Dim sum is a large range of small dishes that Cantonese people traditionally enjoy in restaurants for breakfast and lunch. In the tenth century, when the city of Guangzhou (Canton) began to experience an increase in commercial travel, travelers concurrently began to frequent teahouses for small-portion meals with tea called yum cha, or "drink tea" meals. Yum cha includes two related concepts. The first is "yat jung leung gin" (一盅兩件), which translates literally as "one cup, two pieces". This refers to the custom of serving teahouse customers two pieces of delicately made food items, savory or sweet, to complement their tea. The second is dim sum (點心) and translates literally to "touching heart", the term used to designate the small food items that accompanied the tea drinking.
