Curious to know what real, traditional Chinese food looks like?
This isn’t that imitation Chinese food you get from the 24-hour Chinese restaurants around the corner from your apartment. I lived and traveled in China for ten months and lived off the real deal, local Chinese cuisine of the cities and villages.
Trust me, there’s more to Chinese cuisine than Dim Sum and Kung Pao Chicken. Once you taste authentic Chinese food, you’ll never want to eat from the food court in the mall again.
These are 15 of my favorite traditional Chinese foods!
Great suggestions! I confess I don’t often even know what it is that I am eating in China. But they definitely have some delicious options to choose from.
Sometimes it’s just better not to ask questions 😛
I’ve actually had most of these. Except for the stinky tofu. I’m not a fan of the regular kind.
So maybe you’d enjoy the stinky kind, then! It’s actually not so bad.
I wasn’t a big fan of tofu when I initially arrived in Asia, but since coming here, it’s become a favorite of mine. Funny how that happens!
Translations may differ between Taiwan (where I lived and studied Mandarin) and China, but Yang Rou, which you call mutton, is goat in Taiwan.
Niu rou mian literally translates to Beef Noodle, but in Taiwan the dish is always served as a beef noodle soup. If you want it dry, you have to aks for it as dry (gan de).
That’s really interesting. I’m studying Mandarin in central China and “yang rou” is, 100% of the time, mutton. It appears that “shan yang rou” would be goat meat, though. I wonder if the former is just a shortened, colloquial version. I can’t find any information on “yang rou” being anything other than lamb or mutton.
Well how very informed of you. Jeremy you are a great writer! I laughed loudly in my cubicle when I read the Tibet line. So now everyone is giving me weird looks. Oh, and I’m super hungry now; no matter how much sriracha and soy sauce you put in this ramen….it’s not going to help.
I’m Chinese and I’ve never ever had dry beef noodles. The broth is a main factor in making or breaking the dish
I grew up speaking Mandarin and yang rou is what we call lamb. I just asked my mom (my parents are from Taiwan) and they call lamb and goat differently but it can still be used to call both.
Interesting! Doesn’t that get confusing, though?
This looks delicious and now you have made me very hungry!
I ate squid on a stick that I bought in a night market when I lived there. It was pretty good! Jiaozi will always be my favorite though. 🙂 Jian bing is great too.
Oh yeah, the squid on a stick! The local love those–I can’t handle the sight of tentacles hanging out of someone’s mouth!
Re the section on noodles – please note it should “its” N O T “It’s” (which is short for : it is. Whatever happened to sub editors?
you try 12 Traditional in China not 13
Yum yum yum! I’ve had most of these but not mutton stew, that’s a new one. It all looks so good, nom nom. I can’t wait to go back to Asia and eat everything there!
Oh man! The mutton stew is a highlight for sure. You’ll only find it in Xi’an, though! It’s a very local dish there, and it’s very, very tasty!!
In Xi’an you also HAVE to get the Liang Pi
Ahhhhh one of my favorites!
Hi i love asia too
I love the idea of spinach noodles, though I’m not so keen on the stinky tofu option! Have you tried cooking any of the dishes back at home?
I took a Chinese cooking class, actually. It’s pretty simple cooking, you just have to have the right understanding of the cuisine and the basics. To be honest, the spinach noodles are one of my favorites on that list!
Chinese food menu is what to eat lots, I recommend that you try to eat 12 meals menu Chinese website has offered.
What a great line up of food! The one great thing that I love about food in Asia as opposed to back in North America, is all those meats on a stick that you can find on street carts!
I love reading posts about traditional foods – it is always neat to see dishes that we have never heard of before. So many interesting things that you would never see on a takeout menu back home. Part of the fun of travailing for us is always trying new foods, as long as they are not too strange… like bugs and such 😉
Yeah, I don’t do bugs either! I hope you found some inspiration to try some new Chinese foods!
They do have scorpions-on-sticks in Beijing
I love Chinese food a lot, and this all looks so good! I wonder if there are any Chinese restaurants near me that cater to parties. And of those that are, how many would make traditional style.
