The Nom Wah Cookbook

The cookbook from Nom Wah Tea Parlor, the oldest dim sum restaurant in New York’s Chinatown. Wilson Tang took over the family business and turned a century of tradition into 75 recipes that home cooks can actually pull off, from classic siu mai and har gow to turnip cakes and egg tarts.

Why Start Here

Most dim sum cookbooks either assume you already know your way around a bamboo steamer or treat the cuisine as a novelty project. Wilson Tang does neither. He grew up in this food, left for a finance career, then came back to save the restaurant his uncle had run for decades. That personal investment shows in how the recipes are written: clearly, practically, and with an understanding that you are probably making these in a regular home kitchen.

The book covers the full spread of a dim sum table. You get dumplings, bao, noodle dishes, rice rolls, and desserts. The recipes are organized the way a dim sum menu works, which helps you think about putting together a complete meal rather than just mastering one dish in isolation. Tang includes the stories behind the food, connecting each recipe to the restaurant’s history and the broader culture of Chinatown.

What makes this the right starting point is the balance between authenticity and accessibility. The recipes come from a real dim sum kitchen with a hundred years of practice behind them, but they are adapted for people cooking at home. Ingredient lists rely on items you can find in most Asian grocery stores, and the techniques are explained step by step with photographs.

What to Expect

A 272-page hardcover with photography by Alex Lau and An Rong Xu. The 75 recipes span bao, dumplings, vegetables, noodles, rice rolls, cakes, and desserts. Expect to invest in a bamboo steamer and make a trip to an Asian grocery for wrappers, dried shrimp, and a few specialty sauces. The difficulty is approachable for a motivated beginner, and many dishes freeze well for making ahead.