Dim sum =? savory snack

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Aug 17, 2011, at 12:35 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> On Aug 17, 2011, at 3:00 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>
>> For dim sum, the OED says "A savoury Cantonese-style snack; a meal consisting of these."
>>
>> For savoury, the OED has one relevant definition:
>>
>> adjective "3. Used, in contradistinction to sweet, as the epithet of articles of food having a stimulating taste or flavor."
>>
>> I have a bit of trouble imagining dim sum as a "snack," but I suppose you can look at it that way.
>
> But if dim sum can be "a meal consisting of savoury Cantonese-style snacks", I think that can work˜each dish (or double-dish for the fancy ones) is a snack, and the sum is the meal.
>

Clever maths, there :)

It's clunky and misleading. No such definition is placed on "corn dogs," which seem to be pretty much a carnival/mid-afternoon snack even if some people (perhaps) eat them as the primary component of a meal. Do people primarily eat dim sum as snacks to go? I definitely recall a place in San Francisco (the Irving Street Chinatown) that seemed to cater a great deal to the to go snacky crowd, but AFAIK, people generally eat dim sum as a meal.

But even putting that aside, there's still the problem of them being savory. I've never understood the exact meaning of this term (since it's not used much in the US), but I don't think dishes generally eaten after the main dim sum meal such as egg custard qualify as being savory.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

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