There are so many different regions in China and they are all famous for their own dishes. Beijing for its duck, the Himalayas for its Spices, Cantonese for its steamed dishes and seafood. They easiest way to figure it all out is to split it down the middle and remember that they traditionally eat more noodles in the North and more rice in the South, although you can pretty much buy anything anywhere!
DUMPLINGS
Wow! We love dumplings - but variety and quality in China is phenomenal! We were like a kid in a candy stall and there was even some days where we had dumplings for breakfast lunch and dinner! We are actually getting hungry just thinking about all of these dumplings!
They can range range vegetable, shrimp, beef, chicken but are predominately based of pork! They were big, small, fried, steamed or boiled, come in soups, and were all different shapes and sizes.
We even found some super sized ones at a market, that were sole full of flavoured stock which you suck out with a straw!
We would go back to China just to eat dumplings for a weekend!
PEKING DUCK
Unbeknown to us, in Chinese, Beijing in know as Peking - Therefore Peking duck actually just means Beijing Duck - To be honest I had no idea why until we stumbled across this revolutionary discovery!
After eating Peking Duck at a really nice restaurant in Beijing, we think that from now on we will start having to refer to Peking Duck outside Beijing as just 'Duck'. This was one of the most tender and delicious meat dishes that we have ever eaten!
It was bought out with thin little pancake wraps and an assorted mix of condiments which you roll up together when eating the dish, it was sooo good!
HOT POT
We were lucky enough to meet up with a Chinese friend who looks us out to eat a Chongqing hot pot! This is a boiling pot of chilli mixed with a thick paste that melts in the broth. You then are presented with a large array of uncooked food - both meat and veggies, that you dip or cook in hot pot, let it cook and then eat from there.
Some of the local delicacies included ducks blood, duck intestine, cows throat and stomach, thinly sliced beef, chilli beef, pork, mushrooms, beans and bamboo. The cost was about 260 RMB in total for three of us which was considerable cheap, given the quality and quality of the food!
CANTONESE FOOD
Cantonese usually consists of steamed meats and fish, along with veggies and rice. The below dishes were ordered by a local Chinese friend who said that they were considered to be traditional Cantonese Food. One of the most famous Cantonese dishes is steamed shirmp dumplings!
SNACKS
Rice and Noodles were early accessible, however completely different to what we would find at our local Chinese Restaurant in the west, usually with a lot more variety and flavour. We also ate a lot of fried tofu and green vegetables like kale with oyster sauce.
Overall, this may not come as a surprise, Chinese Food in China is so much better than anywhere else we have ever eaten it. We don't feel that we could just go back to the normal run of the mil restaurant back home and more and will be looking to find places that serve up some of the delicious food that we devoured over there!
If you are a foodie, we recommend checking out Japanese Food & South Korean Food!
If you would like any further information, feel free to contact us at info@indyescapes.com :)
Hope it helps!