Post by Raoul Duke on Jul 12, 2006 1:01:29 GMT 7
Hi!
This is starting off as a compilation from the "What's Fer Dinner" thread, which eventually became such a wank magnet that it wasn't very useful any more. It's still going in the "Going Gets Weird" area. Since it's edited, the conversation may jump around a bit...
One of the hardest things for me to do as an Expat is to dine alone in a restaurant. English menus can be rare, often include about 10% of the total choices, and sometimes have higher prices than the Chinese menus.
Often, you find yourself eating the same few dishes over and over until you're ready to shoot the next waitress who brings you a plate of them.
No, if you want to eat decently in a restaurant, you need to know some dishes. In this section is a collection of Chinese dishes that are Barfly Approved...or at least that we consumed and lived to tell about.
I'm starting the ball rolling with some classic, standard dishes that a) I personally like a lot and b) are easy to find all over China. I'll add more as time goes by...
You're invited to add to this list, too. ONE RULE: If you don't know for sure how to write it in pinyin, complete with tones, please find out before posting it. You can probably find a real Chinese person around somewhere. The idea here is to make this list useful...(I know, a Saloon first)...and if you can't say it so people will understand you, it ain't useful. (Speaking of useful, you'll need to know how to read pinyin for this list to be useful. 'Fraid you're on your own there...)
Also, please give a brief description of the dish. If you know it's a
regional dish, please give the region it's from so people don't go trying to find Xinjiang dishes in a Dongbei restaurant.
NOTE: Just as in our own countries, most recipes are not carved in stone. There are endless variations on dishes in every town, every house, and every restaurant. Ingredients, spicing, sauces, etc. can vary wildly from place to place. For example, Gong Bao Ji Ding served in its native Sichuan can set your whole head on fire, while by the time it gets to Shanghai it's not especially hot. Usually. Making matters worse, different dishes (and even basic ingredients) have different names in different parts of China. TIFC (This Is F*cking China). We all do our best.
SOME DINING BASICS
Chopsticks Kuai4 Zi
Fork (You weenie!) Cha1 Zi
Knife Dao1 Zi
Spoon Tang1 Shao2
Plate Die2
Bowl Wan3
Paper napkin Can1 Jin1 Zhi3
Salt Yan2
Black Pepper Hu2 Jiao1
Soy Sauce Jiang4 You2
Rice Mi2 Fan4
Fried Rice Dan4 Chao3 Fan4
Cup or Glass Bei1 Zi
Green Tea Qing1 Cha2
Black Tea Hong2 Cha2
Beer Pi2 Jiu3
Cola Ke2 Le4
Bottled water Ping2 Shui3
Iced/Cold Bing1 De
Bon appetit!
OK, let's eat! (WARNING: I really like hot peppers!)
Gong1 Bao3 Ji1 Ding1
Known abroad as "Kung Pao Chicken". Possibly the most common dish ordered by foreigners in China. A Sichuan classic that has spread widely across China- availaible almost everywhere. Boneless chicken breast, diced and stir-fried with peanuts, onions, and hot peppers in a rich brown sauce.
Ma2 La4 Dou1 Fu, aka Ma2 Po3 Dou1 Fu
Another Sichuan original that's taken root across China and is found everywhere. Cubes of tofu cooked with diced pork and hot peppers in a light sauce.
Yu2 Xiang1 Rou4 Si1
It means "Fish-Fragrance Shredded Pork", but there's no fish- or fish fragrance- anywhere in it. Go figure. Shredded boneless pork stir-fried with hot peppers and ginger in a tangy, peppery sauce. Don't let the fish thing throw you...seriously good stuff.
Jiao1 Yan2 Pai2 Tiao2
Another Sichuan dish widely found elsewhere. Strips of pork are breaded and deep-fried. They're placed in a dish and topped with lightly-cooked peppers, onions, ginger, and spices. Beware the small bone frequently found under the breading at one end of the pork strip- apparently there just to see if you're paying attention.
