Must-have Dishes

Chinese cuisine has uncountable number of culinary delights. Eating in China is often considered one of the greatest joys that foreigners experience. Below are three dishes you will want to make sure you try while in China.


Peking Duck

Also known as Beijing duck, this dish is one of China’s most famous delicacies. A specially-raised duck is slaughtered and covered in a syrup glaze, giving it the shiny characteristic of the dish. The duck is then left to dry for 24 hours. On the second day the duck is slowly oven roasted and a chef separates the meat from the skin and serves them on separate plates.

Peking duck is usually served with thin steamed pancakes. A sweet sauce is smeared on the pancake and scallions and cucumbers are placed on the pancake along with one piece of duck skin or meat. The pancake is then wrapped up and eaten. Many duck restaurants will use every part of the duck to make side dishes, including soup, duck hearts and even bones cooked with vegetables.


Hotpot

Hotpot is one of China’s most widespread dishes. It is said to originally have been brought to China from Mongolia in the Tang Dynasty (7th to 10th centuries AD), and afterwards developed various regional specialties. Hotpot consists of one large pot filling with a boiling soup. Everyone around a table places raw meat and vegetables into the soup to cook it and eats from the same bowl.

A huge variety of ingredients can go into hotpot; lamb, chicken, beef, pork and any other meat imaginable can be added. Lettuce, mushrooms, tofu and bean sprouts are just a few of the non-meat ingredients that can be added. The soup in many types of hotpot is extremely spicy – Sichuan hotpot is famous for this. In other types of hotpot, the bowl is divided into two sections, one with a spicy soup and the other with a mild, non-spicy broth.


Dumplings

Chinese dumplings, or jiaozi, are made by wrapping a meat, egg or vegetable filling into a small piece of dough and steaming or boiling them. They can be dipped in vinegar or soy sauce to add more flavour. Dumplings are traditionally eaten during the Chinese New Year but nowadays they are enjoyed throughout the year and are a popular breakfast food.

Another variety of dumplings are called guotie. In English these are often called potstickers and are a type of fried jiaozi. Cantonese-style dumplings often includes shrimp and scallop filling.