Remember to wash your feast down with plenty of tea, believed to aid digestion - and true to the name "yum cha", meaning "drink tea".
These elegant translucent-skinned dumplings are made from a pastry of tapioca flour and water. If you don't have the time or inclination to make them from scratch, pick up some gow gee dumpling skins from your local Asian grocer. And while you're there, look out for doubanjiang - the fermented bean chilli sauce that is the little kick in these flavourful morsels.
Scallop and chive dumplings. Source: Murdoch Books
The secret to these prawns' success is marinating them first in soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil and a beaten egg before deep-frying them. Allow at least 20 minutes to marinate, or even overnight, if possible.
Sichuan salt and pepper king prawns with wok-toasted chilli and garlic. Source: New Holland
These flaky and perfectly oily pancakes are served with a tart dipping sauce. They will definitely not be sticking around to see the Lunar New Year out.
Spring onion pancakes.
What makes potstickers a particularly sublime part of the dumpling category is their chewy-and-crispy, best-of-both-worlds shell. This is achieved by being both steamed and fried, a little stroke of dumpling genius.
Pork and prawn potstickers. Source: China Squirrel
Fried rice is a crowd-pleaser, especially when there's enough it means you can wake up to leftovers (ie. make double).
Hong Kong fried rice. Source: Phaidon Press
Sitting around in a group picking apart crabs with your hands has something of a festive feel to it, and these ones have a lively flavour to match the atmosphere.
Hot and fragrant crab (hong jiau xiang la xie).
These pork buns may have a fresh and modern edge, with their open shape and abundance of pickled carrots and herbs, but at their heart, they're still the same char sui bao you know and love: pork belly caramelised in lashings of five-spice, sugar and soy sauce encased in a cloud-like steamed bun.
Barbecue pork belly steamed buns (bao). Source: China Squirrel
Where Chinese cuisine often features different cuts of the chicken - cartilage, neck, feet, skin - this one uniquely uses the chicken breast. While this cut is thought to lack in flavour compared to others, it’s not detectable in this saucy combination of Szechuan peppercorns, dried red chillis and peanuts.
Kung pao chicken. Source: Feast / Brett Stephens
These crisp and pillowy of yum cha staples get a unique angle by including crab meat in the mix along with the prawn.
Crab and prawn sesame toasts. Source: Steve Brown
You'll need a wok and a bamboo steamer for this banquet-worthy dish, and things are straightforward from there: the fish is steamed with black beans and lemon, then has an aromatic hot oil poured over it to crisp things up.
Whole snapper steamed with black beans, lemon and chilli. Source: Alan Benson
To bring some freshness to the table, some water spinach hit with a little bit of heat is the perfect option.
Stir-fried water spinach with chilli and sichuan pepper (ma la kong xin cai). Source: SBS Food
These eggplants are steamed before being stir-fried, making them tender and succulent little sponges for the fragrant sauce.
Cool steamed aubergine with a garlicky dressing (liang ban qie zi). Source: Bloomsbury
Meaty and juicy, with a little bit of tang: this Sichuan beef dish has a rich flavour and a citrus edge that keeps it peppy.
Spicy beef with tangerine (chen pi niu rou).
Nothing offsets meat and carbs quite like some fresh cucumber.
Chinese cucumber and sesame salad. Source: Gourmet Farmer Afloat
Before you write off smoking meat as something restaurants do, consider this: you’ll just need a largepiece of work, some foil, jasmine tea leaves, sugar, and uncooked jasmine rice.
Tea-smoked duck with tamarind and plum sauce. Source: China Squirrel
These cute little tarts arrived in Cantonese cuisine via the Portuguese pastel de nata, when the Portuguese came to Macau at the beginning of the twentieth century. Flaky and light, they'll always be room for (at least) one.
Dan tat (egg tarts). Source: Murdoch Books
Mango Pudding
To give this classic yum cha pudd a slightly fancier appearance, it's topped with passionfruit granita, fresh mango cubes, tapioca, baby coriander leaves, and pomelo flesh. A light and refreshing way to wrap up a flavour-packed meal.
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Mango pudding. Source: Mr Hong by Dan Hong (Murdoch Books)
