Well my birthday has recently passed and it was great. My sister took me out to a Yum Cha lunch in Chinatown in my city. It was delicious. She brought her kids along with her and we had a ball. It was delicious. Yum Cha can be a very healthy meal… depending on what you choose from the menu. It literally means “drinking tea” so, in a whole you could call it ‘Dim Sum with tea’.

Green tea (the tea you drink at a Yum Cha meal) is very good for you. From sources I’ve found, green tea is suggested to helpful with rheumatoid arthritis, high cholesterol levels (it can help lower them), impaired immune functions and cardiovascular disease. Green tea has powerful anti-oxidants and is often said to be healthier than the normal black tea that many of today’s people drink. Green tea is believed to help with your digestion as well. I believe this is why it is served at a Yum Cha lunch. You can eat the small portions of tasty food and help with your digestion at the same time.

The steamed selection is the preferred if you want to lose weight. This is pretty much a given considering you have a choice of steamed or deep-fried (including spring rolls). In my opinion, the steamed selection has a wider variety of flavours anyway so that’s naturally my choice. You can ask for a menu if you’re not sure what to order. I always make sure I order steamed vegetables (I think it’s chinese spinach). It always comes out hot and with a delicious sesame and oyster sauce.
If you can, and if you don’t mind Chinese food, I strongly recommend giving it ago. There is a large variety of flavours, comes in beef, pork, chicken and seafood and steaming food is probably one of the healthier ways of cooking. If you don’t gorge on the deep-fried stuff (including going for the steamed dumplings instead of the deep fried variety) and go for the steamed healthier selections you will come out of lunch feeling full yet not uncomfortable.