Tang2 Cu4 Zhu1 Rou4 aka Tang2 Cu4 Pai2 Gu3 aka Tang2 Cu4 Li4 Zhi3 aka Gou3 Bao3 Rou4 aka Gou3 Lao3 Rou4
The most common Chinese dish outside of China- Sweet and Sour Pork. Probably Cantonese in origin but now universal. A thousand variations here, but usually cubes or slices of pork battered and fried, and served in a sauce made with sugar, vinegar, and a dash of tomato ketchup for color. Often served with chunks of pineapple and green pepper. Usually boneless, but not always.
Hui2 Guo1 Rou4
It means "return-to-the-pot meat", and is rendered in English as "Twice-Cooked Pork". I think this is a Hunanese dish that again is found everywhere. Thin strips of rather fatty pork are cooked briefly, removed from heat, and then stir-fried with hot peppers, cabbage, onion, and ginger. Sauce, if any, is very light.
Kao3 Yang2 Rou4
Literally means "roast mutton", but refers to those heavenly lamb sticks. Originates from Xinjiang, but now seen all over China. Available in Xinjiang restaurants but a favorite street food, it's found in every town in China being roasted on a grill right on the sidewalk by guys in funny hats, often with a boom box blaring Boogie-Uygur music while you eat. Cubes of mutton and mutton fat are alternated on a skewer, then roasted over hot coals while being heaped with exotic Central Asian spices. If you say "la4" they can make it hot for you. Wonderful hot off the grill with triangles of fresh Xinjiang bread.
PROUST added:
Yummy! Let me add a cold-weather favorite in Shanghai: Xiang1 Gu1 Mian4 Jing1 Mian4. Noodles in broth with black mushrooms. Cheap and filling. Best with a couple of dashes of vinegar [cu4] and a spoon or two of chili sauce [la4 jiang4].
NATE M added:
www.onefootprint.com/news/downloads/Ch-En-Menu2003.pdf
FEED ME, SEYMOUR!!!
ILUNGA added:
How popular is the mongolian style hotpot (huo guo) where you guys are?I love the outdoor places in summer where you can get the fresh beer, kao yang rou and, my absolute favourite thing, cao niu yu (grilled catfish). (Kao3 Nian2 Yu2? -Ed.)
Hotpot's great for warming you up in winter as well. Just stay clear of the sheep eyeballs
How can food this good be so cheap?
RAOUL added:
Glad it's useful, Gmat. Really hoping this stuff will be. And kudos, Nate, on a great find. Thanks.
OK, let's talk about Hot Pot (Huo3 Guo1)...it isn't seen much in the West (at least not in America) because the insurance companies would just poo.
There is a "Mongolian" tradition of hot pot, but the one widely seen in China comes from the fiery kitchens of Sichuan. It's wildly popular in every part of China I've seen so far. It was big (nay, ubiquitous) in the far-northeastern city of Changchun, which is bitten hard by the winters, but it also packs them in in Shanghai in the summertime, when it's hot enough outside to boil a monkey's bum. I can't hang with this one in the summer.
In most Huo Guo restaurants, you'll be seated at a table with a hole cut in the middle of it. Beneath the hole is a gas burner connected to a small tank of LP gas. Your waiter will light the burner and fit a large metal pot filled with soup into the hole. A popular choice is Yin-Yang Hot Pot (yuan1 yang2 huo3 guo1), in which the pot is divided into 2 halves, in the classic yin-yang shape, by a metal divider. The red side is an extremely spicy-hot soup; the white side is a mild neutral broth with- I am not making this up- a whole fish in it. It's just there to flavor the soup. As the soup boils, the staff will come by occasionally and add more broth to the pot or to adjust your fire.
