In America

In the early days, Americans have since warmed to chopsticks and Chinese cookery, most especially of the late-night hunger-sating, low-budget delivery sort. More than 43,000 Chinese restaurants dot the country, which means they appear on street corners with greater ubiquity than McDonald’s. But to the consternation of both chefs and Chinese gourmands, fried bits of pork or chicken drowned in starch-thickened, sugary sauce are usually the most popular orders. The Chinese might find this to be “proof that Westerners are cultureless barbarians,” writes E.N. Anderson in Food in China. But "it sells", so “they cook it.”

It’s not entirely fair to blame the proliferation of bad Chinese food on American philistinism—Chinese menus can certainly be intimidating and confusing. A staggering number of Chinese establishments have similar names; just as a good many menu items seem to be called a variation on “pork with broccoli.” So when looking to have a proper Chinese meal, how should a discerning diner pick where to eat and what to order?

We all know the feeling of sitting down at a Chinese restaurant only to be confronted with a folder as thick as a short novel. Navigating the unknown, especially when feeling indecisive and uninformed is the kind of recipe for disaster that ends with a plateful of sweet, sticky battered chicken breast and greasy rice dotted with peas and carrot cubes. Just to clarify – Chinese people in China don’t eat these things.

Some Americans will say, we have Panda Express now...

Well, we will explain what we think of Panda Express in our course.

Completing this course will help switch your order from Honey Soy Chicken to Red Braised Chicken in no time.

In China

If you take a trip to China, what should you order at a restaurant in China? Better yet, how do you order at a restaurant in China? This Chinese Dishes Ordering Survival Guide is to explain the types of Chinese cuisine you’ll find, the culture of eating in China and how to order Chinese food at a local restaurant.

For first time visitors to China, particularly those who do not speak Chinese, visiting a local Chinese restaurant can seem like a huge challenge. It’s no wonder that many people travel to China and spend their time at Starbucks, McDonalds or Subway.

We all appreciate food that we can recognize and know that we’ll enjoy.

Getting comfort food while traveling isn’t a bad thing. But too often I meet travelers to China who skip out on amazing local food not because they don’t want to try it, but because they’re not sure how.

For that reason, you definitely need to learn from this Chinese food Survival Guide that I hope will give you confidence to try something you’ve never tried before. Allow me to share with you those local cuisine I’ve come to love.

In the end, I believe that you’ll walk away not just having eaten a meal, but having experienced Chinese cuisine.

What kind of Chinese cuisines?

Unsurprisingly, China has a wealth of varied regional cuisines across its 23 provinces, so it’s worthwhile finding out which region the restaurant focuses on or specialty dish (e.g. Peking duck). This is best done by asking staff, Go to any restaurant and who will know the food second-best to the chef? The wait staff. Don’t be afraid to ask for a recommendation, and if you’re met with questions back steering you toward typical items like Hokkien noodles or Sweet and Sour Pork, say you’d like to try some traditional Chinese dishes, or ask what their favorite item is. . If you’re not sure you can do it well, then this course will help you.

How many Chinese cuisines are there? The most influential and typical known by the public are the “8 Chinese Cuisines”. Actually Chinese cuisine has more than 8 genres. China is large and the climate, ingredients, history and dining customs vary from place to place, leading to the differences in cooking methods and dish flavors and forming the different cuisines.

1. Sichuan Cuisine / Szechuan Cuisine / Chuan Cuisine

Chinese: 川菜 chuān cài
Popular in: China’s Sichuan Province, Chongqing
Features: hot and spicy, mouth-numbing; using a lot of pepper, chili, garlic, and Pixian bean chili paste.

2. Shandong Cuisine / Lu Cuisine

Chinese: 鲁菜 lǔ cài
Popular in: China’s Shandong Province and Southern Liaoning Province
Features: umami, salty, sweet and sour flavors; using much soup, scallion, ginger and garlic; good at cooking sea food

3. Jiangsu Cuisine / Su Cuisine

Chinese: 江苏菜, 苏菜, sū cài
Popular in: China’s Jiangsu Province
Features: umami, mild, slightly sweet, and natural; exquisite cuttings and precise control of heat; delicate dish appearance

4. Anhui Cuisine / Hui Cuisine

Chinese: 徽菜 huī cài
Popular in: China’s Anhui Province
Features: salty and fresh, light, preserving the original flavor of ingredients; preference for hams; light cooking methods including braising, stewing and steaming

