23 Flavorful Chinese Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What makes Chinese food so flavorful? ›

Ginger, garlic, and chili form a flavorful base for many Asian dishes and are absolutely essential in Chinese cuisine. Most stir-fries and other dishes start with garlic and ginger — some will also use chili, though that depends on the level of spice and is usually added later.

Suodiu, which literally translates to “suck and dispose”, requires people trying out the dish to suck off the flavours, and then spit out the rocks. Originating from the eastern Chinese province of Hubei, the small rocks are covered with a rich and spicy flavour.

Peking Duck (The National Dish of China) 北京烤鸭 | Recipe | National dish, Peking duck, Recipes.

For seniors who have difficulty chewing, soft Chinese food options can be a great choice. Congee, a type of rice porridge, is a popular and easy-to-chew dish that can be flavoured with vegetables, meat, or seafood. Steamed dumplings with a soft filling, such as pork or shrimp, are also a good option.

Soy sauce (jiàng yóu, 酱油), the most common of Chinese sauces, sounds simple, and for the most part, it is. However, there are many types, each unique to different Asian cuisines (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.).

The Chinese categorise the taste of food into five flavours: sweet, bitter, sour, spicy and salty. Chinese medicine regards that eating certain flavours can help the function of the five organs to balance your health, as well as treat disease and recover from illness.

Many Chinese restaurants, like other types of restaurants, use sugar in their cooking. Sugar can be added to dishes to balance out salty or spicy flavors and to enhance the sweetness of the dish. However, the amount of sugar used in Chinese cooking can vary depending on the recipe and the individual cook.

Americanized Chinese food has been adapted to the American palate, and often features dishes that are sweeter, saltier, and greasier than authentic Chinese cuisine. This is because it has been tailored to American taste preferences, which tend to favor bold, strong flavors.

The sauce: Chow mein is more of a dry noodle dish with an extremely light and delicate sauce — if any sauce at all. Lo mein is a saucy noodle dish that depends on a rich sauce for much of its flavor. The texture: Chow mein noodles tend to be crunchier than lo mein noodles due to the way they are cooked.

What is the most popular Chinese meat? ›

Pork dominates the meat menu in China. The 57 million tons of pork consumed in China in 2021 accounted for 60 percent of total meat consumption.

A typical Chinese's meal usually consists of rice, soup and three to four side dishes. Dishes are made of seasonal vegetables, fresh seafood or bite-size portion of meat or poultry.