Are you a huge Chinese food fan? Ready for a challenge?
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 cuisines, 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 and 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 pancakes
- 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
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!)
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!
64
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!
Nate -But of course. :)
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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?
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.
My big list of “things you must eat” lists is up.
Now to get cracking and try to actually score 100 on them…
Everything except the Yunnan goat’s cheese. Damn.
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!
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”.
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.
sunflower – It was slow for a while but should be better now. ::Crossing finger::
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!)
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.
What a fantastic blog you have here!!
I will be adding a link to your blog on mine. I love your pictures too.
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.
Audrey – I love the photos on your site. Haven’t been to Kashgar yet, but it seems wonderful through your lens.
judyfoodie – Thanks! Your Japadog looks quite interesting.
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
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. :)
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 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! 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 you’ve forgotten popiah (yep, it’s Chinese, specifically Teochew/Hokkien) argh!
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?
Jenny – Do you happen to know a good recipe for popiah?
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.
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!
i’m surprised at the addition of general tso’s chicken and the like – i can do without these!
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.
where can you find lomo saltado in beijing? or are there any peruvian restaurants around?
Hello there,
These recipes sound really tasty & I can’t wait to try them :)
A blogger next door :)
Have 22 left to try outta 100 (Tried 88)!
(* = have tried)
Some I haven’t tried by choice, some because I didn’t know it well before (it’s food popularised in other areas of the world where I haven’t come across yet.)
1. Almond milk *
2. Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)*
3. Asian pear *
4. Baby bok choy *
5. Baijiu
6. Beef brisket *
7. Beggar’s Chicken
8. Bingtang hulu
9. Bitter melon *
10. Bubble tea *
11. Buddha’s Delight
12. Cantonese roast duck *
13. Century egg, or thousand-year egg *
14. Cha siu (Cantonese roast pork) *
15. Char kway teow *
16. Chicken feet *
17. Chinese sausage *
18. Chow mein *
19. Chrysanthemum tea *
20. Claypot rice *
21. Congee *
22. Conpoy (dried scallops) *
23. Crab rangoon
24. Dan Dan noodles *
25. Dragonfruit *
26. Dragon’s Beard candy *
27. Dried cuttlefish *
28. Drunken chicken *
29. Dry-fried green beans
30. Egg drop soup
31. Egg rolls *
32. Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese *
33. Fresh bamboo shoots
34. Fortune cookies *
35. Fried milk
36. Fried rice *
37. Gai lan (Chinese broccoli) *
38. General Tso’s Chicken
39. Gobi Manchurian
40. Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries) *
41. Grass jelly *
42. Hainan chicken rice *
43. Hand-pulled noodles *
44. Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers) *
45. Haw flakes *
46. Hibiscus tea
47. Hong Kong-style Milk Tea *
48. Hot and sour soup
49. Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger *
50. Hot Pot *
51. Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin) *
52. Jellyfish *
53. Kosher Chinese food
54. Kung Pao Chicken
55. Lamb skewers (yangrou chua’r)
56. Lion’s Head meatballs *
57. Lomo Saltado
58. Longan fruit *
59. Lychee *
60. Macaroni in soup with Spam *
61. Malatang
62. Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk *
63. Mapo Tofu
64. Mock meat *
65. Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety) *
66. Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf) *
67. Pan-fried jiaozi *
68. Peking duck *
69. Pineapple bun *
70. Prawn crackers *
71. Pu’er tea *
72. Rambutan *
73. Red bean in dessert form *
74. Red bayberry
75. Red cooked pork *
76. Roast pigeon *
77. Rose tea *
78. Roujiamo
79. Scallion pancake *
80. Shaved ice dessert *
81. Sesame chicken *
82. Sichuan pepper in any dish
83. Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
84. Silken tofu *
85. Soy milk, freshly made *
86. Steamed egg custard *
87. Stinky tofu
88. Sugar cane juice *
89. Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp *
90. Taro *
91. Tea eggs *
92. Tea-smoked duck
93. Turnip cake (law bok gau) *
94. Twice-cooked pork *
95. Water chestnut cake (mati gau) *
96. Wonton noodle soup *
97. Wood ear *
98. Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) *
99. Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
100. Yunnan goat cheese
I’ve tried many of these, but I would add one Szechuan dish to the list: Chicken With Strange Taste (guai wei ji). I ate an entire order of it while trying to decide whether I liked it or not, then finished off a second order.
Hi, anyone have recipe for xiamen lu mien? Thank you.
Glad to say that I’ve tried MOST of them!
http://pigpigscorner.blogspot.com/2008/12/100-chinese-foods-to-try-before-you-die.html
Loved the idea and think i’ll do my own, and post it on my blog (with a link to yours). Thanks for sharing your list.
Impressive list. Where do I begin on this thing?? Yeah yeah first one I suppose. Sadly I’ve hardly had experience in this cuisine. I shall jump in with both feet!
I just saw this post from your more recent 2008 reflection post, and I was intrigued by the fact that silken tofu is on the list. I actually just recently have been realizing how many different types/textures of tofu there are and how little I know about the subject.
I cook with tofu fairly frequently (tonight for instance I made tofu and vegetable pad thai) and I usually just put some oil in a wok, fry the tofu a bit, and then mix in all the other stuff. I noticed recently that the “silken tofu” I get at Safeway actually doesn’t cook as well as the tofu I get from Trader Joe’s. The Trader Joe’s tofu is more porous and seems to maintain it’s structural integrity better when I make a stir-fry (or pad thai, as the case may be).
Anyway, your post (which is a great list, btw) reminded me that I want to learn more about tofu!
I just saw this post from your more recent 2008 reflection post, and I was intrigued by the fact that silken tofu is on the list. I actually just recently have been realizing how many different types/textures of tofu there are and how little I know about the subject.
I cook with tofu fairly frequently (tonight for instance I made tofu and vegetable pad thai) and I usually just put some oil in a wok, fry the tofu a bit, and then mix in all the other stuff. I noticed recently that the “silken tofu” I get at Safeway actually doesn’t cook as well as the tofu I get from Trader Joe’s. The Trader Joe’s tofu is more porous and seems to maintain it’s structural integrity better when I make a stir-fry (or pad thai, as the case may be).
Anyway, your post (which is a great list, btw) reminded me that I want to learn more about tofu!
Just found this site and I love it. Finally, some easy to understand answers to all the food I’ve been eating the past two years (living in Guangzhou). I’ve had 74.5% (the half point is for the halal Chinese food I had in Malaysia, can’t be too far off from kosher Chinese food) of this list. Favorites are HK milk tea, pineapple buns, cong you bing, and anything ma la. Tried once and hopefully never again are bitter melon, chicken feet, and baijiu. Most interested to try Yunnan goat cheese (never heard of such a thing).
Spikyfruit – If you can find a Yunnan restaurant in Guangzhou, I highly recommend the goat cheese. Imagine the texture of smoked mozzerella, but sautéed, with some salt and pepper on top. Heaven. I’m not a huge fan of baijiu either.
I am probably 85%, not bad for a Lo Fan. Missed the Gon Chow Nga Ha. Love those Sha Ho Fun noodles. Sherby