travelbliss

I will be going to Beijing and Shanghai in a few days for the first time and my only experience of Chinese food has been from America and Hong Kong (mostly dim sum). I want to try some of the authentic and unique dishes that traditional Chinese cuisine has to offer. I am looking for meals that can be had at mid-range and below restaurants, places where ordinary locals frequently go--I will definitely try a Da Dong Peking Duck for the experience, but mostly looking to eat more modestly (50-70RMB and under, per person). I am willing to try some of the more adventurous cuisine, if it's tasty. Here is what I plan to try so far:

-Peking Duck at Da Dong (I read through the Peking Duck thread, and seems like this presents one of the best taste, price, and presentation combinations, although highly debatable)
-Lamb Hot Pot at Dong Lai Shun (a restaurant suggestion from a website)
-BBQ Skewered Mutton on the street
-Beggar's Chicken
-Shanghai fried noodles (any other suggestions for Shanghai food?)
-Imperial Court food (I would like to try a little just to see what it's like, but are there any reasonably priced options?)
-Muslim food (any suggestions?)
-Sichuan dishes (any suggestions?)
-Various dumplings (will any street stall or restaurant do?)
-Scorpions, starfish, and seahorses at Dong Hua Men Night Market (more for the one-time experience and curiosity than the enjoyment. I lived in Cambodia for some time so I've seen some exotics such as tarantulas, snakes, lizards, beetles, silk worms and a few other interesting things, but never saw scorpions being sold to eat)

Please feel free to add to the list. I'm not sure what else to try, any suggestions would be welcome. And if it's convenient for you, it would be very helpful for me if you could write the Chinese character as well, so I can print it out and bring it with me to the restaurant.

Taiwaned

Shanghai Soup Dumplings (xiaolongbao 小笼包）
This treats have soup inside the buns, supposedly the ones from Shanghai are the best. It is fantastic but I burn my tongue each and every time.

Sichuan - Spicy Hot Pot (mala huoguo 麻辣火锅)
Scary to look at times but it is incredibly good to eat.

anacapamalibu

Dog
Cat
Donkey
*rat would only be found in south China

HawaiiO

In Shanghai
- Steamed dumplings (xiao long bao 小笼包）
They are everywhere, only USD1 for a bowl of 10 little ones.
There is a famous store in Yu Garden, there will be a huge line there, cant miss it.

- Fried dumplings(sheng jian)
Famous store is "Xiao Yang Sheng Jian" （小杨生煎）
They have a couple of stores in Shanghai。

Beijing:
Roast Duck
- Da Dong and Quan Ju De are both good.

Sichuan food:
- Chongqing hot chicken (重庆辣子鸡）
It's basically really spicy and mouth-numbing fried chicken.
- Water cooked fish (水煮鱼）
Fish in a stew of veggies and tons of chilis and oil.

Beijing 炸酱面（zha jiang mian) noodles is not very good, u can skip it.

jiejie

You are more likely to find dog and donkey in Beijing, at restaurants that serve up Dongbei (northeast) cooking. Usually in soups/stews. They are considered cold-weather dishes. But don't expect most local Chinese restaurants to have these things, as most native Beijingers don't eat dog or donkey. I haven't seen cat dishes up here. Not to say they don't exist, but I think you'd be more likely to find that in southern China.

Probably far more prevalent--and "adventurous" eating would be the things they cook up using the more interesting parts of regular food animals. That's quite common on menus.

This thread brings up another frustration of mine: how to communicate where some good neighborhood restaurants are to visitors. I'm talking about real restaurants with tablecloths (not "diners" or plastic table grease joints) that serve great homestyle cooking at reasonable prices. In the past month, I've found a new favorite near a friend's place (been helping her with an apt move) and we've been eating like Queens there for RMB 35 each total, with 3 sizeable shared dishes + rice + tea. Even has a picture menu with English on it so easy to order for non-Mandarin speakers. Restaurant has been around forever, and yet it is not an expat hangout nor on the tourist trail. There are piles of these all over Beijing, where IMO the food often outshines more well-known places.

But unfortunately the guidebooks all sort of go over the same well-worn list of names ad nauseum. Even the expat weekly and monthly magazines tend to focus on a different part of the restaurant market, so are of marginal usefulness on the local Chinese. In the absence of codified info or a specific first hand recommendation, a reasonably reliable way to find a decent restaurant in Beijing is to walk along the street at 6-6:30 pm, and if you see a crowded place with a line out the door, there's probably a reason. Ditto with a hole-in-the wall serving specialty morsels out the sidewalk-facing window. If there's two dozen people clamoring for their meat skewers, buns, dumplings, or whatever, probably a good reason.

tentseller

That is my golden rule all over the world.

-------
Do I speak Mandarin?
Only when I am hungry!

anacapamalibu

Here's a few recommendations:

Chicken feet
Duck neck
Duck head
Pig intestine (tripe)
Pig brain ( hot pot)
pig's ear

jiejie

Fish lips.

