“What do you remember most about your childhood Jie Jie?” I asked my older sister as she sat at her desk doing her work.
“I don’t remember much from my childhood but afternoon tea with the family. It was consistent almost to the point of being a bit dull, since it was lunch or brunch for us. But I still enjoyed it for some reason.”

I stared at her bewildered, “You liked going yum cha(afternoon tea)?!”
“I think it was the family unity that I liked. We would order as soon as a woman pushing metal carts filled with dim sum stopped at our table: steamed buns, dumplings, rice noodle rolls, and egg tarts. The adults would talk and we would talk amongst ourselves while sharing the food. Now that we’ve grown older we don’t do it as often. I feel that despite spending so much time together we still don’t know too much about each other.”

I realized that what my sister said is true-afternoon tea brought family unity. After moving away from the neighborhood we grew up in most, Flushing, our family is not as interactive with one another as we were during our childhood. Now I can see why my sister always suggests going yum cha with the family at any given opportunity.