Assignment 2： research paper (dim sum)

Assignment 2 English II (ENGL0205)

Research Paper

Gan Sue Jing (0307957)

Yam Yih Hwan (0305861)

Liong Lee Yee (0306254)

Lee JiaXin (0308389)

6th December 2012

FNBE July 2012 – ENGL 0205 English II

Names of group members: Gan Sue Jing, Yam Yih Hwan, Liong Lee Yee, Lee Jia Xin

Num. Title Page

1. Artistic Cover 1, 20

2. Cover Page Template 2

3. Table of Contents 3

4. The Research Proposal 4, 5

5. Research Essay 6 - 16

6. Meeting Minutes 17, 18, 19



The Research ProposalName: Lee JiaXin, Liong Lee Yee, Gan Sue Jing, Yam Yih Hwan.

Class: English II

Period: MONDAY & WEDNESDAY

INTRODUCTION:

To study the difference of old and new dim sum restaurant and their way of handling business, and also to understand more about the differences between the traditional way and the modern way of handling business, business set up and managing process. Other than that, we would also like to know the effect of traditional business and modern business on economy, and also the changes of culture and traditions through the years.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1) Is this a family business or you take this business over from somebody else?2a) (If it is family business) who start the business?b)(If it is taken from others) why you start this business?3) How long is this business been going?4) Which dishes is the best seller?5) Is the business only run in local market, or international?6) Have this business been through recession?7) Which particular group of society your businesses attract?

(Details: Average Age)8)How do you promote your products?9) If yes, why do you promote your products in this manner?10) Is your business competitive? Who are the main threats? How are they threatening?11) What procedure must you go through to get the license of franchise? What are the threat related policies by the government?12) Does the technology affect your business? What is the effect? Does this lead to good or bad outcome?13) Is your business going to expand even more?14) What do you hope your business would be in 10 years’ time?



METHODOLOGY:

To get our information for our research, we interview people of dim sum restaurants. On Friday (2/11/2012), we went to Jin Xuan Hong Kong Dim Sum, the branch Bandar Puchong Jaya at 1pm to conduct our interview. We had lunch there and before we called for the bill, we asked permission for interview but the supervisor there told us that their manager is not around, she gave us their manager's name card instead. We called up the number for a face-to-face interview.

Besides, we also went to Chung Hwa restaurant in Petaling Street on the 5th of November, at 10am. As usual, we had some dim sum. Meantime, we were told that interviews can't be done here. After we paid for our bill, we asked one of the waitresses some questions instead.

The next thing we are going to do is to conduct another interview at a dim sum restaurant at Paramount.

CONCLUSION:

We expect to obtain as much information as we could through interviews, understand more about the culture changes and the methods they handle their business and to understand the impact of the economy on their business or vice versa.



Dim sum- A traditional Chinese cuisine in which small portions of variety of food, including

an assortment of steamed or fried dumplings are served. ("Dim sum", 2012) Dim sum literally

meaning "to touch your heart," It took several centuries for the culinary art to develop. Dim

sum is believed to have its roots in the early times of Chinese culture of tea tasting, known as

"yum cha" or drinking tea. As per records, there were travelers along the ancient Silk Road

would stop in places to rest and in order to cater to their resting needs, small teahouses came

into existence. Though, it was not considered to be appropriate to combine food with tea as

local people believed that it would lead to weight gain initially. But soon, this changed, as they

realized that tea helps with the digestion of food. (Anonymous, 2009) Dim sum is the Cantonese

term for a Chinese way of serving food, where small portions of different food are served on

bamboo steamer baskets. They get pushed on carts around the restaurant from table to table,

and diners order by pointing at the dishes they desire to have. Each of the table gets a paper

that takes down the number of dishes ordered and diners are required to pay when they leave.

Classical dim sum includes buns dumplings and rice rolls containing a wide array of mouth-

watering fillings made out of variety of ingredients such as chicken, beef, pork, prawns or

vegetarian ingredients. They are cooked usually by steaming and frying, sometimes other

methods. Among the standard fare of dim sum that you should not miss include “Char

SiewPao”, a steamed traditional bun that has white exterior, it has “Char Siew” or barbecued

pork; “Har Gau”, steamed shrimp dumplings, that are made of ingredients wrapped in a

translucent wheat starch skin that gives it stretchiness with the shrimps wrapped inside the

layer of the skin; “Siu Mai”, an open topped steamed pork or shrimp dumplings, is an opened-



topped steamed pork or shrimp dumplings made with a wheat flour wrapper which is usually

yellow in colour, often topped with fish roe; “Lo Mai Gai”, steamed glutinous rice, also known

as one of the most filling dishes on the dim sum menu, that is made up of sticky rice flavoured

with chicken, mushrooms, Chinese sausage (Lap Cheong). As for dessert, dim sum restaurants

also provide pastry such as Dan tart, also known as egg custard tart. They are classic Hong Kong

egg tarts, similar to Portuguese custard tarts but with stronger egg flavor, the crust is usually

flaky. Whatever that you could name in a dim sum restaurant, they have it served. Dim sum in

Malaysia serves as much variety as they do in Hong Kong, as it is widely accepted and fancied

by large population of people in Malaysia. Thus, there are many dim sum restaurants running as

a large business around Malaysia.

