Dim Sum Class

Alvin's sister gave Alvin and I a gift card to take a cooking class at Central Market. We were waiting for the perfect class, and thought we found it. So we signed up for the dim sum class and we took the class tonight.

On the menu was char siu bow (pork buns), black bean scallops, shrimp pot stickers, noodle cake (like a bird's nest), and chicken wings. The class was hands on, which means that every once in a while they select a student to chop onions, or use a whisk, or flip a noodle cake.

They did ask Alvin to chop ginger and the instructors were all the rage about his knife skills. They accused him all night that he already took the knife skills class. haha. I'm glad we didn't sign up for that class then! A student even asked us later, "really, where did you learn to cut like that?"

The food was pretty good, but not exactly dim sum items. The pork buns was baked not steamed, and then glazed with egg so it look like a biscuit instead of char siu bow. The chicken wings and scallops are not traditional dim sum dishes. They taught us to make dumplings like a tortellini (or just to pinch all four sides together). Some of the students wanted us to teach them how we folded our dumplings because they looked more Chinese.

At the very end, the instructor was giving a cookbook for anyone who could answer his question. In the beginning of the class, he told us the process of dim sum is also called "yum cha." So his question at the end of class was, "what is the process of dim sum?" Alvin and I told the instructor that it wasn't fair for us since we spoke Chinese. But, none of the other students knew the answer even when he gave them clues. So he said, go ahead and answer. So we won a cookbook! Yeah, thanks mom and dad for teaching us Chinese! We get a free cookbook because of it.

At the end the instructor asked Alvin privately if the food was pretty authentic. Alvin was very nice and tried to compliment everything that was good about it. Alvin then asked the instructor if he has ever had dim sum. The instructor said no. Ha! Alvin and I got taught dim sum by someone who has never had dim sum. Hilarious!

Overall, I am glad we went because it was fun, the food was good, and we got a bunch of recipes. But if we ever tried to cook this for our parents and told them it was dim sum, we would be laughed out of the kitchen.