100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die
After taking the now famous Omnivore's 100 quiz, I realized 1) my score's pretty good, and 2) it's because the author ran the gamut of Eastern and Western cuisine, high and low end, like a true omnivore. I decided to create my own 100 list of Chinese foods and drinks that, in keeping with the spirit of this blog, focuses on a broad definition of Chinese food.
I've avoided a few well-known delicacies (like bird's nest and shark's fin) that I personally think are either overrated or too scarce to put on any such list. Some foods here are also present in other Asian countries, but I included them because they're so entrenched in Chinese cuisine. In addition to traditional Chinese dishes and ingredients, there are also some international interpretations of Chinese food and foods in Hong Kong and Macau that have developed in the past hundred or so years. In short, a modern take on Chinese food.
So copy and paste the list, highlight the ones you've tried, and let me know how you score. Which ones do you absolutely love, which ones would you not eat even on a dare?
Enjoy!
(Also check out Just Hungry's list of 100 Japanese Foods to Try, which was posted just as I was finishing this list.)
- Almond milk
- Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
- Asian pear
- Baby bok choy
- Baijiu
- Beef brisket
- Beggar's Chicken
- Bingtang hulu
- Bitter melon
- Bubble tea
- Buddha's Delight
- Cantonese roast duck
- Century egg, or thousand-year egg
- Cha siu (Cantonese roast pork)
- Char kway teow
- Chicken feet
- Chinese sausage
- Chow mein
- Chrysanthemum tea
- Claypot rice
- Congee
- Conpoy (dried scallops)
- Crab rangoon
- Dan Dan noodles
- Dragonfruit
- Dragon's Beard candy
- Dried cuttlefish
- Drunken chicken
- Dry-fried green beans
- Egg drop soup
- Egg rolls
- Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese
- Fresh bamboo shoots
- Fortune cookies
- Fried milk
- Fried rice
- Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
- General Tso's Chicken
- Gobi Manchurian
- Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
- Grass jelly
- Hainan chicken rice
- Hand-pulled noodles
- Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers)
- Haw flakes
- Hibiscus tea
- Hong Kong-style Milk Tea
- Hot and sour soup
- Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
- Hot Pot
- Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
- Jellyfish
- Kosher Chinese food
- Kung Pao Chicken
- Lamb skewers (yangrou chua'r)
- Lion's Head meatballs
- Lomo Saltado
- Longan fruit
- Lychee
- Macaroni in soup with Spam
- Malatang
- Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
- Mapo Tofu
- Mock meat
- Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety)
- Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
- Pan-fried jiaozi
- Peking duck
- Pineapple bun
- Prawn crackers
- Pu'er tea
- Rambutan
- Red bean in dessert form
- Red bayberry
- Red cooked pork
- Roast pigeon
- Rose tea
- Roujiamo
- Scallion pancake
- Shaved ice dessert
- Sesame chicken
- Sichuan pepper in any dish
- Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
- Silken tofu
- Soy milk, freshly made
- Steamed egg custard
- Stinky tofu
- Sugar cane juice
- Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
- Taro
- Tea eggs
- Tea-smoked duck
- Turnip cake (law bok gau)
- Twice-cooked pork
- Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
- Wonton noodle soup
- Wood ear
- Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)
- Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
- Yunnan goat cheese
Somebody ought to start a list of lists...
I say, what VGT started was brilliant. And of course all the separate cuisines are breaking out like vegetarian, vegan, British, etc.
Being Chinese, I can safely say I've eaten most of what's on your list. (You HAD to put in macaroni with Spam, though, didn't you!)
Nate -But of course. :)
Nate -But of course. :)
Yum!
Wow, what a great list (erm, tho' don't know if I can't extend myself to Spam!).
Yesterday's Asian supermarket shopping was indulging my sweet tooth - haw flakes, sesame candies, Japanese red bean mochi, and (one off the Omnivore's 100 list) Pocky (tick!). And to the drinks aisle - rose iced tea, coconut juice and a packet of Yunnan tea.
On my Asian-must-try list at the moment are the tantalising fresh spring greens available at our local (Auckland, NZ) Sunday market. The friendly market vendors can tell me their Chinese names but I've only just this week found an English identification (and cooking, phew!) guide/book, so I can now name my targets as: snowpea shoots, choko tendrils and eryngo (long-leafed or thorny coriander/saw-tooth herb).
Thank you so much for sharing your adventures in food. I love reading your postings and really enjoyed eating your kung pao chicken during the Olympics!
