Dim sum dish guide. 47 classic Hong Kong-style dim sum items: har gow, siu mai, char siu bao, pineapple bun, egg tart, and more. With Cantonese name, Jyutping, category, description, and price tier.
Dim Sum Dish Guide (港式点心指南)
How to use
Search by name
Enter Chinese in either script (蝦餃 or 虾饺), Jyutping, a menu spelling (har gow, siew mai) or English (shrimp).
Filter by category
Steamed, fried, baked, boiled/soup, sweet, cold.
Read the price tier
$ cheap, $$ mid-range, $$$ premium, relative to other dishes in the same restaurant.
Order using Jyutping
Say the Jyutping romanisation (e.g. "haa1 gaau2") to practice Cantonese pronunciation.
Dim sum names in Chinese, in Jyutping and on English menus
The word 點心 is old: the Southern Song writer Wu Zeng recorded it in use for an early-morning snack as far back as the Tang. In 一盅兩件, "a cup and two pieces", the 盅 is a lidded cup, not a teapot, and the two pieces are two dim sum. Hong Kong's tourism board puts the number of dim sum at over a thousand; this guide lists 47 common ones, each with its Chinese name in both scripts, Jyutping and a description.
Six categories
Steamed: har gow, siu mai, char siu bao, rice rolls. Fried: spring rolls, taro puffs, ham sui gok, turnip cake. Baked: char siu pastry, egg tarts, wife cake. Congee and noodles: sampan congee, wonton noodles. Sweet and cold: water chestnut cake, mango sago pomelo, mango pudding. Wonton noodles, pineapple buns and sweet soups belong to noodle shops, cha chaan teng and dessert shops rather than the tea house, but often turn up alongside.
One dish, many English names
We copied the English names of 12 classic dishes from the menus of 11 restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, London and New York: of 102 labels, 97 were different. Har gow alone had 11 labels on 11 menus (har gow, har gao, har kau and more; Tim Ho Wan's Hong Kong menu uses the Mandarin Ha Jiao). Only har gow and siu mai are usually written in Cantonese; most dishes are simply described in English. Singapore and Malaysian menus mostly say siew mai where Hong Kong says siu mai, and all three menus calling 蘿蔔糕 "carrot cake" were in Singapore. The search box knows these spellings.
Jyutping follows the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong's scheme. 燒賣 is given as siu1 maai2, the tone-changed everyday reading.
The same har gow, a different English name on every menu
Mango sago pomelo (楊枝甘露) is generally credited to Lei Garden; accounts differ on whether it was 1984 or 1987.
The pineapple bun contains no pineapple; the name comes from the crackled pattern on its sugar crust.
"Touch the heart" is a gloss on the two characters of 點心, not the origin of the word, which was in use by the Tang dynasty.
Tapping two fingers to thank whoever pours your tea is usually explained by a story of the Qianlong emperor's attendants bowing with their fingers. Leaving the teapot lid open for more water has two contradictory origin stories. Both are legends.
Of the menus we read, only one in Singapore and one in Malaysia called 鳳爪 "phoenix claw"; the rest say chicken feet or chicken claw.
Of the 102 labels on the 11 menus we read, only 25 romanised the Chinese name, and 19 of those were har gow and siu mai.
Frequently Asked Questions
$, $$ and $$$ show only how dishes compare within one restaurant, not actual prices, which vary widely between places.
Any of them: Chinese in either script, Jyutping with or without tone numbers, or a common menu spelling such as har gow, siew mai, cheung fun or carrot cake.
The main dishes are the same, but the names are spelled differently (siew mai, carrot cake). Custard lava buns appeared on all 5 Singapore and Malaysian menus we read that printed a full list.
Tea houses commonly serve pu-erh, guk pou (pu-erh with chrysanthemum) and jasmine. Many restaurants charge for tea per person.
Strictly they are not dim sum, but tea-house menus often carry them. Wonton noodles, pineapple buns and sweet soups come from noodle shops, cha chaan teng and dessert shops.
No. Hong Kong's tourism board counts over a thousand kinds of dim sum; this guide lists 47 common ones.
Names and spellings come from the menus of 11 restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, London and New York; Jyutping follows the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong's scheme, checked against a Cantonese dictionary.
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