Dim Sum Girls: A Journey of Cooking and Friendship

By Christine Lai

Christy Sin loves making dim sum. When she earns a place at the Dim Sum Cooking Academy for Girls, she is thrilled to be learning new skills that will hopefully allow her to win a dim sum competition.

As Christy and her new best friend and fellow student, Vanessa, arrive at the first cooking competition the next day, they learn they will be making xiao mai, the easiest kind of dim sum. With only fifteen minutes to cook, Christy works furiously. But when she realizes that another competitor may be cheating and that her xiao mai may be raw, Christy must work to overcome all the challenges she never expected. As she attempts to build her confidence, push down her fears, and rise above the other participants, Christy holds tightly to her dream of winning the final competition. But will it ever come true?

Dim Sum Girls shares the tale of a Chinese girls journey as she enters an important cooking competition where she conquers many obstacles and learns the value of a true friend.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Feb 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781482882773

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Christine Lai.

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4828-8275-9

      Softcover      978-1-4828-8276-6

      eBook         978-1-4828-8277-3

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: I Went Crazy after Learning

of the Good News

Chapter 2: Xiao Mai Brings Me Bad Fortune

Chapter 3: Clarissa’s Idea Rocks!

Chapter 4: The Disaster

Chapter 5: I Run into My Teacher

Chapter 6: I Am Happy

Chapter 7: An Amazing Day

Chapter 8: Missing

Chapter 9: Disappointed

Chapter 10: Win Again

Chapter 11: Vanessa Is Angry with Me

Chapter 12: The Cooking Finals

Chapter 13: Friends Forever

Acknowledgements

A huge thank you to my dad and mom for a lifetime of love and support, for reading great books to me every night at bedtime when I was very young, and for always encouraging me to read and write. Thank you to all my family members, particularly my aunt in Canada, who gives me a lot of advice, motivation, and inspiration. Thank you to my publisher, Partridge Singapore, who helped me succeed in publishing my first novel. This tremendous experience is definitely one of the best memories of my life.

Chapter 1

I Went Crazy after Learning

of the Good News

Dim sum is important to most every Chinese person. It is a style of Chinese cuisine (particularly Cantonese, but there are also other varieties) prepared as bite-sized portions of food served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. Dim sum is usually linked with the older tradition of yum cha (drinking tea), which has its roots in the travellers on the ancient Silk Road who needed a place to rest. Some poor families stole dim sum from their neighbours. If they couldn’t, they used all their savings in order to buy dim sum. For the emperor, his chef had to cook dim sum as a treat for him all day long. And if the chef refused to cook – I hope you aren’t having your lunch, because this is disgusting – he or she would be fed to animals. The chef was tied by ropes and torn by horses, hit very hard on the bottom a hundred times with a cane, and had his or her head chopped off. See? I did warn you it was pretty cruel. My great-grandmother used to be an emperor’s chef and passed this story from generation to generation.

I love making dim sum. Ever since I quit being a prefect at school, I’ve had time to do quite a lot of things. I have always wanted to find a place to compete at making dim sum, but I couldn’t find such a venue. Then one day, Mum and Dad signed up on a website and typed an email saying that their daughter wanted to make dim sum and compete with others. I asked, Mum, are you really going to let me go to the famous dim sum school for girls? Yeah! I yelled and ran around the room.

Mum raised her fine eyebrows and said, Calm down, Christy! Yes, your dream is coming true, but the chef says that many girls around your age want to go, too. You’d better prepare yourself. There will be a lucky draw to select thirty girls.

Okay, okay, I said, jumping up and down on the soft leather couch.

Two weeks later, Mum received a letter. It read as follows:

Dear Mrs Sin,

We are pleased to inform you that your daughter, Christy, has a place at Dim Sum Cooking Academy for Girls. Please tell her to bring the following materials:

1) Five hundred Hong Kong dollars (for buying ingredients)

2) The apron sent to your address (for logos and trademarks, and for protecting your student’s clothes while cooking)

3. The student handbook (for personal information and school information).

That’s it! Have a nice time eating dim sum, and stay healthy!

