Best Chinese Food!

Among other classic travel cliches is the "I can never eat American (insert another country’s cuisine) again" after living in Italy, India, Mexico, etc. Until you slowly slide back into it, trying in vain to recreate an experience that's in your rearview mirror. You stare down at the pitiful counterfeit and swallow sadness.

When I leave China, it's going to take an extraordinary amount of time for me to reach this point. American Chinese food has - keep in mind that I'm from Greensboro, NC, not NYC or LA - simply been ruined for me. Once you’ve experienced how vast Chinese cuisine is, you’ll never think of it the same way again.

I can’t overstate just how little the Westernized version of Chinese food scratches the surface. There are 31 provinces and 55 recognized ethnic minorities in China. These different regional heritages clash and remix in so many different ways your tastebuds will never get bored. People constantly ask me if I ever get tired of Chinese food. Nope! Because it isn’t a monolith. There’s hearty Dongbei, spicy Sichuan, and everywhere in between.

It’s really difficult to narrow down my Top 10 (which is always changing), but this is my best attempt!

1. Guo bao rou (锅包肉)

A Dongbei classic, this stuff will get you hooked faster than crack. It's basically slices of pork that are battered, deep-fried, and coated in a sweet and sour sauce. The dish usually arrives at a table surrounded by expats ready to fight to the death for the last piece, adorned with thin slices of carrot, ginger, and green pepper. If it's done correctly, you have just the right amount of sauce so that the pork maintains its delicious crispiness. Soggy guo bao rou is an abomination.

This dish is basically crack for laowai.

Not the kung pao you’re used to.

2. Gongbao jiding (宫保雞丁)

Do you like Kung pao chicken? Then don't eat this, because you'll never be able to eat the American bastardization again. The ingredients remain roughly the same - chunks of chicken, chilies, peanuts, and veggies - but variations depend on the restaurant and season. My favorite comes in a sweet and sour sauce that isn't as sweet as guo bao rou, with a few pieces of spring onion/leek mixed in. This dish is famous all over China and is an excellent introductory meal if you want something familiar.

3. Fanqie chao dan (番茄炒蛋)

Literally "tomato scrambled eggs", this simple dish is a hangover cure from the gods. No flowery foodie language here, it's just stir-fried tomatoes and eggs. This is another classic favorite of Daqing expats and I usually have it for lunch over rice, maybe with soup. If I'm hungover and don't want to spend an exorbitant amount on McDonald's, this does the trick. Eggs contain an amino acid that improves liver function, so those nasty toxins from the night before will be broken down more quickly.

This will set you right after a late night.

You’ll become very familiar with jiaozi in Northeast China.

4. Jiaozi (饺子)

You're not doing Dongbei right if you haven't eaten enough dumplings to hate them, fall in love with them again, and then eat them begrudgingly every once in a while. We ate so many dumplings in my first couple of months that we needed to take a long break. We're just now starting to eat them again, sparingly. Your options are limitless in regard to the fillings you can get in these ravioli-like starchy rice-flour pockets. My favorites are pork and Chinese cabbage, egg and chives, or simply beef.

5. Chuanr (串儿)

Charred pieces of meat on a stick are nothing new and widely available throughout the world, but chuanr must be mentioned. Originally introduced by the Uyghurs in China, you can find chuanr anywhere, from restaurants to the sidewalk right outside my apartment. I don't think I've ever eaten it sober, and that may be a good thing. When you read the stories, you'll grab the nearest bottle of baijiu in an effort to kill the stuff that just hitched a ride to your gastrointestinal tract.

The best drunk food on the planet.

New Mart noodles are the best noodles.

6. Buckwheat noodles (荞麦面)

I can't dote on China's food without saying something about noodles. I searched high and low for the actual name, but to no avail. They can be found inside New Mart's food court and we've been there so often that we chat with the two ladies making them. These noodles are made from buckwheat and mixed with bean sprouts, onions, soybeans, and parsley. The spiciness depends on the day. If I had to, I could eat this healthy bowl every day, especially at only $2 a pop.

7. Roujiamo (肉夹馍)

The Chinese burger/sandwich. Another great hangover cure, these have their origins in Shaanxi Province but are common in restaurants and streets throughout China. The one served below my apartment is filled with slow-cooked pork and, as you can imagine, reminds me of some good ole fashioned North Carolina pulled-pork BBQ. Because the specific bread for roujiamo can be traced back to before 200 BC, historians consider it the earliest ancestor of the burger. Enjoy that delicious history.

Roujiamo might be the world’s first burger.

There’s veg in Dongbei, it’s just oily and fried.

8. Di san xian (地三鲜)

This is a great vegetarian classic from Dongbei, literally translating to 'Earth Three Fresh". As in, three fresh vegetables from the earth, if you couldn't connect the dots. Toss some potatoes, green peppers, and eggplant (aubergine) into a wok and you've got something fried and delicious that perfectly compliments your guo bao rou. As with most things in Dongbei, a shitload of garlic makes this one work nicely.

9. Pai huanggua (拍黄瓜)

Imagine a cucumber. Nothing spectacular, really. Take the cucumber, smack it with a knife a few times and chop it up. Then add garlic sauce, salt, and sometimes chili and you're left with what is quite possibly one of the most refreshing dishes on the planet. This cucumber salad is the perfect complement to the strong, meaty taste of chuanr or anything that is particularly spicy. The huge amount of garlic used in the dish also makes it a great first line of defense against vampires.

The menu called this “the cucumber that plays with itself.”

Baozi is the perfect grab-and-go breakfast food.

10. Baozi (包子)

Meaty and bready is probably one of my favorite combos of all time, so it's no surprise that baozi became a quick favorite of mine. These buns are made from rice flour and steamed after a meat or vegetable filling is added. My personal favorites are beef with onions and pork with celery and cilantro. We've actually made a few before, or rather our Chinese friend showed us how and we screwed up a few of them. I'll post the recipe sometime.

I could go on…

There's pretty much an endless amount of the wonderful, the strange, and the downright addictive to put into your belly here, depending on how adventurous you're willing to be (chicken/duck heads are off the table for me, personally). It was difficult to make this list, and I'm sure there will be another in the future. For now, enjoy eating at Peking Wok or Golden Dragon after reading this. ◉

Written by Seth Barham