5. Zhejiang Cuisine / Zhe Cuisine

Chinese: 浙菜 zhè cài
Popular in: China’s Zhejiang Province
Features: light and fresh, crisp and tender; good at controlling fire heat; prefer yellow wine as special seasoning

6. Fujian Cuisine / Min Cuisine

Chinese: 闽菜 mǐn cài
Popular in: China’s Fujian Province
Features: light, fresh, sweet and sour; special condiment red vinasse; woodland delicacies and sea food widely used for ingredients

7. Hunan Cuisine / Xiang Cuisine

Chinese: 湘菜 xiāng cài
Popular in: China’s Hunan Province
Features: spicy, hot, salty; preference for chili & fermented soya beans; dark dish color

8. Cantonese Cuisine / Guangdong Cuisine / Yue Cuisine

Chinese: 粤菜 yuè cài
Popular in: China’s Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau
Features: mild, fresh and natural taste; widely use of materials and rich cooking methods

Consider the Culture and Food BALANCE

There’s actually a right way to go about ordering a Chinese meal, and the secret lies in a balancing act. The best one allows for a harmonious flow with elements that have sharp contrast, with ingredients, textures, and tastes varying.

By default, China has a culture particularly focused on food. This is quite evident in the attention they pay to cooking and all the infinite possibilities there are with it. Health and pleasure have always been intertwined in Chinese gastronomy, as they believe that they directly affect one’s physical well-being.

This is a stark contrast to Western food culture, which seems bent solely on being pleasurable while completely disregarding balance and health. The feeling of being shufu (comfortable, well) goes out the window in lieu of a “food coma” of sorts from all the richness and heaviness that were just taken in.

As a veteran Sichuanese chef said, grand delicacies at a banquet are always interspersed with less imposing choices: “If the dishes are all equally striking, none of them will make much impression, will they?”

Often, with the most acclaimed Western food, Fashionable consumption oscillates violently between gout-inducing excess and penitential restraint: a gluttonous steak béarnaise with thrice-cooked chips and chocolate fondant one day, a rabbit-worthy raw kale and quinoa salad the next. In China, you can combine your gastronomic indulgence and its antidote in a single meal.

This is why there’s a good number of qingdan (a Mandarin term that translates to “bland”) dishes in any Chinese menu you may encounter. These dishes are lighter, and will likely seem uninteresting and dull as opposed to other dishes that may involve sweet-and-sour sauces, chili oil, and deep-fried chicken parts.

Say you had a full order of dumplings that were deep-fried and practically swimming in chili oil, accompanied by a large serving of fried rice. It would be natural for you to feel incredibly bloated after. When you top that meal off with vegetable, cold dish or a nice, light soup, you allow yourself to get a more comfortable feeling which will let you sleep better later on.

Most Westerners in Chinese restaurants avoid lighter dishes because they appear dull in comparison with the razzle-dazzle of chilli oil, sweet-and-sour sauces and deep-fried dumplings. They are, but that’s the point.

One of the great ironies of Western attitudes towards Chinese food is that Westerners typically order all the sweet-and-sour, salty and deep-fried dishes on Chinese menus and then complain that Chinese food is unhealthy and makes them feel “bloated and icky” the next day.

One sure-fire way of telling when a Chinese restaurant is aimed mainly at westerners is the absence of plain dishes on the menu and an emphasis on sexy, umami-loaded fare.

Arranging a good Chinese menu requires forethought.

One of the great pleasures of Chinese food is the range with which it showcases the distinctiveness and subtlety of greens not normally seen on American tables. Snow pea shoots (dou miao) need hardly any seasoning at all: They have the sweet aroma of peas without their heaviness or aftertaste. In the West, luffa (or loofah) squash is more commonly used as a bath sponge than served as a dish, but it makes an appearance on many a Chinese dining table (most often those that serve southern or eastern cuisine), so when eating at one, don’t miss the chance to sample its silky mouthfeel. But even if bitter melon sounds a bit too adventurous (indeed it is aptly named, and so understandably not for everyone), whatever you do, avoid heavily sauced broccoli, the most offensive signature of a faux-Chinese dish.

Conclusion

It can be incredibly tempting to stick to what you know in a Chinese restaurant. It is equally appealing to just go for all the rich, extremely flavorful things on the menu. However, you should note that in order to have a proper Chinese meal, balance is absolutely everything.

Of course, ordering is an art, and honing your skills takes time and experience. However, simply by taking into account those twin principles of balance and variety, it’s possible to construct menus that will be much more delightful.

Enroll now to make your next Chinese Meal Ordering more successful.