No, you can only find most of these especially in China
chao mashi?? chao NIANGAO?
hello jeremy, your post very useful for my homework. Thankyou 🙂
Glad I could help!
Trump will tack u down
Yeah
I want to try them. Especially the dumplings.
Great job ! Want to try delicious Chinese food? Then why wait! Try one of the best Korean restaurant in NYC.
I’m really wanting to try those yak meat dumplings you listed. I absolutely love dumplings, especially when they’re filled with meat, but I’ve never had yak before. Does it taste anything like beef? I imagine that it probably does since yaks are a similar size to cows.
Ohhhhhhh the momo! I’m a dumpling guy, myself, and these were, without question, the best I’ve ever had in my life. And I’ve eaten A LOT of dumplings.
Yak meat is actually delicious. It’s been a little while since I’ve had it, but it’s very flavorful and much like beef—I’m sure you’d love it. The yak meat hotpot they do in this region is pretty scrumptious, too!
I love you Jeremy
Well,I am from China,but I never tried the Spinach Noodles and the second dishes.Hope I can enjoy them in the future.
You might only find the bo cai mian in Xi’an—it’s native to that province. I hope you can try them…they’re one of my favorites!
I like eating fried rice
please,in Chinese
I am Chinese
Me too. 🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳
Assalamu’alaikum
I ask permission to download images for my entrepreneur tasks
may be useful, thanks
Wassalamu’alaikum
Assalamu’alaikum
I ask permission to download images for my school task about entrepreneurship
may be useful, thanks
Wassalamu’alaikum
My favorite dish ever since I visited China ( for 3 months in the summer), has been Sichuan Ma Po Dou Fu, which has mounds of slivered green onion, Sichuan peppercorn and cilantro.
Also at a Buddhist monastery climbing E Mei Shan, the fermented tofu was amazing. Actually all Buddhist monastery dishes were very remarkable of the ones I visited Some Taoist temples had wonderful food, as well, especially mushroom dishes. Seasonal local greens of any type are not to be passed up.. All dumplings and fresh local fruits.
While in Tibet, I came to really like anything with yak meat,in any form, including yak sausage, Usually yak tastes similar to beef but has a slight wild game taste, Anything yak or Tibetan, especially the yak butter tea.
Beijing had some really wonderful breakfast turnip cakes, handmade chunky noodles and short noodles made from Tofu skin tossed in a sesame sauce. I never had a bad meal or dish in China, except for American or Western dishes there.
Hands down, the best dishes in China were the breakfasts, usually very simple congee or Xi Fan, with sides of pickled vegetables and boiled peanuts, (especially in Sichuan)
This is not Chinese food…WRONG! SO WRONG
This IS Chinese food. China is so big that there are different regional cuisines. I am Chinese descent from Southern China, and these are not common. But they are Chinese. I’ve travelled China and Taiwan. I cook traditional Hookien and other Chinese cuisines. THIS IS Chinese food. (Just a slight correction, momo is actually Nepalese dumpling, but since it was in Tibet, still…)
Okay thank’s for the foods from China!?
Few blogs really give the feel of the dishes they speak about. Your blog here is impressive and you have shared images to add to the appeal. Keep sharing such innovative posts. Looking forward to more such posts. Nothing can be more interesting to a foodie than great food blogs!
I’ve got to try those Yak meat dumplings! Rumor has it that westerners must bring their own food to China since their food is so bizarre it’s inedible but this has given me clarity. These dishes look incredible.
Chinese food is one of the most important parts of Chinese culture. The history of Chinese food is around 1000 years old with their unique cooking style, ingredients and other stuff evolving with time.
I like that you mention that dumplings are a really good thing to try from Chinese culture since they are found all over the country. My younger brother has become more interested in China recently and has been wanting to try their food. I think we should find a good Chinese restaurant for him to try something new.
good post
6 is not Chinese food. It similar to Dumplings but that shape is not Chinese Traditional shape.