Stephanie - Eek...I had to
Stephanie - Eek...I had to look up choko and found out they're what I know as chayote. So many global variations in food names, even within the same language! Don't think I've seen eryngo before, though.
100 Chinese Foods
64
I got 78
http://lizzieeatslondon.blogspot.com/2008/09/chinese-one-hundred.html
Great list! I didn't recognise many Beijing specialities, it was good to learn new things!
this is not a chinese list
If you're truly Chinese, your list wouldn't have been 100 long, it would have been 888! ^_^
Where's the lemon chicken, shark's fin soup, bird's nest soup, dragon well tea, dimsum as a whole category, jin dui, black sesame desserts, almond jello, steamed fish, salted duck eggs....? See...you could go all the way to 888 if you want.
Annie -888 might be a bit
Annie -888 might be a bit too much work. I did mention I chose to exclude a few delicacies...so shark's fin and bird's nest are absent because I find them to be too rare, over-priced and (consequently) over-hyped. Other stuff, like salted duck eggs and lemon chicken, are off due to repetitiveness and similaries with other things I chose to include.
I went for brevity and diversity. :) And things that suited my own tastebuds.
Mouth-watering
That's what I get when I look at this list. So many of my favorites: Hainan chicken, egg tarts, jellyfish, hand-pulled noodles, and shave ice. There's a good number I haven't tried, too. Hot Cola with ginger is a new one to me, and it sounds really intriguing.
100 chinese list
Think I got about 90%. See http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2008/09/chinese-100.html.
I got quite a few of the recipes on the blog.
There are a few I don't think should be listed as chinese.
6. Beef brisket - that is a cut of meat. Should be more specify what dish you are referring to.
23. Crab Rangoon - an American fushion, don't think this is heard of outside US, unless you are referring to nai yau ha, HK style dim sum.
39. Gobi Manchurian, is this really chinese?
57. Lomo Saltado, this is not chinese? Surely this is Peruvian.
sunflower - I mentioned
sunflower - I mentioned that this list would include a few international takes on Chinese food that aren't found in China. It fits in with my take on food in general, that cuisines evolve. Curry is now the most popular dish in England, insofar that it's now considered a British food.
"In addition to traditional Chinese dishes and ingredients, there are
also some international interpretations of Chinese food and foods in
Hong Kong and Macau that have developed in the past hundred or so
years. In short, a modern take on Chinese food. "
Crab rangoon - Popularized by Chinese-Polynesian-themed restaurants in the U.S. Chinese-American immigrants in the US. Fortune cookies weren't created in China either (in fact, it's now hypothesized that they were created by Japanese-Americans), but are now associated with Chinese food.
Gobi Manchurian - One of the most popular dishes at Indian-Chinese restaurants
Lomo Saltado - a Peruvian stir-fry that uses soy sauce, influenced by Chinese immigrants to Lima
Beef brisket - I meant to include "braised" in there...ngau lam, especially with thick rice noodles, is one of my favorite Cantonese concoctions.
100 chinese list
Think I got about 90%. See http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2008/09/chinese-100.html.
I got quite a few of the recipes on the blog.
There are a few I don't think should be listed as chinese.
6. Beef brisket - that is a cut of meat. Should be more specify what dish you are referring to.
23. Crab Rangoon - an American fushion, don't think this is heard of outside US, unless you are referring to nai yau ha, HK style dim sum.
39. Gobi Manchurian, is this really chinese?
57. Lomo Saltado, this is not chinese? Surely this is Peruvian.
sorry!
Sorry guys posted the last message twice.
The message took ages to load, 1st time it bounced me off then I send again. Didn't know it loaded both.
Anyone finds this site very slow to load on the comments? Or is it my computer?
sunflower - It was slow for
sunflower - It was slow for a while but should be better now. ::Crossing finger::
Great list!
I love Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf), Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers), & Peking duck. I also think the Chinese make the best fish dishes--whole steamed fish is my favorite.
Okay, I made a list
My big list of "things you must eat" lists is up.
Now to get cracking and try to actually score 100 on them...
99!
Everything except the Yunnan goat's cheese. Damn.
Wish I could go back!
I spent about three months in China recently, but only got through about 60% of this great list. The hand-pulled noodles from Xinjiang became a quick favorite, as were Sichuan dishes with the addictive, numbing pepper. Hot coke with ginger was surprisingly good. Oh, I could go on!
Now that I'm back in Europe, I've been reminiscing about Chinese food - http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/2008/09/real-chinese-food-a-photo-essay/
I wish I could return to China with this list as a culinary guide. Thanks for the inspiration!
