Chinese Table Etiquette Dos & Don'ts #ChinatownEatiquette

Hello, I'm Shu Lin, a food and travel content creator, and I'm here with Chinatown London to show you the basics of table etiquette when it comes to Chinese cuisine. Now, I don't know about you, but the best way for me to learn about a new culture is through a stomach. So today we're going to cover four subjects. Number one, tea etiquette. Number two, how to handle chopsticks. Number three, what to do and what not to do when it comes to eating dim sum. And number four, the do's and don'ts around the dinner table. I am very hungry, as always, so let's tuck in. I'm going to show you a few of my favorite spots. Let's go. Let's eat. Oh, SIG fan. Oh, which means it's time to eat in Cantonese. Okay, let's go. It's time to eat. Let's start off with tea etiquette. This is integral to Chinese cuisine and it dates back over 3,000 years of history. So here in front of me is a sample of different teas from Plum Valley in Chinatown, London. And we have lots of different options depending on your taste. Starting from the caffeine-free option, we've got chrysanthemum tea, all the way up to boule, which is the fermented black tea. Or, if you want to do something a little bit different, you can also get some flowering tea here as well. Look at how beautiful that is. And when it's served, it slowly unfurls up into the flower and it's steaming. It's beautiful. But let's run through all the do's and don'ts of the tea etiquette and all the different options of the teas because every flavor of the tea goes with different types of dim sum or Chinese food. So whether you favor things that are more deep fried and salty and chilly, we've got a tea for that. Or if you want something that's more steamed and light and fresh, then we've got another tea option for that. Or, if you're new to tea, we've also got some good introductory beginner versions as well. So it's a tea for everyone. And dare I say, that is tea-rific. But when was tea actually discovered? Legend has it, Emperor Sun Long, whose name translates to Divine Farmer, rested under a camellia tree with some boiled water. A dried leaf blew into the water, creating an infused drink that we know and love now. And intrigued by the smell, the mythical emperor then took a sip and thank goodness he did. Nowadays, Chinese tea can be enjoyed across six categories. Green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, yellow tea, and dark tea. Okay, starting with chrysanthemum. This is a light, refreshing herbal tea and it's caffeine-free. So the blossoms are placed in boiling water for five minutes. This is best served with steamed dim sum dishes. Moving on to jasmine tea, henpin. Arguably one of the most commonly known and one of the most popular teas served. Jasmine tea is mild, light, and floral-flavored, and it's a good tea to start with for beginners new to Chinese tea drinking. It's a good all-rounder and goes with a lot of different types of dishes. We now have some oolong, wulong tea. Oolong is a semi-oxidized tea that sits in the middle between green and black tea, though it doesn't fall into either one of these categories. It's suitable for all dishes, but particularly goes well with salt and spicy food. Now we have pu'er, which is bowl-lay tea. This is a post-fermented black tea with rich aromatic and much stronger flavors with an inquired taste. It's one of the most traditional teas to serve with dim sum, but particularly helps to cut through some fatty, rich, and starchy foods. Okay, now moving on to eight tea etiquette tips to take with you on your next visit. Etiquette number one. Never leave a teacup empty or pour it to the brim, but instead, fill it to 70-80% full. Having the teacup empty is considered to be rude, and having it too full means it's going to be hard for your guests to drink it. Etiquette number two. Put your index and middle fingers together and tap on the table to signal a silent thank you when being poured tea. You might see this finger tapping movement at a dim sum restaurant or Chinese restaurant setting. This is known as the finger kou tou, a finger bow that represents the deep respect from kneeling and bowing. There are many legends of its origins, but one popular version of this practice originated when Emperor Qinlong traveled in disguise to a tea house with his court companions. To remain anonymous, he also took his turn to pour the tea, but bowing and kneeling to say thank you would reveal the emperor. So as an act of quick thinking, his companions tapped their fingers onto the table instead, with each one to represent a bowed head and kneeling legs. Nowadays, it's a silent gesture with diverse meanings, including to say thank you to the pourer, the tea is enjoyable, and or a signal that there's enough tea in the cup. Etiquette number three. When being poured tea, receive the teacup with both hands to show respect. And etiquette number four. Similarly, when serving tea to guests and or elders, serve the cup with both hands as a gesture of respect. Etiquette number five. When serving food with tea, these should first be placed in front of the guest with the teacup to the right hand side. Etiquette number six. Make sure the teapot isn't facing the guest, it's considered to be impolite, but instead have it face outwards. Etiquette number seven. Don't drink your teacup all in one go, savour it slowly and let the tea help digest the meal. Etiquette number eight. Rest the lid of the teapot against the handle if you want to gesture to the servers for a hot water top up for your tea. I'm now at Dumplings Legend in Chinatown, London, about to tuck into all of this dim sum, but before we go in and eat it, let's talk about the do's and don'ts and a little history about dim sum. So dim sum means to touch your heart in Chinese and you get bite-sized little portions of everything from steamed dumplings, deep fried buns, noodles, you name it. We've got it. There's an alternative name for dim sum as well. So we call it yum cha, which directly translates to drink tea. So you know earlier we mentioned about how tea is so integral to Chinese cuisine. Well, sometimes we even just call the whole act of dim sum, let's go yum cha, let's go drink tea instead. And dim sum is meant to accompany the tea because this is the main character. I'm going to show you everything that we've got and then run through all the do's and don'ts for when eating dim sum. There's a reason dim sum is so loved around the world and not only is it an art form in itself to create an absolutely delicious, but the custom is also rooted in history and now a way of uniting friends and families over a fantastic meal. Dumplings Legend currently has a black truffle dim sum menu. So I've got some black truffle prawn chow fun and they have loaded it up as well. Phib's already tucked in and she said it's really elevated the dish so I can't wait to eat. Oh my gosh, if you love truffle and you love prawns, the truffle here is like, it's very generous of it but it doesn't overpower the prawn too much either so you still get like that