The ordering part mostly consists of selecting which platefuls of paper-thin-sliced meats, vegetables, noodles, etc. you're going to eat. You may also have a number of dipping sauces to choose from...my favorite is the peanut sauce or the red tofu sauce. All these dishes are brought to the table completely raw.
After a few minutes the soup will start to boil. Some of the meat and vegetables is added to the soup. Many will be ready to eat when the water returns to a boil, but some things such as potatoes will need to boil for a minute. Fish the bits out with your chopsticks, dip them in your sauce, and eat. Really great stuff....especially on a cold day.
You'll be glad you brought some antacids with you...the red soup is really hot! The Changchun restaurants will bring by tiny scoops of ice cream from time to time to help you put out the fire in your mouth...
ILUNGA added:
That all sounds familiar Raoul. Apologies for my awful pinyin.
I think Mongolian and Sichuan hotpot must be pretty similar. Although I guess the Sichuan variety will be a lot spicier.
The standard hotpot in Luoyang is practically the same as the one I had in Hohhot. It has a spicy and non-spicy section, and you've got the sesame sauce and another one I'm not too keen on. There's separate restaurants for the fish hotpot.
My favourite is a three-way hotpot place which is split into chicken, tomato and spicy flavour soups. I love the tomato flavour. Sometimes I don't bother with the food and just drink the broth.
STEVE added:
Great eating! Let me add a few of my favorites to the list:
Yu[2] Xiang[1] Qie[2] Zi
This is a spicy eggplant dish in fish flavored sauce. They chop the eggplants into small pieces, and the flavors mix very nicely. For some reason it goes great with rice!
Lan[2] Zhou[1] La[4] Mian[4]
This is a tasty beef noodle dish from Lanzhou and practically every city, town, and village has a small restaurant named after it. Add hot peppers to the noodles for more zip. It is also entertaining to watch them slap the dough on the table as they make the noodles.
Ding[1] Ding[1] Chao[3] Mian[4]
A Xinjiang dish that resembles Macaroni and Cheese. Far better than Kraft Dinner, these small chopped noodles come with a sweet sauce and green peppers.
La[4] Zi Ji[1] Ding[1]
Small pieces of chicken buried in a densely packed array of hot peppers. There are so frickin many that you literally have to fish for the chicken among the peppers.
Ji[1] Ding[1] Mian[4]
Same as the 'kung pao' chicken in Raoul's post, except this is made in a noodle dish.
Nan[2] Xiang[2] Xiao[3] Long[1]
The famous dome-shaped street dumplings from Shanghai, except they really come from a suburban town called Nanxiang which is 20km out of the city. The school I taught at last year was very close by, so we
often got discounts. Great food and highly recommended.
Gou[1] Lao[3] Rou[4]
Your standard sweet and sour pork dish
Fan[1] Qie[2] Chao[3] Dan[4]
Another simple dish, this is fried eggs and tomatoes. If you're in
Shanghai and really want to impress a waitress, say "Fei Ga Tso Dei", that's the Shangainese.
Jia[1] Chang[2] Dou[4] Fu
A nice mix of thick tofu pieces, green peppers, and mushrooms.
Xi[1] Gua[1]
Good watermelons for dessert
Steve
RAOUL added:
Nice additions, Steve...thanks!
I also like another vegetable dish similar to one Steve mentions. I like Si1 Gua1 Chao3 Dan4 even better than the tomato version. Si Gua ("silk melon") I think is technically a kind of gourd, but don't be put off...works really well with the eggs.
CON'S FLY IS OPEN added:
I just tried donkey meat for the first time. It's pretty good. There are apparently several varieties, each of which is very expensive.
Ethically, compared to eating dog, this is a piece of cake.
RAOUL added:
Yeah, donkey meat is really pretty good. For a long time I was pretty adamant that it should be left safely inside the donkey. I was converted by those luscious DongBei donkey-meat dumplings. (I'm considering A Fridge-Full of Donkey Meat Dumplings as a title for my book...)
