For the leisurely diner, dim sum is a treat. Often a Sunday custom, this Chinese dining tradition brings people together around the table to share a sprawling spread of steamy dumplings and savory bites.
Plate after plate is brought to the table in a marathon-style meal accompanied by hot tea, which is a core piece of the meal. Historically, dim sum was served to Silk Road travelers who stopped at tea houses along their long journey.
In Chinese, dim sum is commonly translated to “touch the heart,” an apt term considering that the convivial meal is often shared with friends and family around a large table.
Until recently, the options for dim sum across the Lowcountry have been limited to the occasional pop-up or weekly event at local restaurants. But with new permanent offerings, dim sum has an eager audience in Charleston.
Chef Loong Dim Sum
One of Charleston’s latest restaurant additions brought authentic soup dumplings to the Holy City. Chef and owner Emely Yan moved from Philadelphia to offer dim sum in the largely untapped market.
“[In Philadelphia], we would go to the dim sum place probably every two weeks for the tea and food. We are big fans of soup dumplings,” she said. Yan then spent countless hours studying the process of creating the delicate dish to master the perfect bite.
“Our soup dumplings are handmade. We went to different places [and] tried to study the soup dumpling, how to make them from different chefs. Then we came up with the current recipe we offer,” she explained.
Yan offers several classic dim sum dishes on the menu which prioritizes quality and authenticity.
“We learned our shumai skill from a Cantonese chef. He used to work in a huge dim sum place. We want to do it the authentic way,” she said. Loong currently has 13 different dim sum–specific offerings alongside a wide variety of dishes from across China.
“We focus on the soup dumpling and some real, signature, Hong Kong-style dim sum … [but my] family owns a restaurant back in Xi’an, China. The city is really famous for making hand-pulled noodles,” said Yan. She “decided to do something our own” and combined her love of Cantonese dim sum and Xi’an noodles as the basis for Chef Loong.
The communal experience of dim sum is central to Yan’s vision for the restaurant. “It’s really an experience for people who dine here. Some traditional Chinese restaurants, you just [get] take out. But we want to [challenge that] idea and create a full dining experience for the customers.”
Beautiful South
Chef David Schuttenberg’s Sunday dim sum service at Beautiful South aims to transport Charleston patrons back to the old-school dim sum parlors of New York’s Chinatown.
“It’s the best way to spend your Sunday. [Dim sum] is really built for checking out everything, you get a few pieces to share. Bring your friends, sit around the table, and order it all,” Schuttenberg said.
After offering regular Sunday dim sum pre-pandemic at sister restaurant, Kwei Fei, Schuttenberg decided to open Beautiful South with his regular dim sum offering.
“Dim sum was sorely lacking here [in Charleston] and now we’re starting to see multiple iterations of it which is great,” he said. “We try to stick with most of the Cantonese stuff since that’s the regional area that we play with.
“But when we’re talking about Beautiful South featuring foods of southern China, Shanghai’s right there on the edge just below the Yangtze River and the Pearl River Delta, so I can draw from there too.”
Classic dim sum options such as char siu bao, a fluffy steamed bun filled with barbecue-flavored pork can be found on the menu alongside dishes that might not have the same kind of instant recognition.
“Turnip cakes are one of my favorite things,” Schuttenberg said. “I have a hard time getting people to actually order them, but once they do, that’s for life. It’s great to have people try those things and start to experience something new.”
The chef advised dim sum newcomers to step out of their comfort zones.
“We’re really working hard to bring a lot of different options [to the menu],” he said. “I’ve really loved being able to put [things] like lo mai fan, Cantonese sticky rice, on the menu and see people really start to adopt that.”
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