Beyond Takeout
Panda Express is familiar comfort food. Let’s be real, it’s quick and strikes the perfect balance between sweet and salty. It’s the kind of food that feels more like a craving than a meal. Keep in mind that Chinese cuisine is enormous, and whole regions are built on dishes that have never appeared under heat lamps in a fast food kitchen. Some are fiery and spicy, others delicate; others are designed purely for comfort. Once you start this culinary adventure, orange chicken suddenly feels like a cartoon version of the real thing. Here are twenty dishes that say more about China and its culinary history than a food court ever could.
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1. Mapo Tofu
These soft cubes of tofu are prepared in a sauce so red it almost appears radioactive. The Sichuan peppercorns and chillis don’t just tickle your tongue, they set it aflame—and your lips for good measure. Minced pork or beef sometimes floats in the sauce, but the tofu is the star. It’s messy, aromatic, and unforgettable.
2. Biang Biang Noodles
This dish is prepared with hand-pulled noodles as thick as a belt. They’re slapped against the counter as they’re made, stretching longer, wider. It’s then tossed with chili oil, garlic, vinegar, and some meat—often lamb. Eating this dish feels a little primal as you tear through sheets of noodle.
3. Xiao Long Bao
This dish is in essence soup dumplings, and there’s an entire process to eating it. First, you gently pick up a dumpling with chopsticks, set it on a spoon, nibble a hole, sip the broth, then plop the rest of the dumpling in your mouth. You’re almost guaranteed to burn your tongue at least once. Totally worth it.
4. Cold Sesame Noodles
These chewy noodles are chilled and coated in sesame paste, soy, and a slick of chili oil. It’s then topped with cucumber strips for crunch. The richness of the sauce and the coolness come together into a perfect blend that both stimulates your tastebuds and soothes them.
5. Pork Belly With Preserved Vegetables
To prepare this dish, fatty pork belly is slow braised until each layer melts into the next. Mustard greens are tucked inside, adding an element of bitterness to the dish. It’s then served upside down so the glossy skin shines on top.
6. Scallion Pancakes
Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, with green onion wound into the layers, this dish is simplicity exemplified. Flour, scallions, salt, and oil are all you need to prepare this delicious meal.
7. Dan Dan Noodles
This dish consists of noodles topped with minced pork, pickled vegetables, sesame paste, and a tsunami of chili oil. Once carried by street vendors with a pole across their shoulders, it’s now usually served in deep ceramic bowls that allow you to stir everything together until sauce coats every strand of noodle.
Steven G. Johnson on Wikimedia
8. Pine Nut Fish
This dish comprises a whole fish, scored so the flesh fans out, and then fried until crispy. It’s then bathed in a sweet-tangy tomato sauce with pine nuts sprinkled overtop. It looks extravagant and is definitely a centerpiece dish.
9. Tea-Smoked Duck
To prepare this dish, a duck is marinated, dried, and then smoked over tea leaves and camphor wood, infusing the dish with the subtle essence of smoke. The skin becomes caramelized and shatters when you bite into it. Walking past a shop in Chengdu, the hanging ducks glow reddish-brown in the window, lacquered like polished wood.
H. Alexander Talbot on Wikimedia
10. Char Siu
This dish is Cantonese barbecued pork. It’s glazed in a delicious red sauce that is sticky-sweet with honey, soy, and fermented bean curd. Hung in rows behind glass, it catches the light in a way that makes your mouth water.
11. Lion’s Head Meatballs
Not actual lion but giant pork meatballs stewed until tender and served with cabbage. The name comes from the way the cabbage frills around the meatball, forming a mane of sorts. It’s comfort food, pure and simple, and you’re more likely to find it at a family dinner than a restaurant.
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12. Hot Pot
This dish is more of an event than a specific recipe. First, a simmering pot of broth is placed in the middle of the table. One by one, you dunk in slices of lamb, mushrooms, tofu skin, and leafy greens. As the pot simmers, friends lean over the steaming pot, chopsticks darting in and out.
Vyacheslav Argenberg on Wikimedia
13. Chongqing Spicy Chicken
Consisting of small chunks of deep-fried chicken buried under a mountain of dried red chilies and Sichuan peppercorns, this dish more closely resembles a pile of firewood than a proper meal. The trick is picking out the chicken without accidentally biting into a whole dried chili.
14. Congee
This meal is essentially rice porridge, which you can enjoy plain or dressed up with everything from preserved egg to shredded chicken. Although widely eaten for breakfast, it also doubles as a midnight snack. The texture is soft and soothing, particularly with you incorporate pickled vegetables into it.
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15. Zhajiangmian
This noodle-based dish is topped with a thick, savory sauce of fermented soybean paste and ground pork. Often garnished with cucumber matchsticks, radish, sometimes soybean sprouts, it’s earthy and filling. People call it Beijing’s interpretation of spaghetti.
16. Steamed Whole Fish
Usually consisting of a freshwater fish, the dish is steamed with ginger, scallion, and soy. The flesh stays delicate, and the sauce remains thin and aromatic. Once ready, the fish is served whole, its head and tail included.
Tim Sackton from Somerville, MA on Wikimedia
17. Eggplant With Garlic Sauce
To prepare this dish, long strips of eggplant are stir-fried until soft, then coated in a glossy sauce of garlic, soy, vinegar, and a little sugar. The eggplant soaks everything up, transforming the vegetable into a creamy side dish that steals the show.
18. Century Eggs
When duck eggs are preserved, their yolks turn a gray-green and their whites go amber. Eaten with tofu, porridge, or sliced plain with soy and vinegar, these eggs may look intimidating, but the flavor is rich, a touch funky, and almost cheesy.
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19. Spicy Lamb Skewers
This is a well-known street food in northern China. Chunks of lamb are dusted with cumin and chili and are then grilled over hot coals. The skewers drip sizzling fat onto the flames, fragrant smoke curling up into the night air.
20. Sweet Red Bean Soup
The only dessert on our list, this dish is light and not overpoweringly sweet. To prepare it, adzuki beans are simmered until soft, served warm in syrupy broth. Sometimes enriched with tapioca pearls or bits of citrus peels, this dish is a pleasant way to finish a meal.