Speaking of dumplings, Chinese food has about 100,000 items that translate into English simply as "dumplings". Here are a few of the best-known ones.
Jiao3 Zi A staple of Northern food, but a traditional Spring Festival food throughout China. Various combinations of minced meat and/or vegetables are mixed together, placed into a thin wheat flour-based wrapper, and the edges of the wrapper are crimped tightly to seal in the contents. These are thrown into boiling water...each time the water returns to a boil, the boil is doused with a little cold water. As more dumplings are cooked in the water, it becomes a light soup. The 3rd time the soup comes to a boil, the filling is thoroughly cooked and the jiaozi are served. Jiaozi are drained and put on a plate. They are always eaten with a dipping sauce, which can be as simple as a bit of red vinegar or soy sauce. My favorite sauce is made with equal parts of soy sauce and either red or white vinegar, a drop of sesame oil, and a manly dollop of chili sauce. In the north jiaozi are often served with minced garlic you can add to the sauce. This is also quite good, and allows you to smell like your neighbors. Jiaozi are often served with a bowl of the boiling soup on the side- considered extremely nutritious.
Hun2 Tun2 The Southern version. Known as "wontons" in the West. Functionally identical to jiaozi. The wrappers for huntun are thinner than those for jiaozi, and also larger. Pieces of the wrapper tend to fall off in the soup and become noodles. Unlike jiaozi, huntun are not drained- they're served in a bowl of the soup they are boiled in. You can add chili sauce, red vinegar, soy sauce, and/or powdered soup base to the soup. Huntun are divided into 2 size classes- Da4 Hun2 Tun2 (big wontons), which are typically 2 bites, and Xiao3 Hun2 Tun2 (small wontons) coming in at a single bite.
Guo1 Tie1 The "potstickers" often served in western Chinese restaurants, only better. They're basically jiaozi/huntun, perhaps with a bit thicker wrapper to stand up to the extra cooking. They are boiled to cook the filling, then fried in oil on one side. (Leftover jiaozi or da hun tun often become guo tie the next day.) Like jiaozi, they are dipped in a sauce when eating them. Beware the screaming hot oily "soup" that cooks up inside the dumpling- it tends to squirt everywhere when you bite into the dumpling. The soup is much prized by the Chinese, but I tend to poke a hole in the wrapper with my chopstick and let it drain out. By the way, IMHO guo tie are about as good as Chinese food gets at breakfast.
Bao1 Zi Maybe more a "steamed bun" than a dumpling? A patty of meat and/or assorted vegetables is wrapped in sheets of a yeast/flour dough, formed into a dome shape, and steamed. Sometimes you'll see a sweet version filled with red bean paste. Can vary in size from a small 1-2 bite affair, to monsters the size of your head.
Xiao3 Long2 A beloved favorite of the Shanghai region. Meat and/or vegetables are placed in a thin flour wrapper, formed into a dome shape, and steamed. Typically dipped in red vinegar or other sauce when eaten. I've seen foreigners (not me) devour 50 of these rascals in a single sitting.
Zong3 Zi Associated with Summer's Dragon Boat Festval. A payload of meat, red bean paste, or a sweet Chinese date is coated with a layer of sticky rice to form a cake, which is shaped into a thick triangle. All this is wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. The sweet ones, sprinkled with a touch of sugar, are acceptable at breakfast.
Tang1 Yuan2 Typically somewhat sweet, these are associated with the Lantern Festival that ends the Spring Festival season. A bit of sweet filling such as red bean paste or a peanut-and-sesame paste is somehow wrapped in a doughy mass of glutinous rice and formed into a ball. (There are also non-sweet tang yuan with meat) These are then boiled to cook the rice paste, and served in a bowl along with some of the water used to boil them. I like the peanut ones OK. However, to me they visually resemble a big bowl of boiled eyeballs...and they are often served at breakfast. Mmmmm.
