It is an old chinese tradition to combine the joy of tea with little snacks. When, in ancient times, travellers on the Silk road would stop at teahouses they would soon be served food, too. As tea became popular for its aid in digestion the
teahouses were first to widen the choice of snacks and thus was born what we know as "dim sum".

Dim sum consists of a variety of savory snacks, such as meatballs, spring rolls, rice rolls or dumplings filled with sea food, meat or vegetables and they are usually served with different sauces, which can be rather hot in taste. The creative snacks can be deep-fried, baked in oil or steamed and usually come in small bamboo baskets to keep the heat andapart from savory dim sum there is also a variety of desserts, even though the choice is much smaller.

The best choice of tea for dim sum, which literally translates into "touch the heart", is the traditional Pu Erh but green tea or Oolong are a splendid choice as well.
When enjoying Dim Sum, the order of choices is important, as traditionally the lighter steamed snacks go before the exotic choice and only then the deep-fried and sweets snacks follow.