After having a meeting minute with the group mates, we decided to pay a visit to our

first dim sum outlets located at No. 7 & 8, Jalan Kenari 8, Bandar Puchong Jaya, 47100,

Selangor. The name of the store is known as Restaurant Jin Xuan Hong Kong. It has started their

business a decade ago, and grown into a strong competitive dim sum restaurant in current

market. It is now already a well-established dim sum restaurant; with branches around KL, PJ

and Puchong area. The company owned up to 5 branches in different areas; Damansara Jaya,

Damansara Utama, Bandar Puchong Jaya, Kota Damansara, and Kuchai Enterpreneurs’ Park,

which is the headquarter. The operation hour for this dim sum restaurant starts at 7.00 in the

morning till 11.30 in the night, and it opened daily from Monday till Sunday. Business during the

weekends is crazily hectic. According to the interview, the branch in Puchong has less

competition compare to others because around the area dim sum restaurants are hardly been

found; therefore consumers have no other option. The business only runs in local market as FNBE July 2012 – ENGL 0205 English II


they are still looking at expanding it at the local level. Besidesexpanding in local level, the

business is still seeking for trustworthy expertise to manage theupcoming restaurants in

oversea.

Thedim sum restaurant in Puchong is the 4th branches started up among the five

branches mentioned. The interior design and furniture are much more modern and new as

compared to the other two dim sum restaurant mentioned below. This dim sum restaurant has

large interior area; every table is distance with one another. Even it is on the packed weekends,

customers can still look for a space for themselves to sit and enjoy their dim sum.Air-

conditioned is provided throughout the restaurant in order to provide customers a more

relaxation and satisfiedmanner when dining their breakfast, lunch or dinner.The major

attraction of the business is the citizens around the area;youngster, elderly citizens and families

often visit the dim sum restaurant in the morning to have their breakfast before going off to

work or classes. Besides that, the business also used online sources and articles, such as diaries

in blogs and personal journals written by their fans to promote their products in order to attract

more outsiders to try their dim sum.

The dim sum sells in the restaurantis categorize into various types; Steamed Dian,

Steamed Bao, Steamed Rice Roll, Congee, Pan Fried & Deep Fried, Baked and Roasted. Steamed

Dian is dishes like “Har Gaw”, “Siu Mai”, Steamed Fish Balls and Dumpling. As for Steamed Bao,

it is some sort of bun with different flavors within it. Pan fried & deep fried;such as Fried Yam

Pastry, Deep Fried Turnip Cake, Salted Shrimp Scallops and Avocado Roll, are cooked in which

the ingredients are submerged into hot oil until it become in the sense of crispy and



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil

tasty.Baked and roasted are dishes that were cooked in variousmethods regarding the

ingredients that had used.In the interview, they did mention that the best-selling dish among

the dishes is the “Char Siew Shrimp Wanton Noodle”. The “Char Siew” in the wanton noodle

was cut into slight slices while served. On the first bite of the “Char Siew”, juicy sweet oyster

sauce squeezed out from the “Char Siew”, the feeling is indescribable. Moreover, I personally

think that the “Lau Sar Bao” tastes good too. The runny salted egg yolk filling in the “Lau Sar

Bao” was creamy and rich, served piping hot while the latter one has got thicker and coarser

skin with little runny fillings.

| Restaurant Jin Xuan Hong Kong |



| Dim Sum served at Restaurant Jin Xuan Hong Kong |

The another dim sum shop we went together with our classmates and lecturer,

Mr.Woon on Monday was Restaurant Platinum Chinatown, which is located at strain the heart

of Petaling Street (China Town) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This shop has existed for half a

century ago and it’s a very famous Chinese restaurant in town. Restaurant Platinum Chinatown

was a restaurant without branch or franchise until this year 16th of September. The company

has decided to open another one in Kepong and has make the new shop as headquarter, while

the one which is located in Petaling Street has become a branch of the shop, together with the

one in Malacca. The difference between the headquarter and the branch of the Restaurant

Platinum is that the headquarter shop only sells dim sum while the branch in Petaling Street

sells dishes like fishes, soups, seafood, meats and other more.