Audrey - I love the photos
Audrey - I love the photos on your site. Haven't been to Kashgar yet, but it seems wonderful through your lens.
Still got work to do
I got 63 on the list. There are stuff on that list I never even heard of and I am Chinese. /hides in shame ;)
By the way, I have an award for you on my page. Just my way of saying "love your blog".
judyfoodie - Thanks! Your
judyfoodie - Thanks! Your Japadog looks quite interesting.
I am sort of surprised to
I am sort of surprised to find I've had most of these at one time or another, considering I've never been to China! But I probably will never have chicken feet, because those tiny bones creep me out. And macaroni with Spam... O_O (just can't get to like Spam!)
interesting list
I suspect my score might be higher if you had included putonghua names. I like the inclusion of baijiu, but I would've added huangjiu, too. And I would add 炸酱面，麻豆腐 and 煎饼- at least the version we get here in Beijing. I'm told the Shandong version is even better. And the entirety of Hunan cuisine... It must've been really hard to keep your list to only 100.
Just want to say
What a fantastic blog you have here!!
I will be adding a link to your blog on mine. I love your pictures too.
Nice list!
83 out of 100, with a few more that I've definitely seen, but not tried. I've been enjoying your blog!
http://culinarynerd.blogspot.com/2008/09/100-chinese-foods-to-try-before-you-die.html
On my copied list, my comments on favorites are italicized.
Almost...
I got 97... that just means there's more out there to try!
Yipee!
http://suimai.blogspot.com/2008/09/follow-up-100-chinese-foods.html
Egads!
This is a great list--I can't believe I've eaten almost all of it! For those of us who've had kosher/halal Chinese food because it corresponds to religious dietary requirements, completing this list is a little impossible. :)
So glad I found this blog!
I am really glad I found this blog, there needs to me more food blogs on Chinese cuisine!
Also, I am wicked pumped Yunnan goat cheese made the cut!
Hope to talk to you again sometime.
I had better get eating
I am only at 36, and that is thanks to a recent trip to Hong Kong where I enjoyed dragonfruit, jelly fish, milk tea, mantau and roast duck. Obviously I need to plan another trip. I wish I had bought some rambutans to try. I really enjoy your blog and the education on Chinese food you are giving me.
Carol Peterman - Thanks!
Carol Peterman - Thanks! Also, I saw on your blog that you spent a day at Martha Sherpa's. Can't wait to read your account!
Excellent list! :D Although
Excellent list! :D Although you've forgotten popiah (yep, it's Chinese, specifically Teochew/Hokkien) argh!
Jenny - Do you happen to
Jenny - Do you happen to know a good recipe for popiah?
Well I'm still working on
Well I'm still working on perfecting the popiah skin/wrappers so no recipe (quality at least) for that yet. Although depending on where you live, it may be readily available.
As for the ingredients inside, it's rather simple and I'll try to list what's on top of my head hehe
- Stir fry julienned jicama and carrots in a wok with a bit of salt and sugar. When almost cooked, add some water to the wok as the jicama-carrot juice will be essential later. Sprinkle coriander/cilantro on top.
-fresh lettuce
-lap cheong (Chinese sausauge); lightly pan-fried and then thinly sliced
-shredded cooked pork (stir fried in a little soy sauce, sugar, salt, sesame oil and garlic)
-shredded omelette
-thinly sliced fried tofu
Condiments:
-hoisin sauce (which is mixed with the jicama-carrot juice)
-fried shallots
-crushed peanuts
Once a piece of lettuce is arranged on the popiah skin, you can add as little or as much of the other ingredients (in whatever order you like, although the peanuts and fried shallot is preferably last) as you want. Now...wrap! Sort of like wrapping egg rolls or Vietnamese summer rolls.
Some people like to add the hoisin-jicama juice mix into the wrap but I prefer to dip.
Anyway, I know I've provided really bad instructions but I hope I could help in some way at least :D
Enjoy!
90/100. I guess I'm pretty
90/100. I guess I'm pretty Chinese! Haven't had some of the fusion dishes like lomo saltado and gobi manchurian. And what's this macaroni soup with spam?
Rachel - It's a really
Rachel - It's a really popular breakfast and afternoon tea food in Hong Kong. The popularity of both Spam and macaroni is a holdover from the British colonial days.
i'm surprised at the
i'm surprised at the addition of general tso's chicken and the like - i can do without these!
the 100s (too much like Pilates?!)
Great list - I think I've had all but 3 or 4! Gotta say the stinky tofu definitely falls under the "been there, done that, don't need to go there again" category.
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