fresh plump prawn and then those like strong aromas of the truffle coming through and the slippery rice noodle. I'm not even going to add chili oil, it's that good. Come here and get it if you love truffle and prawns and dim sum. According to myths, this tradition traces all the way back to the Song Dynasty where weary travellers along the Silk Road would stop off at small tea houses for a drink and a rest. After discovering tea would aid digestion, the small businesses acted fast and started serving small light bites to accompany the hot drink. Now, these small bites have turned into a huge weekly feast enjoyed all over the world. When it comes to Chinese food, we commonly eat it family style so we don't tend to order individual dishes but we just like to order a bunch of different things and all share it together because sharing is caring and it's right up my street because that means it's more for me to try, more for me to eat. But there's a few things to note as well, when you have a bunch of dishes in front of you, make sure to only reach for the things directly in front of you first and then you can share it around rather than like reaching across the table and grabbing something further away from you because that's considered impolite. In Chinese culture, it's so important to respect our elders and that translates across to the dinner table so before you serve yourself, always make sure to serve your elders. Viv, would you like a truffle? Yes, please. Here we go. Thank you. And I know when you're served with so many steaming bowls of dim sum, it's very tempting to just dig right in and grab a bit of everything but it's important when eating dim sum to eat it one piece at a time because it appears to be very, very impolite and also as if like you don't have enough to eat and when handing chopsticks as well, make sure you're not going in directly for the dim sum and then transporting it straight to your mouth. Pick up a piece of dim sum, transport it back to your bowl to then transport it to your mouth and that's the most polite way of eating dim sum. Whatever you do, don't stamp your dim sum. I know it's very tempting because some of it, sometimes they could be slippery little things. Don't just go like this, skewer it and be like, yeah and serve it up. I mean, I'm actually cringing looking at this because I feel like my parents are like glaring at me. If you can, try and handle it like this or you can ask for training chopsticks or you can ask for a fork or a spoon. Oh and also actually, very, very rarely you find knives being served at a Chinese restaurant because knives are considered a taboo in Chinese. We're seeing it in Chinese culture so you always find a spoon or a fork and if you ever need to share any bits of food, then you typically would use your chopsticks or a spoon and a fork to divide it. Now that we're finishing up the meal, we've got one bite of everything left in the basket. It's tempting to be like, soup dumplings are my favourite, I'm going to just keep this to myself but don't do that. Always serve it to everybody first and offer it to everyone else. So Viv, would you like the last dumpling? Oh yes please, thank you. You never know and it's polite. Always think about others first before yourself, think of their stomachs first before your stomach and now I can tuck in. If you frequent Chinese restaurants, you may see a common scene of people fighting for their bill and it looks like they're fighting but actually it's also part of the do's and don'ts of Chinese cuisine. We love a little like, oh I'll pay for it, no you don't pay for it. If you see this, we're not actually fighting, it's just like a playful little way of wanting to treat one another. So ready? Don't fight with me! No, no, no, I'm treating you this time. I'm treating you this time. You treated me last time. I'm treating you this time. No, no, no, no, no. Don't do that, don't do that. I hope you're hungry because we're going into our third and final stop of this Chinatown London food tour. I'm now at Four Seasons in 12 Gerrard Street and not only do they serve the best Cantonese roast duck in Chinatown London and London, I mean look at that, it's glistening. They also do a fantastic all-day menu serving seafood, vegetarian food, hot pots, rice, noodles, you name it. The staff are brilliant as well but we're now going to tackle how to handle your chopstick segment. Here we go. In some Chinese restaurants, you might sometimes see two pairs of chopsticks and you're wondering which chopstick do I use and what for? Well, in more formal situations, normally you have a personal pair of chopsticks and that's for you to transport the food from your bowl to your mouth and then a communal pair of chopsticks and that's for hygiene reasons so when you're sharing the foods and dishes, you're not dipping your own spit and saliva into the foods and you're being a lot more polite and considerate of others. So normally they're different colours so it's easier to differentiate. Second thing when eating food as well, when you're serving, don't dig around as if you're digging around for treasure. It's hugely impolite. So if you see something on the service level, pick it up and then serve it to your bowl like this. Don't think, oh wait, what's underneath here and then start digging for treasure because that doesn't look very good. Another thing, when you have your chops in your hand, don't use it to point at people. So when you're talking and I'm a very expressive person, don't be like, oh yeah, yeah. So as I was saying last week like this, hugely, hugely disrespectful. Put your chopsticks down and then do your hand gestures and another thing as well, just don't play around with it and wave it around like this or be like, oh hi, can I order my food? It's actually quite a lot of different chopstick things. Another thing to not do is that when you're resting your chopsticks, rest it parallel on your bowl or on your napkin. Don't cross it like this. Oh, and there's a really, really big thing in Chinese culture as well and a lot of East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures, when you have your chopsticks, do not set them upright into the bowl like this, into your rice. In Chinese culture, that resembles the incense sticks at funerals, so it represents death. So you don't ever, ever want to rest your chopsticks in your bowl like this and just set it down instead. Oh my gosh, that thin batter is perfect. Heaps of garlic as well, this is so good. Before I go, there are so many more tips we'd love to share, but we hope this has been a great starting point to Chinese cuisine and we'd love to know which other ones you practice in the comments below. It's so good. We're so full, but we'll keep on eating because it's so delicious. All right, six fan, which means it's time to eat. I am so full and so happy. Remember to check out more Chinatown London's videos, but I hope you enjoyed it. Give a big like, a thumbs up, comment and subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you in the next video, my loves. Bye-bye.