Steam Up serves up a dim sum board game for Chinese immigrant families

For many Americans, Sunday brunch means waffles, pancakes, and bacon and eggs. But for my family and millions of Chinese immigrants, Sunday brunch means only one thing: it’s time for some dim sum. A new board game called Steam up: A Feast of Dim Sum, published by Hot Banana Games, has transformed the tradition of dim sum – small portions of tasty food steamed in bamboo baskets – into a novel new board game. While it’s not the first table game that focuses on Chinese traditions, it offers one of the most endearing board gaming experiences I’ve had in a long time.

As luck would have it, the launch of fogging coincided exactly with my 婆婆 or grandmother Belle Yee’s birthday party in Vancouver, where the game was made. I recruited my mother Brenda Ford, my cousin Eric Lee, my cousin Kimberley Lam and her husband Sing-Yue Lam to play a few games steam up — an appetizer, if you will, before the big birthday dinner. What we’ve found is a game that’s deceptively simple, but with plenty of moving parts to follow.

The setup board looks like a real dim sum table, with little dampers to hold the pieces and a rotating turntable, just like in the restaurant. On his turn, each player performs two actions of his choice: take any dim sum token, draw a lucky card and optionally spin the wheel, play a lucky card and optionally spin the wheel, exchange two lucky cards for a token and/or a steamer buy by spending tokens to exactly match the parts inside.

When a player buys a steamer, he gets points. Characters receive different scores for different dim sum pieces, and at the end of a round, a Destiny card is drawn and the effects are resolved. After each steamer is bought, a tracker counts down, and once the tracker reaches the end – or all fate cards have been drawn – the game ends and the player with the most points wins.

Photo: Hot Banana Games

fogging comes in two editions: Standard and Deluxe. The differences are essentially aesthetic. The deluxe edition replaces flat punch card tokens with wooden tokens, prints characters and the scoreboard on higher quality cardstock, and most importantly, replaces flat dim sum punch card pieces with rubber dim sum squishies.

Of particular note are the squishies, which everyone in my family loved, especially mine 婆婆, which quickly made siu mai (pork dumplings), lo mai gai (sticky rice), har gow (shrimp dumplings), fung zao (chicken feet, literally meaning “phoenix claws”) and Char Siu Bao (pork bun). The high quality squishy bits were also more functional than the cardboard chits. It was easier to take them out of a bag and move them around during gameplay than using the flat pieces. Even my 103 year old 婆婆 found the squishies easy to handle.

However, they were so appealing that Kimberley and Sing-Yue had to say goodbye as their two-year-old son repeatedly tried to grab the squishies. They would probably be in his stomach without intervention – they just look so good.

The family, especially my 婆婆, was enthusiastic about the instructions and the game structure. Some customs of dim sum, such as serving tea in front of oneself, are described. The artwork is stunning and cute too, and my 婆婆 loved flipping through the manual and seeing the dim sum stereotypes that make up the different characters you can play – the loyal customer, the food blogger, or the Seafood lovers to name a few. Each is associated with one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Unfortunately, the complexity of the game also meant that my 婆婆 couldn’t participate directly. There was a surprising amount of effects from fortune cards, destiny cards, character abilities, and the wheel itself to track. This became an issue when we were being backtracked for missed effects, especially Destiny cards. The second problem was the physical design. The turntable was tricky to turn and only Eric used it effectively, taking my mom and I full steam ahead in a few key places.

The steamers and dim sum squishies could be finicky too. While the squishies were easier to handle and definitely more aesthetically pleasing, they could cause vapers to tip over if squishies weren’t perfectly placed inside. The steamers also sometimes clung to each other, resulting in spilled dim sum.

Ultimately, my mom emerged victorious with her “loyal customer” character and quickly racked up bonus points, which ties into one of the game’s problems. There are characters that are just easier to win with. Some are even marked with a teacup icon to show they’re easier to play.

fogging is aimed at a Chinese-American audience. The familiarity of dim sum squishies and the character archetypes was something that felt inviting, especially for 婆婆, who called it “very cute” and “just like real dim sum” — albeit competing food given the real Chinese ones Politeness contradicts .

fogging is kind of a niche specialty, but its Kickstarter success shows that the creators have reached this niche with ease. Overall, the experience left us full but also hungry to try out the thousands of possible variations. In short, it’s the quintessential dim sum experience.

Steam Up: A Celebration of Dim Sum is available now. If you are fascinated by it, go for the $66 Deluxe Edition. Although currently sold out, more copies should be available for pre-order soon. The Standard Edition feels less special and at $47 just saves you a bit of money.