What is your favorite Chinese dish?

[zhaoyun]

Chinese cuisine is extremely diverse featuring about 6 or 7 major regional cuisines which would be equivalent to national cuisines in Europe.

Some of my favorites:

Northern style Hot Pot

This is a halal version, but pretty much this, except Hans can eat it with pork. This seems like a pretty authentic experience.



Cantonese Dim Sum - if you ever go to Dim Sum, there are just a ton of choices.



Of course, Peking Duck, but I can't have this too often as it is very heavy



Lanzhou style Beef Noodle Soup from NW China



But honestly, there are a ton of favorite dishes for me, just depends on my mood.

[zhaoyun]

I doubt most Westerners have tried authentic Chinese food though. I don't think Chineses eat mostly deep fried dishes, which is what they serve in most Chinese restaurants.

There are traditional deep fried dishes, but it's not eaten as commonly as in Westernized Chinese restaurants.

This is Guo Bao Rou, which is a deep fried sweet and sour pork dish from Northeast China.



The American style sweet and sour pork is a derivative of the Cantonese version of this, which are called Peking Style Spare Ribs, they are named Peking Styled because this style was originally derived from the North.

[KMack]

Some sort of a wrapped dumpling, Jiaozi.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

There are traditional deep fried dishes, but it's not eaten as commonly as in Westernized Chinese restaurants.

This is Guo Bao Rou, which is a deep fried sweet and sour pork dish from Northeast China.



The American style sweet and sour pork is a derivative of the Cantonese version of this, which are called Peking Style Spare Ribs, they are named Peking Styled because this style was originally derived from the North.

Isn't authentic Chinese gastronomy overwhelmingly vegetarian though?

Have you tried any dish that we in the West would find unusual or weird? Like insects, turtle soup or bull/lamb penises?

[Profileid]

I forgot about the donuts. They're probably my second favorite thing to get at Chinese restaurants after noodles and surprisingly,they seem to be authentic too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtiao

[zhaoyun]

Isn't authentic Chinese gastronomy overwhelmingly vegetarian though?

Have you tried any dish that we in the West would find unusual or weird? Like insects, turtle soup or bull/lamb penises?

No, it is not overwhelmingly vegetarian, it is pretty balanced. Depending on the region, there are some strange delicacies, Cantonese and others in provinces like Guizhou and Guangxi eat the strangest things. But those are things you usually have to go look for, most people in large cities don't really eat strange meats or what not on a regular basis.

[zhaoyun]

I forgot about the donuts. They're probably my second favorite thing to get at Chinese restaurants after noodles and surprisingly,they seem to be authentic too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtiao

Youtiao or the Chinese donut traditionally did not have sugar coated over it and it looks different from that photo. That photo looks more like the Beignets you would find in New Orleans. However, in places like Macau or Hong Kong, they did fuse a lot of traditional dishes with Western style baked goods.

Traditional youtiao is usually eaten with rice porridge or with hot soy milk, which can be served sweet or salty.

[Voskos]

Meat with chilli sauce.

[Profileid]

Youtiao or the Chinese donut traditionally did not have sugar coated over it and it looks different from that photo. That photo looks more like the Beignets you would find in New Orleans. However, in places like Macau or Hong Kong, they did fuse a lot of traditional dishes with Western style baked goods.

Traditional youtiao is usually eaten with rice porridge or with hot soy milk, which can be served sweet or salty.

My bad then. Those look pretty good too. It's a shame it's harder to find more traditional Chinese food since it's mostly takeout here.

[zhaoyun]

My bad then. Those look pretty good too. It's a shame it's harder to find more traditional Chinese food since it's mostly takeout here.

If you ever came to California, there is a shit ton of authentic Chinese restaurants, especially in the greater Los Angeles area.