Yum Cha/Dim Sum Life

It will be a sad day when I have to leave Shenzhen/Guangdong Province. Why? Dim sum. 

For those unfamiliar with the term, dim sum is basically a Chinese version of brunch, served in the traditional family style. Dim sum is all about variety and quantity, when ordering dim sum, you'll see a table filled with tons of small dishes of different foods. If you YouTube dim sum, you know what I mean. 

Dim sum is probably one of my all time favorite things to do. Not only do you get to nom on some delicious food, its a great bonding opportunity. I know when my mom and I fight, normally things muddle over after some dim sum. Since I've been in Shenzhen, I go on average about once a week, sometimes twice if the boss is taking the team out to lunch. 

Some people ask me how good my Chinese is, this is how I reply, semi-native Shanghai-er, learning Mandarin, dim sum Cantonese. I'm that comfortable with dim sum dish, now that I can read Chinese I'm that much more comfortable. I take a very aggressive role when ordering dim sum when I'm with friends and family. I know what I like and I will get it. 

Here is a list of go to's, so if you ever are getting dim sum these are nooby-proof guarantee loves. 

Ha Gaw/Shrimp Steam Dumpling: Probably the most popular item in dim sum, its light and delicious. You can judge whether the dim sum place is good by having the ha gaw, its a must have for an dim sum restaurant. 

Shew Mai/Shrimp Pork Steam Dumpling: Similar to the ha gaw, but a much more meatier dumpling, and probably the second most order dish. Sometimes there is some type of roe on top making it more luxurious but with or without still delicious choice.

Cha Shew Bao/Steamed BBQ Pork Bun: Something very familiar to non-Chinese food eaters. Its like wonderbread filled with delicious, succulent BBQ meat. I don't always order it cause I can always just order the meat straight up, but if you're drunk then is the perfect drunk food.   

There are many, many more but talking about this makes me hungry so I'll leave it at that.

My weekly dim sum dates with my girlfriend is always the highlight of my week. I have a new favorite. It has a whole wall showcasing all the live, fresh seafood. Ranging from Alaska King crab to geoduck (gooey duck). 

Its very traditional with taste and menu, which I love. I wouldn't say I'm a purist, but this place is amazing. I can't wait to go back this weekend for more. I'll order something new and maybe post something about it if I take a picture before I eat it all.

-MC

176

That’s how many credits I estimate I’ll end my IU careers with. Just to put that number into perspective. The minimum amount of credits to graduate from Kelley is 128, the minimum amount of credits to take the CPA exam, 150 (granted I have not taken all the required courses). I don’t want to brag, but I give meaning to the term victory lap.

It might be a bit of overkill, but I’ve spent the last four years of my life relearning my culture, heritage, and most important becoming super Chinese. Learning Chinese is where a lot of the excess credit hours come from, if I was to optimize graduate date with course selection, I would have graduated last year, instead I chose to continue with improving my language skills and to seize a unique opportunity to study abroad for a complete year. While it might seem like I really enjoyed learning Chinese from the get go, it really wasn’t like that. At first I took Chinese because I would like more “marketable,” meaning $$$. It wasn’t until the summer of my freshmen year until I really started to put an effort into learning the language. Also side note, taking Chinese allowed me to not take any Gen-Ed classes. J

Having this many credit does have its benefits. Waitlists doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. Super senior status is the golden ticket to getting into any class you want. No more praying and waiting, directly pass go and collect 200 dollars. I have a huge gradepoint base, which means that a C here or there won’t have a huge, huge impact, but neither will all A’s :\.

After carefully selecting classes for my real senior year and reevaluating my major, I managed to pick up another major, so I’ll technically have a major in three different departments from Kelley if all goes according to plan. Hopefully that will make employer take a second look at me.

-MC