This is starting off as a compilation from the "What's Fer Dinner" thread, which eventually became such a wank magnet that it wasn't very useful any more. It's still going in the "Going Gets Weird" area. Since it's edited, the conversation may jump around a bit...
One of the hardest things for me to do as an Expat is to dine alone in a restaurant. English menus can be rare, often include about 10% of the total choices, and sometimes have higher prices than the Chinese menus.
Often, you find yourself eating the same few dishes over and over until you're ready to shoot the next waitress who brings you a plate of them.
No, if you want to eat decently in a restaurant, you need to know some dishes. In this section is a collection of Chinese dishes that are Barfly Approved...or at least that we consumed and lived to tell about.
I'm starting the ball rolling with some classic, standard dishes that a) I personally like a lot and b) are easy to find all over China. I'll add more as time goes by...
You're invited to add to this list, too. ONE RULE: If you don't know for sure how to write it in pinyin, complete with tones, please find out before posting it. You can probably find a real Chinese person around somewhere. The idea here is to make this list useful...(I know, a Saloon first)...and if you can't say it so people will understand you, it ain't useful. (Speaking of useful, you'll need to know how to read pinyin for this list to be useful. 'Fraid you're on your own there...)
Also, please give a brief description of the dish. If you know it's a
regional dish, please give the region it's from so people don't go trying to find Xinjiang dishes in a Dongbei restaurant.
NOTE: Just as in our own countries, most recipes are not carved in stone. There are endless variations on dishes in every town, every house, and every restaurant. Ingredients, spicing, sauces, etc. can vary wildly from place to place. For example, Gong Bao Ji Ding served in its native Sichuan can set your whole head on fire, while by the time it gets to Shanghai it's not especially hot. Usually. Making matters worse, different dishes (and even basic ingredients) have different names in different parts of China. TIFC (This Is F*cking China). We all do our best.
SOME DINING BASICS
Chopsticks Kuai4 Zi
Fork (You weenie!) Cha1 Zi
Knife Dao1 Zi
Spoon Tang1 Shao2
Plate Die2
Bowl Wan3
Paper napkin Can1 Jin1 Zhi3
Salt Yan2
Black Pepper Hu2 Jiao1
Soy Sauce Jiang4 You2
Rice Mi2 Fan4
Fried Rice Dan4 Chao3 Fan4
Cup or Glass Bei1 Zi
Green Tea Qing1 Cha2
Black Tea Hong2 Cha2
Beer Pi2 Jiu3
Cola Ke2 Le4
Bottled water Ping2 Shui3
Iced/Cold Bing1 De
Bon appetit!
OK, let's eat! (WARNING: I really like hot peppers!)
Gong1 Bao3 Ji1 Ding1
Known abroad as "Kung Pao Chicken". Possibly the most common dish ordered by foreigners in China. A Sichuan classic that has spread widely across China- availaible almost everywhere. Boneless chicken breast, diced and stir-fried with peanuts, onions, and hot peppers in a rich brown sauce.
Ma2 La4 Dou1 Fu, aka Ma2 Po3 Dou1 Fu
Another Sichuan original that's taken root across China and is found everywhere. Cubes of tofu cooked with diced pork and hot peppers in a light sauce.
Yu2 Xiang1 Rou4 Si1
It means "Fish-Fragrance Shredded Pork", but there's no fish- or fish fragrance- anywhere in it. Go figure. Shredded boneless pork stir-fried with hot peppers and ginger in a tangy, peppery sauce. Don't let the fish thing throw you...seriously good stuff.
Jiao1 Yan2 Pai2 Tiao2
Another Sichuan dish widely found elsewhere. Strips of pork are breaded and deep-fried. They're placed in a dish and topped with lightly-cooked peppers, onions, ginger, and spices. Beware the small bone frequently found under the breading at one end of the pork strip- apparently there just to see if you're paying attention.
