With a long history, unique features, numerous styles and exquisite cooking, Chinese cuisine is one important constituent part of Chinese culture. Chinese traditional dishes are famous for color, aroma, taste, meaning and appearance.
The following are the 15 most popular dishes among foreigners and Chinese. These dishes are available in most large restaurants in China. For convenience ordering, we also give their Chinese names.
Hotpot is a dish to tell apart real Chinese food lovers. If you really appreciate hotpot rather than just ordering fired rice, chow mein, and dim sum all the time, you are truly a Chinese cuisine fan!
The secret of whether a hotpot is good or not lies in the broth, in which all the meat slices and vegetables are cooked. Normally you get to choose your own broth flavor, such as mushroom, tomato, original, or spicy. But still, the flavor can be different according to the sauce you choose to go with the meat. There are hundreds of kinds: a classic one is peanut butter with smashed garlic and chopped onion dressed with sesame oil.
Braised Pork Balls
Braised pork balls in gravy are also known as “Chinese meatballs” (many of our clients call them this). If you like meatballs and spaghetti, you’ll probably appreciate Chinese meatballs as well. The super-smooth and flavory gravy is almost like a “drug sauce” keeping your taste buds wanting more and more. How many calories does it have? Trust me, you wouldn’t care at all!
Tip: We suggest that you only order this dish in a decent restaurant where the meat quality is guaranteed and the prescribed lean:fat pork ratio of 7:3 is achieved in each meat ball.
Shrimp with Vermicelli and Garlic
Shrimp with vermicelli and garlic is a dish not only favored by foreigners but also the Chinese younger generation in recent years as well.
This steamed dish brings out the aroma of everything it has. The heavy garlic with a seafood sauce flavor blends with the freshness of juicy shrimp. The vermicelli at the bottom absorbs every single drip of tasty juice running down. Some Chinese yellow wine to capture the aroma and highlight the flavor is the secret to this delicacy.
Dumplings
Dumplings consist of minced meat and chopped vegetables wrapped in a thin dough skin. With a long history of more than 1,800 years, dumplings are a traditional food widely popular in North China.
Popular fillings are mince pork, diced shrimp, ground chicken, beef, and vegetables. They can be cooked by boiling, steaming, or frying. Dumplings are a traditional dish eaten on Chinese New Year’s.
Chowmein
Chow mein is the Cantonese pronunciation of the Chinese characters above, which means stir-fried noodles. Generally speaking, this stir-fried dish consists of noodles, meat (usually chicken, beef, shrimp, or pork), onions and celery.
For making chow mein, the noodles need to be cooked in boiling water for a while. After they becoming cool, then move to the step of stir-frying.
Sweet and Sour Pork
Sweet and sour pork has a bright orange-red color, and a delicious sweet and sour taste.
At the very beginning there was only sweet and sour pork, but to meet demands, there have been some developments on this dish. Now, the pork can be substituted by other ingredients like chicken, beef or pork ribs.
Spring Rolls
Spring rolls are a Cantonese dim sum of cylindrical shape. The filling of spring rolls could be vegetables or meat, and the taste could be either sweet or savory.
After fillings are wrapped in spring roll wrappers, the next step is frying. Then the spring rolls are given their golden yellow color.
It is a dish especially popular in Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, etc.
Growing Up Eating 