Dim sum 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Readers give our food critic something to chew on.
Readers give our food critic something to chew on. Like any road that's well-traveled, the Silk Road sprouted many resting places along the way. But as China's medical knowledge became more sophisticated, tea's digestive qualities were discovered, and the teahouses began offering snacks as well. These snacks came to be known as dim sum. Today there are more than 2,000 officially recognized dim sum recipes, although the average restaurant in China includes only a hundred or so in its daily dim sum repertoire.