. Tel: +65 6694 8988
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