Regards,

Chef Chiang

Dim Sum Cooking Academy

So it was decided. I would go to test my dim sum skills with others. I practised day and night and made yummy dim sum for my grandparents and the rest of my family to enjoy.

Now it was summer. Tomorrow I would go to the cooking academy and stay there for a few days.

Ding! Ding! My alarm clock rang and woke me. My back trembled with excitement. The clock read 7.30. I jumped up from my bed and got ready.

What’s going on with Christy? Why is she so excited? a very sleepy Chelsea, my sister, asked. Chelsea, pretty with long curly hair and pierced ears, got on my nerves sometimes.

Christy’s going to cook, my mum answered.

Wow! I want to go, too! my little brother, Christopher, yelled. A sweet boy, Christopher was always being cute, so everyone let him have his way.

At breakfast, Mum gave me a hug while I ate. On the table were six pork dumplings, also known as xiao mai. I wolfed down the food, picked up my backpack, smiled, and said, I’m ready! Mum smiled and opened the door. She and I went outside. After getting into the car, off we went.

A few hours later, we arrived at the cooking academy. I beheld the tall white glistening marble building with Chinese lettering in front of me. Some girls were already there, sitting by the bench and looking bored. Mum waved goodbye to me, and I waved back. She got in the car and drove away.

I just stood there, not knowing what to do. Should I chat with the girls or sit down and stare ahead blankly? I made my decision. I saw a girl with long black shiny hair neatly plaited with bangs. Her face certainly didn’t look nice, though; she was scowling. I backed away and looked at the other girls. There was one pair who were giggling and whispering together. Why did they look so familiar? Oh no! They were two girls from my class, Hermione and Marie. Hermione wore a high ponytail that wiggled when she laughed. Marie played with her short brown plaits.

Then I saw a girl sitting by herself. Her hair was naturally curly, like mine, but she wore her ponytail on one side, very fancy. Her eyes were big and sparkled when she looked at me. I sat down on the seat beside her. She grinned at me and said, Hi. Are you going to be attending the cooking academy, too?

I grinned back and said, Yes. My name’s Christy Sin. What’s yours?

My name is Vanessa, Vanessa Cheng. I love dim sum a lot, especially eating it! We chatted together until all of the other students arrived. There were about thirty girls. Wow!

Finally, the door opened and everyone rushed inside. I was normally slow, but I managed to get inside before everyone else. The chef stood in front of us. He introduced himself and called us to sit according to alphabetical order based on our surnames. There was a girl called Karina. She sat with Audrey, a girl with a short ponytail and cool black glasses. Karina kept looking back to her friend Teresa, mouthing something to her. Next were Marie and Vanessa; the latter made a funny face at me. Clarissa and Ashley came next. Many girls followed, until finally it was my turn. I glanced at Vanessa, who winked at me. I was paired with Joanna, a pretty girl with big eyes and long curls.

After some time passed, the chef let us introduce ourselves. When it was my turn, I felt like I was at school standing in front of everyone and making a speech. Hi, everyone. I’m Christy Sin. I have a sister and a little brother. I really enjoy dim sum, and I hope we all get along well. At school, there was usually someone chatting, not listening the slightest bit to what was being said, and hundreds of sniggers. But these girls were surprisingly quiet and polite. Even the scowling girl, Clarissa, was nodding. I felt very pleased, unlike the feeling I had while at school. It turned out that the girl with the very long hair was Eva. The other girl with long hair was Violet. Chelsea, who was eight and a half years old, was the smallest in the whole cooking academy. She only reached to my chest and would need a special ladder to stand on while cooking. Poor girl!

The first time I met Clarissa, I had a bad feeling about her. I watched her showing off and saying that her dim sum tasted special and that she had a light touch when doing pastry. I felt sorry for the girl sitting next to her. Ashley must have grown sick of her after a mere five seconds.

After a few hours of lengthy introductions, the chef announced that we could choose whom we wanted to share our room with. There were thirty of us, so