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Novella Lui

Eating dim sum is a part of most Hongkongers’ lifestyle.
Whether this delicious meal is enjoyed at the weekends, or during the lunch hour, many people enjoy the tradition of picking and choosing dishes from the wide selection of foods served in the steamy hot bamboo baskets.
However, what many people do not realise – or try to avoid thinking about – is that the average dim sum lunch – five steamed items, two fried items, two braised or stewed items and one dessert – can add up to about 900 calories.
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We often hear that steamed foods are healthier for us than those that are fried or deep-fried. Yet this recommendation does not necessarily apply to dim sum.
The ingredients included in dim sum are just as important as how the dish is prepared.
Many dim sum dishes are calorie dense, and high in fat and sodium, which could be contributors to the increased risk for heart disease
 
Many dim sum dishes are calorie dense, and high in fat and sodium, which could be contributors to increased risk of heart disease. That said, some dim sum dishes have hidden calories, fat and sodium, which may not be easily noticed.
Check out these tips if you are a frequent eater of dim sum and looking to avoid fatty choices and pick healthier options.
Obvious culprits:
Offal

Organ meats, such as tripe and honeycomb tripe, are undoubtedly delicious, but they are also naturally higher in fat and cholesterol.
The next time you order a portion of tripe, take a look at the bottom of the dish. You can see there are spoonfuls of oil sitting at the bottom. In other words, as you work your way down to the bottom of the dish, the pieces that are placed at the bottom are soaked in oil, which increases consumption of unnecessary fats.
Steamed chicken feet with black bean sauce

While eating chicken feet is an acquired taste, you are literally eating chicken skin (with some meat).
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You are unlikely to eat 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of chicken feet at one sitting, but – if you did – it would amount to 13 grams of fat. So, you can imagine that one piece alone can already do some damage.
Less obvious culprits:
Steamed bean curd sheet roll  

People regard bean curds as a low-calorie food. It certainly is, when it is eaten alone when steamed or boiled.
Steamed bean curd sheet roll, however, is not a low-calorie dim sum choice. The bean curd sheet is extremely oily, which has absorbed oils from the fatty meat and the oil used to prepare the dish. If this does not astound you, does its 22 grams of fat (per 100g portion) make you think twice?
Meatballs  

Two frequently ordered iconic dishes in Cantonese cuisine are siu mai and steamed bean curd beef balls. But did you know that fattier meats are used in the conventional recipes to give that soft and chewy texture? The fattier the meat, the more calories there are.
Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf  
Another dim sum favourite is sticky rice wrapped in lotus beef – generous in portions and very filling. The ugly truth is, one serving (250 grams) of sticky rice is equivalent to 2.5 bowls of cooked rice with a whooping 525 calories.

If a regular meal is recommended to be between 400 and 500 calories, eating one portion of this already exceeds one’s caloric intake for one meal.
Additionally, every 250-gram serving provides 1,050 milligrams of sodium. If you aim to consume no more than the recommended 2,000 milligrams of sodium per day – equivalent to about one teaspoon of salt – then eating one portion already takes up half of the daily recommended intake.
The ingredients used in this dish – barbecue pork, chicken and duck egg yolk – are the major contributors to its 16.5 grams of fat, with the fat absorbed into the rice during cooking.
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Steamed rice dishes  




















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2019.02.17 . . #煲仔飯 #蚵仔煎 . . 我が家の冬の定番香港土鍋ご飯 . 香港屋台料理のボウチャイファン . . 毎回 牛そぼろと鶏肉になってしまうけれど、 お店では沢山の種類があり 日本人には馴染みのない物も‼︎ . 熱々に炊き上がったご飯の蓋を開け 特性醤油を回しかて 再び蓋をし少し待つと甘じょっぱい特性醤油の香ばしいおこげができます . これはもー 最高‼︎‼︎ . . 我が家ではジャスミンライスを使うので、キッチンが アジアンな香りになり 必ずアジア行きたい病にかかって しまいます . プレートにあるのは牡蠣の卵フライ？ オムレツ？これも屋台料理です！ . 春菊入れすぎで卵が少ない件 . . . . . #おうちごはん #おうちカフェ #クッキングラム #マカロニメイト #おうちごはんlover #foodstyling #スイーツなひととき #冬love食堂 #香港グルメ #hongkongfood
A post shared by ako×kari (@akokaricafe) on Feb 16, 2019 at 3:29pm PST



The same goes for steamed rice dishes in small porcelain pots. For instance, a 500-gram portion of steamed rice with pork rib, chicken feet and black bean sauce, amounts to 900 calories, 27 grams of fat and 1,300 milligrams of sodium.
Eating one portion is close to two meals’ worth of calories, and is likely to lead to weight gain if consumed regularly.
The good news is, there are still healthier dim sum options available.
My top healthy picks are:

Shrimp dumpling
Scallop dumpling
Spinach dumpling (or any dumplings that are filled with vegetables) 
Steamed rice roll with shrimp without oil and soy sauce 

Steamed chicken bun 
Steamed vegetable and minced meat bun 
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How to enjoy dim sum in a healthier way:
Order a plate of greens, minus the oil and oyster sauce, to compensate for your craving for more dim sum pieces. Vegetables are generally rich in dietary fibre, which provides satiety and helps to pace your appetite.
Minimise the use of condiments such as soy sauce and chilli sauce to reduce the consumption of additional sodium.
While there is no conclusive evidence that suggests drinking tea at a meal can reduce fat absorption, drink tea or water with your meal for the sake of managing your appetite.
Complement your meal with a serving or two of fruit, such as oranges, kiwis and apricots, as these fruits are potassium rich, which helps with flushing excess sodium from the body.
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A small chunk of unwrapped lo mai gai picked with a pair of chopsticks and then lifted high. The focus is selected to the lifted lo mai gai chunk; therefore leaving the rest of the food and tea in blur. The chunk picked contained the glutinious rice, chicken, chinese sausage and salted egg yolk. The whole lo mai gai is placed on a ceramic, with the lotus leaf left unwrapped. A cup of tea is accompanying the meal, which set up on a rustic wooden table. The image was taken indoor near the window and used sunlight as the lighting source.

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Hongkongers regularly enjoy the traditional meal of choosing dishes from bamboo baskets, but many are high in fat and sodium


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How dim sum lovers can stay healthy – and avoid 900-calorie meals

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hongkongers regularly enjoy the traditional meal of choosing dishes from bamboo baskets, but many are high in fat and sodium

Hongkongers regularly enjoy the traditional meal of choosing dishes from bamboo baskets, but many are high in fat and sodium