Tang2 Cu4 Zhu1 Rou4 aka Tang2 Cu4 Pai2 Gu3 aka Tang2 Cu4 Li4 Zhi3 aka Gou3 Bao3 Rou4 aka Gou3 Lao3 Rou4
The most common Chinese dish outside of China- Sweet and Sour Pork. Probably Cantonese in origin but now universal. A thousand variations here, but usually cubes or slices of pork battered and fried, and served in a sauce made with sugar, vinegar, and a dash of tomato ketchup for color. Often served with chunks of pineapple and green pepper. Usually boneless, but not always.
Hui2 Guo1 Rou4
It means "return-to-the-pot meat", and is rendered in English as "Twice-Cooked Pork". I think this is a Hunanese dish that again is found everywhere. Thin strips of rather fatty pork are cooked briefly, removed from heat, and then stir-fried with hot peppers, cabbage, onion, and ginger. Sauce, if any, is very light.
Kao3 Yang2 Rou4
Literally means "roast mutton", but refers to those heavenly lamb sticks. Originates from Xinjiang, but now seen all over China. Available in Xinjiang restaurants but a favorite street food, it's found in every town in China being roasted on a grill right on the sidewalk by guys in funny hats, often with a boom box blaring Boogie-Uygur music while you eat. Cubes of mutton and mutton fat are alternated on a skewer, then roasted over hot coals while being heaped with exotic Central Asian spices. If you say "la4" they can make it hot for you. Wonderful hot off the grill with triangles of fresh Xinjiang bread.
PROUST added:
Yummy! Let me add a cold-weather favorite in Shanghai: Xiang1 Gu1 Mian4 Jing1 Mian4. Noodles in broth with black mushrooms. Cheap and filling. Best with a couple of dashes of vinegar [cu4] and a spoon or two of chili sauce [la4 jiang4].
NATE M added:
www.onefootprint.com/news/downloads/Ch-En-Menu2003.pdf
FEED ME, SEYMOUR!!!
ILUNGA added:
How popular is the mongolian style hotpot (huo guo) where you guys are?I love the outdoor places in summer where you can get the fresh beer, kao yang rou and, my absolute favourite thing, cao niu yu (grilled catfish). (Kao3 Nian2 Yu2? -Ed.)
Hotpot's great for warming you up in winter as well. Just stay clear of the sheep eyeballs
How can food this good be so cheap?
RAOUL added:
Glad it's useful, Gmat. Really hoping this stuff will be. And kudos, Nate, on a great find. Thanks.
OK, let's talk about Hot Pot (Huo3 Guo1)...it isn't seen much in the West (at least not in America) because the insurance companies would just poo.
There is a "Mongolian" tradition of hot pot, but the one widely seen in China comes from the fiery kitchens of Sichuan. It's wildly popular in every part of China I've seen so far. It was big (nay, ubiquitous) in the far-northeastern city of Changchun, which is bitten hard by the winters, but it also packs them in in Shanghai in the summertime, when it's hot enough outside to boil a monkey's bum. I can't hang with this one in the summer.
In most Huo Guo restaurants, you'll be seated at a table with a hole cut in the middle of it. Beneath the hole is a gas burner connected to a small tank of LP gas. Your waiter will light the burner and fit a large metal pot filled with soup into the hole. A popular choice is Yin-Yang Hot Pot (yuan1 yang2 huo3 guo1), in which the pot is divided into 2 halves, in the classic yin-yang shape, by a metal divider. The red side is an extremely spicy-hot soup; the white side is a mild neutral broth with- I am not making this up- a whole fish in it. It's just there to flavor the soup. As the soup boils, the staff will come by occasionally and add more broth to the pot or to adjust your fire.
The ordering part mostly consists of selecting which platefuls of paper-thin-sliced meats, vegetables, noodles, etc. you're going to eat. You may also have a number of dipping sauces to choose from...my favorite is the peanut sauce or the red tofu sauce. All these dishes are brought to the table completely raw.