The design of the building is a bit old because they use the original design of the shop lot

in Petaling Street. They have renovated the interior design of the building to modern one. They

renovated the shop by repaint the wall to red and yellow colour, which Chinese believes that

Red represents Luck and Yellow represents Richness. They renovated the ceiling as well to have

better look and design for their shop. Furthermore, the workers who work in the shop have

their own t-shirt uniform with the logo of the shop at their back, to represent their identity of

worker in that shop. The age of the workers is in the range of 20-65 based on our observation.

The shop we went is located at the corner of the shop lot, nearby Chatime shop. The

business hour of the shop is from 7A.M to 5P.M every day. The number of costumers is not that

much in the shop because there is variety choice of restaurant for others to go too. According

to the waitress we interviewed, she said that the business of the restaurant is not that good as

before because the number of restaurant in Petaling Street increases from time to time. In

addition, the closure of a very famous dim sum shop in Petaling Street which is Yook Woo Hin

Dim Sum Restaurant doesn’t affect the number of their customers too, neither increase or

decrease. The furniture such as tables and chairs are rather new compared to the furniture of

the dim sum shop in Cheras. The seats are more comfortable and they have air-conditioned

service as well.

This shop attracts most of the Chinese and foreigners who are non-Muslims because

they serve pork. This shop serves various type of dim sum such as BBQ Pork “Chu Chiong Fan”,

Carrot Cake, Pumpkin Creampuff, “Siu Mai” and other more. Their dim sum is different than

others because the chef, Wong Xin Ying improves the recipe of each dish by changing the



recipe. The taste is slightly different compared to the traditional one, as well as the look of the

dim sum. Chef Wong has changed the appearance of the dim sum so that it can attract more

customers to eat it. The shop uses plastic plates to serve the dim sum to customers. Compared

to the stainless steel small plates used by the dim sum shop in Cheras, Restaurant Platinum

Chinatown seems to be more modern. As usual, dim sum shop normally offers Chinese tea as

drink. Restaurant Platinum Chinatown provides few type flavor of Chinese tea for customer to

choose. They provide fresh fruit juice as well such as carrot milk juice, watermelon juice, apple

juice and so on. The dim sum they serve are actually ready made from the headquarter shop

from Kepong and sent to them to heat it up with steamer, unlike traditional dim sum shop

where they make them dim sum freshly in early morning.

| Restaurant Platinum Chinatown |



| Dim Sum served at Restaurant Platinum Chinatown |

Besides that, the next dim sum restaurant we went was Kedai Kopi dan Makan Seong

Kee. Taman Connaught, Cheras has variety of dim sum restaurants, however, Kedai Kopi dan

Makan Seong Kee is one of the most famous and oldest dim sum restaurant at Taman

Connaught. According to the waiter I had interviewed, it has been operated for about thirty-six

to forty years. This dim sum restaurant is a family business which the current boss took over

from his father generation. Furthermore, the business hour of this dim sum restaurant is from

5.30am to 2pm daily. It only closes on either Tuesday or Wednesday every week. It is an

environmentally friendly restaurant because this dim sum restaurant does not use any air

conditioner compared with other dim sum restaurants. Although there is no air conditioner, but

the customers will not feel hot or uncomfortable when they are having their meal. This is due



to the dim sum restaurant is located at the corner of the shop houses and there are big and tall

trees along the roadside as the shade. Therefore, customers can enjoy having their meal with

friends and family.

Moreover, there are plenty of customers in this dim sum restaurant, especially

weekend. Therefore, most of the customers will go to the dim sum restaurant in the morning to

get a place to sit and start to enjoy their breakfast. As a Malaysian, everyone knows that dim

sum is non-halal food, thus, there is no Malay customers in the dim sum restaurant. Most of the

customers who went to this dim sum restaurant were from average twenty year old to sixty

year old. The peak hour for this dim sum restaurant is during brunch time, which is 10am to

1pm. Once the customers have a sit, they will be served shortly by the waiters. If you have been

to dim sum restaurant before, you will know that the food will be carrying around the

restaurant. This dim sum restaurant has variety of dim sum, such as “Chee Cheong Fun”,

porridge, prawn dumpling (Har Gao), Steam Fish Balls, “Siew Mai”, Black Pepper Spareribs and

more. Kedai Kopi dan Makan Seong Kee is very special compare with other dim sum restaurants

that we went, because only this dim sum restaurant is selling Mee Siam, also known as Siamese

noodle. It is a dish of thin rice noodles in spicy, sweet and sour light gravy which is served with

fried egg, shrimp, and fried onion. Besides Mee Siam, Yu Mai is also one of the best-selling

dishes in the restaurant. According to the waiter who worked at the dim sum restaurant for

thirty years, the “Yu Mai” was handmade by themselves last time. But now, there is no longer

handmade “Yu Mai” because they do not have enough of workers and it takes a long time to

make it due to several of steps. In addition, “Chee Cheong Fun”, also known as rice noodle roll,



filled with prawn or pork is very tasty too. The prawns are bigger and the “Chee Cheong Fun” is

smoother compare with other dim sum restaurants that we went.