Should we even dare tell him about chou doufu?

Jamoldo

"Muslim food" - I believe Dong Lai shun is halal. Otherwise I would tell you to (instead of bbq lamb kebabs on the street - quality can vary widely), first try Xinjiang food. Xinjiang is a province (or "Autonomous Area") in Northwest China. The native population is the Uyger ethnicity and the food is completely different from anything else you'd really eat in China. 羊肉串- Lamb kebabs, 烤馕-nang bread, 馕抱肉-nang bao rou, 炒面片-chao mian pian, laghman noodles, lamb rice etc. There is clearly a lot more than I wrote here.

If you have the time, best bet would be the Xinjiang government complex on Sanlihe Road (the hotel concierge could help you out with address, directions, reservation - latter usually is not needed). Plus this means they (hopefully) won't steer you to some place that have extremely loud music and pretty terrible dancing.

I don't know if its still good, but I liked South Silk Road a few years back for Yunnan food - sadly I think the outlet by the lakes has long been closed.

So sichuanese you could try - 口水鸡 - kou shui ji (spicy chicken), 担担面- dan dan mian etc. There's a lot more but my Sichuanese friends usually order for me here in HK...

As for Shanghainese stuff that has not been covered 红烧肉- hong shao rou -braised pork - stunning stuff... plenty more I am forgetting, check CNNGO for some ideas too.

anacapamalibu

Might like it, if one likes Filipino shrimp paste.

moondog

I'd like to add Hainan chicken rice to the list; it tends to be best at western hotels; the Hard Rock Cafe also makes a decent version.

And, if you make it to one of the water towns near Shanghai, they do this crock pot type "pig leg" dish, which is pretty amazing. I've tried to replicate it myself in the US, but without success.

Chinatrvl

Nothing out of the ordinary ("classics"), but always delicious and won't disappoint:

* Lanzhou la mian in all varieties 兰州拉面 (noodles and soup, it's fascinating to watch how they make spaghetti style noodles without tools)

* Sichuan "classics": Hui guo rou 回锅肉 (double cooked pork), zhanjia duck 樟茶鸭 (tea duck), Fuqi Feipian 夫妻肺片, spicy (cold) intestins/lung, and of course Mapo Doufu 麻婆豆腐 (different characters possible, spicy Tofu with minced meat). Water boiled things (shuizhu 水煮), I especially like water boiled rabbit (~~兔子 shuizhu tuzi, mostly found in Chongqing)

* South China/ Hong Kong: roast pork, suckling pig, and duck (roughly: kao ya, kao zhu 烤鸭，烤猪); way better than Beijing duck

* Hunan style stuff: Chou doufu (stinky Tofu), ganguo rou/ji (干锅肉 / 鸡, spicy chicken without sauce; "dry-woked chicken"), kao xue ya (炒血鸭 fried duck blood - delicious, really!)

* Deserts: Tang yuan (usually served during Chinese New Year's 汤圆, small balls filled with sesame, nuts, or beancurd), Pumpkin cake (nangua bing 南瓜餅).

* Dog stew isn't bad; hard to find a restaurant serving dog during the summer - head for a Korean restaurant if you desperately want to try.

* Imo, Abalone tastes great.

* Frog (wa 蛙) is delicious, but hardly found in normal restaurants. You'd need to look one up.

* Cold starter: Wuxiang niu rou 五香牛肉 beef with five spices.

mosburger

Shanghainese soup and steamed dumplings, along with a bowl of noodles, make for a great breakfast. Not lingering along Cantonese style, mind you, but slurping your food trying to mute the pleasure and then rushing out into the new day.

Apart from breakfast, I'm not too fond of the oily Shanghai kitchen. Sorry for that to all locally proud FTers.

Best fish in Shanghai/Jiangsu is normally had in Cantonese places for the simple reason that they abide by the cold chain. Other restaurants do not necessarily serve fresh produce... The other choice for fresh fish would be Japanese restaurants run by Japanese/Taiwanese/Cantonese patrons.

Nanjing cuisine is an all time Chinese favourite and even worth a day trip on the highspeed trains, IMHO. The salted duck appetizer is out of this World, the fish spicier than in SH and the noodles perfect with their chili sauce twist.

Getting good mapo dofu is tricky. According to my own experiences, only ramshackle family owned places in areas populated by migrant workers tend to get it right. Would be glad if someone actually knows an upmarket/central eatery doing tasty mapo dofu?

rdchen

I think 烤鸭 (kao ya) usually means Peking duck, Cantonese tends to use 燒 (shao) instead of 烤(kao), e.g. 燒鴨 roast duck, 燒豬 suckling pig.

dtsm

Excellent choices, not gourmet banquet style but just plain good food ^^^