After a few minutes the soup will start to boil. Some of the meat and vegetables is added to the soup. Many will be ready to eat when the water returns to a boil, but some things such as potatoes will need to boil for a minute. Fish the bits out with your chopsticks, dip them in your sauce, and eat. Really great stuff....especially on a cold day.
You'll be glad you brought some antacids with you...the red soup is really hot! The Changchun restaurants will bring by tiny scoops of ice cream from time to time to help you put out the fire in your mouth...
ILUNGA added:
That all sounds familiar Raoul. Apologies for my awful pinyin.
I think Mongolian and Sichuan hotpot must be pretty similar. Although I guess the Sichuan variety will be a lot spicier.
The standard hotpot in Luoyang is practically the same as the one I had in Hohhot. It has a spicy and non-spicy section, and you've got the sesame sauce and another one I'm not too keen on. There's separate restaurants for the fish hotpot.
My favourite is a three-way hotpot place which is split into chicken, tomato and spicy flavour soups. I love the tomato flavour. Sometimes I don't bother with the food and just drink the broth.
STEVE added:
Great eating! Let me add a few of my favorites to the list:
Yu[2] Xiang[1] Qie[2] Zi
This is a spicy eggplant dish in fish flavored sauce. They chop the eggplants into small pieces, and the flavors mix very nicely. For some reason it goes great with rice!
Lan[2] Zhou[1] La[4] Mian[4]
This is a tasty beef noodle dish from Lanzhou and practically every city, town, and village has a small restaurant named after it. Add hot peppers to the noodles for more zip. It is also entertaining to watch them slap the dough on the table as they make the noodles.
Ding[1] Ding[1] Chao[3] Mian[4]
A Xinjiang dish that resembles Macaroni and Cheese. Far better than Kraft Dinner, these small chopped noodles come with a sweet sauce and green peppers.
La[4] Zi Ji[1] Ding[1]
Small pieces of chicken buried in a densely packed array of hot peppers. There are so frickin many that you literally have to fish for the chicken among the peppers.
Ji[1] Ding[1] Mian[4]
Same as the 'kung pao' chicken in Raoul's post, except this is made in a noodle dish.
Nan[2] Xiang[2] Xiao[3] Long[1]
The famous dome-shaped street dumplings from Shanghai, except they really come from a suburban town called Nanxiang which is 20km out of the city. The school I taught at last year was very close by, so we
often got discounts. Great food and highly recommended.
Gou[1] Lao[3] Rou[4]
Your standard sweet and sour pork dish
Fan[1] Qie[2] Chao[3] Dan[4]
Another simple dish, this is fried eggs and tomatoes. If you're in
Shanghai and really want to impress a waitress, say "Fei Ga Tso Dei", that's the Shangainese.
Jia[1] Chang[2] Dou[4] Fu
A nice mix of thick tofu pieces, green peppers, and mushrooms.
Xi[1] Gua[1]
Good watermelons for dessert
Steve
RAOUL added:
Nice additions, Steve...thanks!
I also like another vegetable dish similar to one Steve mentions. I like Si1 Gua1 Chao3 Dan4 even better than the tomato version. Si Gua ("silk melon") I think is technically a kind of gourd, but don't be put off...works really well with the eggs.
CON'S FLY IS OPEN added:
I just tried donkey meat for the first time. It's pretty good. There are apparently several varieties, each of which is very expensive.
Ethically, compared to eating dog, this is a piece of cake.
RAOUL added:
Yeah, donkey meat is really pretty good. For a long time I was pretty adamant that it should be left safely inside the donkey. I was converted by those luscious DongBei donkey-meat dumplings. (I'm considering A Fridge-Full of Donkey Meat Dumplings as a title for my book...)
Speaking of dumplings, Chinese food has about 100,000 items that translate into English simply as "dumplings". Here are a few of the best-known ones.
