Favourite Chinese Foods?
 

I have recently written briefly about Cantonese cuisine and it has got me interested in perhaps researching Chinese food from other regional cuisines, such as Imperial, Sichuan, Anhui, Tibetan, etc.

http://backpackerlee.wordpress.com/2...nese-foodporn/

However, in the mean time, I would interested to know a few things:

What is your favourite Chinese food?
Would you consume controversial Chinese delicacies such as Shark Fin Soup?
Do you specifically search for foods from particular regions of China? Or is a Chinese simply a Chinese?

My favourite is eggplant. Love the way the Chinese prepare it.

Yes - grew up drinking/eating shark fin soup as a kid (grew up in Asia).

I'm aware there is a difference between different Chinese regions but don't understand it well enough to share a view.

Favourite: Sichuanese.

Cantonese is too bland. (Mrs. 9Benua's cooking style, need to find sichuan girl next time ;))

I've tried shark fin soup, nothing special, not worth killing the shark.

Favourite Chinese Foods?
 

Szechuan peppers FTW!

If you are lucky to have the right tea house then cantonese dim sum is the best chinese cuisine has to offer.

Shark Fin Soup smells like cat piss and the taste is indeed nothing special.

well having lived in China, no one there really enjoys Shark Fin Soup. They eat Shark Fin Soup because it's expensive / associated with high class dining. You order it during business dinners, not when you are dining with your kids.

I'm a sucker for a great plate of BBQ pork rice (char siu fan) - would eat it daily when I was living in Hong Kong.

I like PF Chang's Kung Pao Chicken. They do the best version - nobody else comes close. Their Orange Peel Beef is a close second.

Ideally, my meal would consist of Hunan levels of spice and a side order of Lanzhou lamian. In which case, a bonus would go to getting an unsweetened bowl of Xinjiang yoghurt.

As for snacks, that's a toughie. Outside of any street food offering, Glico's China division makes good sesame crackers, and then there's the "controversial" Uyghur nut cake.

Then, the late-night bbq vendors appear and tempt me with mantou, eggplant, leeks, corn, and impressive amounts of garlic. Those folks are constantly missed.

My favorite Chinese food is almost anything sold at a Singapore hawker stand with a sign saying "Mixed Veg. Rice".

often true but some like my wife enjoy eating it even at home :S

-Hainanese Chicken Rice, with lots of chili and ginger sauce
-Siew Yoke (roasted pork belly)/Duck/Char Siu rice, with lots of chili sauce

I'd say those are considered Chinese food but really mastered and found everywhere in Singapore.

Truly good stuff.

In general most Szechuan items IF prepared correctly. Too many (most?) restaurants/take out places think that making something very spicy is all that is required...it should be spicy and you should be able to taste the food that is being spiced.

Yes, I agree with this. Shark Fin Soup is something to eat at luxury hotels to impress clients, not as part of a family meal. Interesting that Chinese people are beginning to turn their backs on the idea of eating it at all nowadays.

-Hainan Chicken Rice (technically invented in Singapore, I'm told)
-辣子(香辣)鸡丁 (the key for me is the "丁" because it generally implies the absence of bones)
-小龙包 (Shanghai soup dumplings)
-Pu Pu Platter (maybe a New England thing, but I still love it)
-Peking Duck (cliche it might be, but I still enjoy it to this day)
-Honey Walnut Prawns (I saw this a lot when I lived in Palo Alto, and can occasionally find variations in the PRD, but the US version is the best)
-Mushu Pork/Chicken (very hard to find in China, but it pops up in strange places, like on random trains... usually without the pancakes though)
-Street food in Beijing (more for the experience than the cuisine itself)

To the poster who mentioned PF Chang's, I must admit that I have no problem with them (clean, nice ambiance, you leave satisfied), but Kungpao Chicken is a dish that no American establishment -- that I've visited -- has come close to mastering.