China has one of the world’s most diverse food scenes, and naturally, the country has varied cuisine that differs from one region to another. But no matter where it comes from, the balance in the ingredients, herbs, and spices offer a variety of flavors and make each dish taste heavenly.
This is also why there is a Chinese restaurant in every corner and stress in America. Below are 20 must-try Chinese food delights for an unforgettable culinary adventure.
Fried rice is one of the most common Chinese foods. It can be elevated with diced abalone and truffles or comforting with a medley of leftover rice, seafood, eggs, and vegetables.
You can add anything you want to your fried rice. The options are endless, but you absolutely need heat, rice, and oil. A key to good fried rice is to infuse it with wok hei, also known as the breath of the wok, which gives the fried rice an elusive seared taste.
Many Peking duck loyalists claim that Peking duck is the best way to eat duck. The duck is seasoned, dried for 24 hours, and cooked in an open-air oven. The result? Crispy duck skin with tender, succulent meat.
It is enjoyed with radish, cucumber, scallion, and sweet bean sauce wrapped in a delicate pancake. This dish is not easy to replicate at home unless you have an open-air oven. It is best if you order it at a traditional Chinese restaurant.
After rice, noodles are a staple in many Chinese dishes. Chow Mein means "stir-fried noodles" in Chinese. A chow mein is traditionally made with Chinese egg noodles or chow mein noodles.
Like fried rice, you can customize your chow mein with protein and vegetables of choice. It is flavored with soy sauce and vinegar and fried at a high temperature for that delicious wok hei.
Congee, or rice porridge, is an easy-to-digest dish eaten during breakfast. If you are extra hungry, you can order deep-fried breadsticks (youtiao) and dunk them in your porridge as you eat it.
Congee can be thick or watery, sweet or savory, but however you make it, it is light on the stomach. Hence, it is considered a medicine when you are sick. This Chinese porridge can be served with a drizzle of soy sauce and scallions for simplicity or stewed with meat and vegetables for savoriness.
This pancake does not require maple syrup or a medley of fruits. A Chinese scallion pancake is a savory dish made with thin pan-fried dough. The dough is flavored with sesame oil and has bits of scallions.
Once pan-fried, the skin becomes super crispy and flaky with a slightly chewy interior. These pancakes are a popular street food and go-to appetizer in restaurants. You can also find fresh and frozen ones in supermarkets.
Kung pao chicken is one of the most famous Chinese foods outside of China. It is enjoyed by both Chinese and foreigners.
Chicken pieces are fried with scallions, ginger, peppercorns, chili, and deep-fried peanuts. It is fragrant, spicy, and a little bit mouth-numbing because of the peppercorns.
The American version is slightly sweet with cornstarch, vegetables, sweet and sour sauce, and mashed garlic.
Steamed pork buns are bread-like dumplings filled with Chinese barbecue pork. The pork is slightly charred and has the perfect balance of sweetness and salt from the maltose, wine, and soy sauce.
The buns are steamed, which makes them delightfully pillowy, and served with dipping sauces like chili oil or soy sauce. These buns are so delicious they are a freezer staple in many homes.
Many of us have probably already tried mapo tofu, but the American version is less spicy than traditional ones.
It consists of bean curd, Sichuan peppercorns and minced meat, usually pork or beef, coated in a spicy sauce made from fermented black beans and chili paste. A memorable mapo tofu has salty, peppery, and spicy flavors with textural contrast that hits all the right spots.
Char Siew, which translates to fork roasted, is a Cantonese barbecue pork dish. It is cooked on a skewer in an oven or over a fire. Whatever the cut of pork used, the meat is always marinated in red fermented bean curd, soy sauce, five-spice powder, hoisin sauce, and honey.
Once roasted, the pork turns a scarlet hue with slight char on the outside. The meat is tender with a sweet and salty flavor.
There are many different kinds of dumplings in Chinese cuisine, and wontons are one of them. They have less filling and are wrapped in much thinner dough wrappers. They also have a distinct shape similar to a sailor hat with a rounded center.
It is usually filled with minced pork or diced shrimp and served in a bowl of comforting broth with cabbage and noodles, but sometimes they are deep fried.
While wontons are cooked and served with soup, soup dumplings are dumplings with the soup inside. The dumplings are filled with collagen-infused pork stock that solidifies when cooled. This solid pork stock gets folded into a delicate wrapper and steamed.
Once it is steamed, the stock melts and becomes a broth. You bite the dumpling, slurp the soup, and then pop everything in your mouth.
Jiaozis are basically pan-fried dumplings. These dumplings are packed with minced meat and chopped vegetables like carrots and chives and wrapped in a thin dough skin.
They are eaten all year round, but especially on Lunar New Year because these dumplings are considered a symbol of good fortune. You should eat these pan-fried dumplings with vinegar and chili oil. The tartness and spiciness provide added flavor to the savory dumplings.
Although the name implies, this dish might be from Hainan, the origins are hotly contested. Some say it originated in Hainan while others say it is from Singapore.
Hainanese Chicken Rice consists of succulent poached white chicken served on fragrant rice cooked with the delicately flavored chicken broth. It is served with light soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic-chili dip.
Spring rolls are deep-fried, cylinder-shaped parcels that symbolize wealth in the Chinese culture.
The rolls are stuffed with a tasty filling of various ingredients like minced pork, shredded carrot, bean sprouts, chives, vermicelli, and other vegetables. They are then wrapped in thin dough wrappers and fried until crispy and golden.
Spring rolls are usually served with a spicy and tangy dipping sauce.
The steamed eggplant dish is a popular vegetable dish because of its juicy, tender texture and sweet flavor. It is made by steaming eggplants until soft and tender, then drizzling them with a flavorful sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil.
The eggplant will soak up all the flavorful sauce. There are many varieties of eggplants available, but for this dish, the Chinese version is the best. It has a thinner skin with sweeter flesh and is less bitter.
A combination of sweet and sour could never go wrong, especially in a dish featuring crispy pork.
Cubes of juicy and fried pork loins, pineapples, peppers, and onions are tossed in a delicious sweet and sour sauce made with ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, cornstarch, salt, and water.
Steaming white rice with sweet and sour pork makes for a complete and satisfying meal.
Dan Dan noodles are perfect for those who love mind-numbingly spicy food. This noodle dish can be served dry with a medley of sauces, minced meat or crispy pork, chopped scallions, spices, and peanut flakes.
It can also be served in a hot, spicy, salty, and nutty broth with any ingredients of choice. Either way, dan dan noodles are deliciously umami, spicy and not for the faint-hearted.
Dim sum is less of a dish and more of a style of serving food. It is the perfect way to enjoy a wide variety of Chinese food – from egg tarts to glutinous rice dumplings in one meal.
Instead of ordering, you flag down push carts that are moving throughout the dinner hall. Servers will then pass you your dish of choice and mark your table’s menu card with what you order.
During the hot months of summer, a dish like a cold crab could help you cool down. Fresh crab is cooked and chilled in the fridge overnight.
This allows the crab to marinate in its own juices and intensifies the natural sweetness. Before serving, it is splashed with a sweetened ginger dipping sauce made with Chinese black vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, and finely chopped ginger.
There is a cult following for P.F. Chang’s Mongolian beef and for good reasons.
After all, who does not love tender, shallow fried beef tossed in a savory sauce made with soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, dried chilies, and scallions. The sauce caramelizes and becomes sticky enough to coat the beef pieces, and with every mouthful, you are hit with flavorful punches.