Jiao3 Zi A staple of Northern food, but a traditional Spring Festival food throughout China. Various combinations of minced meat and/or vegetables are mixed together, placed into a thin wheat flour-based wrapper, and the edges of the wrapper are crimped tightly to seal in the contents. These are thrown into boiling water...each time the water returns to a boil, the boil is doused with a little cold water. As more dumplings are cooked in the water, it becomes a light soup. The 3rd time the soup comes to a boil, the filling is thoroughly cooked and the jiaozi are served. Jiaozi are drained and put on a plate. They are always eaten with a dipping sauce, which can be as simple as a bit of red vinegar or soy sauce. My favorite sauce is made with equal parts of soy sauce and either red or white vinegar, a drop of sesame oil, and a manly dollop of chili sauce. In the north jiaozi are often served with minced garlic you can add to the sauce. This is also quite good, and allows you to smell like your neighbors. Jiaozi are often served with a bowl of the boiling soup on the side- considered extremely nutritious.
Hun2 Tun2 The Southern version. Known as "wontons" in the West. Functionally identical to jiaozi. The wrappers for huntun are thinner than those for jiaozi, and also larger. Pieces of the wrapper tend to fall off in the soup and become noodles. Unlike jiaozi, huntun are not drained- they're served in a bowl of the soup they are boiled in. You can add chili sauce, red vinegar, soy sauce, and/or powdered soup base to the soup. Huntun are divided into 2 size classes- Da4 Hun2 Tun2 (big wontons), which are typically 2 bites, and Xiao3 Hun2 Tun2 (small wontons) coming in at a single bite.
Guo1 Tie1 The "potstickers" often served in western Chinese restaurants, only better. They're basically jiaozi/huntun, perhaps with a bit thicker wrapper to stand up to the extra cooking. They are boiled to cook the filling, then fried in oil on one side. (Leftover jiaozi or da hun tun often become guo tie the next day.) Like jiaozi, they are dipped in a sauce when eating them. Beware the screaming hot oily "soup" that cooks up inside the dumpling- it tends to squirt everywhere when you bite into the dumpling. The soup is much prized by the Chinese, but I tend to poke a hole in the wrapper with my chopstick and let it drain out. By the way, IMHO guo tie are about as good as Chinese food gets at breakfast.
Bao1 Zi Maybe more a "steamed bun" than a dumpling? A patty of meat and/or assorted vegetables is wrapped in sheets of a yeast/flour dough, formed into a dome shape, and steamed. Sometimes you'll see a sweet version filled with red bean paste. Can vary in size from a small 1-2 bite affair, to monsters the size of your head.
Xiao3 Long2 A beloved favorite of the Shanghai region. Meat and/or vegetables are placed in a thin flour wrapper, formed into a dome shape, and steamed. Typically dipped in red vinegar or other sauce when eaten. I've seen foreigners (not me) devour 50 of these rascals in a single sitting.
Zong3 Zi Associated with Summer's Dragon Boat Festval. A payload of meat, red bean paste, or a sweet Chinese date is coated with a layer of sticky rice to form a cake, which is shaped into a thick triangle. All this is wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. The sweet ones, sprinkled with a touch of sugar, are acceptable at breakfast.
Tang1 Yuan2 Typically somewhat sweet, these are associated with the Lantern Festival that ends the Spring Festival season. A bit of sweet filling such as red bean paste or a peanut-and-sesame paste is somehow wrapped in a doughy mass of glutinous rice and formed into a ball. (There are also non-sweet tang yuan with meat) These are then boiled to cook the rice paste, and served in a bowl along with some of the water used to boil them. I like the peanut ones OK. However, to me they visually resemble a big bowl of boiled eyeballs...and they are often served at breakfast. Mmmmm.
Instant gag reflex; one of the most foul, unnatural tasting things I've ever put in my mouth. The meat, as delicious as it was, will never pass my lips for fear that a crumb of turtle fat might tag along.