Next, traditional dim sum restaurant will use steamer baskets to steam the dim sum

dishes. Even though Kedai Kopi dan Makan Seong Kee operated for thirty-six to forty years, but

it does not use any steamer baskets to steam the dim sum dishes. Instead, they used stainless

steel plates because it is small in size, can withstand heat and long lasting compare with

steamer baskets. Another difference between this dim sum Kopi dan Makan Seong Kee with

other dim sum restaurants is the floor. Most of the modern dim sum restaurants have nice and

smooth floor tiles, however, KedaiKopi dan Makan Seong Kee only has concrete floor.

Moreover, this dim sum restaurant is using the traditional way by written down the receipt

instead of printing out from the casher machine.



| Kedai Kopi dan Makan Seong Kee |

| One of the special dishes, Mee Siam at Kedai Kopi dan Makan Seong Kee |

In conclusion, dim sum is a favorable Chinese cuisine among all Malaysian whether they

are traditional or modern. Nowadays, youngsters often neglect the importance of practicing

this tradition of having “drink tea” session every morning. This tradition should be continued to

be practiced and not just happening among the elder generations only. The beautiful tradition

of drinking tea and having dim sum in the morning should not be replaced by youngsters having

late breakfast or early lunch as they often wake up late in the afternoon. In conclusion, Dim

sum is a very good business and should be promoted throughout the world.



Meeting Minutes[MEETING DATE]22ND OCTOBER 2012

[MEETING TIME]3PM-5PM

[MEETING LOCATION] DISCUSSION ROOM

MEETING CALLED BY

Lee Jia Xin

TYPE OF MEETINGCasual Meeting

FACILITATOR

NOTE TAKERYam Yih Hwan

TIMEKEEPER

ATTENDEESGan Sue Jing, Yam Yih Hwan, Liong Lee Yee, Lee JiaXin

[TIME ALLOTTED]3PM-5PM

[AGENDA TOPIC]DISTRIBUTION OF TASK

[PRESENTER]LEE JIA XIN

DISCUSSIONAssign work to each one of group members.

Gan Sue Jing and Yam Yih Hwan: Interview and do

Liong Lee Yee: Take pictures

CONCLUSIONS

Work is distributed evenly to group members throughout the meeting.

ACTION ITEMS PERSON RESPONSIBLE DEADLINE

Interview Questions List Lee Jia Xin

DISCUSSIONDiscuss the different location of Restaurant.

Yam Yih Hwan: Chung Hwa Restaurant in Petaling Street

Gan Sue Jing: Kedai Kopi and MakanSeongKee

Lee JiaXin: Jin Xuan Restaurant in Puchong

CONCLUSION Went to three of the restaurants in two weeks’ time.



S

Jing Xuan Restaurant: 2nd November 2012

Seong Kee Restaurant: 11th November 2012

Chung Hwa Restaurant: 5th November 2012


Interview Questions List Lee Jia Xin

[TIME ALLOTTED]2ND NOVEMBER 2012

[AGENDA TOPIC]JING XUAN RESTAURANT


DISCUSSIONGo to Jin Xuan Restaurant at 1PM.

CONCLUSIONS

Called manager to have interview.


Pictures Liong Lee Yee

Interview Yam Yih Hwan

[TIME ALLOTTED]5TH NOVEMBER 2012

[AGENDA TOPIC]CHUNG HWA RESTAURANT


DISCUSSION

Went to Chung Hwa Restaurant together with other course mates on 5th November 2012.

CONCLUSIONS

Got to ask the waitress a few questions about the restaurant and history of the restaurants.


[TIME ALLOTTED]11TH NOVEMBER 2012

[AGENDA TOPIC]SEONG KEE RESTAURANT

[PRESENTER] LEE JIA XIN



DISCUSSIONWent to Seong Kee Restaurant on 11th November 2012, Sunday.

Gan Sue Jing went there with her family together and did the interview at the same time.

CONCLUSIONS

Managed to talk to an old worker who works at the counter and asked some of the questions.


Pictures Gan Sue Jing

OBSERVERS

RESOURCE PERSONS

SPECIAL NOTES



Assignment 2： research paper (dim sum)

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Transcript of Assignment 2： research paper (dim sum)