Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

I have some beef with the names you give the foods. "Dongbei" is the former Manchuria. Of course, you can't eat Manchurian foods anymore (there was a Manchu restaurant in Shenzhen, if I remember well, but the foods were northern Chinese).
Personally, I love Uygur (or Muslim) specialties, but can't bring myself to naming them "Xinjiang" foods: Laghman, unleavened Arab bread, keebabs. The only drag is that there is too little variation.
And, by the way, a good meal should be washed down with a suitable wine according to French gastronomic wisdom! I like Huadong reds with Cantonese foods (not very spicy, lots of garlic and ginger), but I also like pan reds with jaozi.
day I sampled "Tibetan barley wine". A mysterious, interesting drink with 12 volume percents! Three cups (no glasses) made me slightly light-headed. This wine might go very well with stews, though one has to get used to it.
Where does it come from?
Not from TIbet, of course, but from Zhongdian, now renamed "Shangrelia".
No fantasy product - buy it if you see it in a grocer's! (Not more expensive than a Great Wall or Dynasty).

[Jed]

From my limited experience in southern China, I would have to promote Guilin mifen as a simple, elegant dish; a melting pot of subtle contrasts in flavour. The quality does vary widely however. The many dumpling variations, baked rice dishes, influences from Sichuan Province and the northern cooking schools and a large diversity of tropical and sub-tropical fruit and vegies, make dining out in southern Guangxi an interesting culinary experience.

The 'bat-si-et' (Qinzhouhua) is the best rice-based sweet dumpling in China. It is round in shape and about 5 cm in diameter. The filling consists of unrefined sugar, soybean paste and cinnamon, enclosed in a sticky rice coating. Are these available in more northern climes?

[Seth]

Having lived in Luoyang, Henan, I've grown fond of NW food. Luoyang isn't exactly NW, but it does have a sizable Muslim population and was one of the last stops on the silk road. Paomo (bread soup in mutton broth) is one of my favorites, as well as grilled lamb and grilled eggplant. Luoyang is also famous (to the locals, anyway) for 'shuixi' water dinner, soup based meals. Also flatbread sandwiches made with spicy lamb, like a kebab (Gyro to Americans, kebab has a different meaning). Henan also has huimian, large noodles in beef and cilantro broth. The food is the only thing I miss about Henan.
Some muslim students took me to a restaurant once in the Muslim district, definately the best meal I've had in China. I had to eat sheep eyes, though.
Now that I'm in Zhejiang, it just isn't the same!

[Seth]

[whitjohn]

I love the food in Kunming. Great pork, chicken, and a wonderful "hash brown" potatoe.

[MartinK]

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[Chairman Roberto]

Hunan Food, or Xiang Cai...it's all about the chili pepper, man. They put it in almost everything, so every dish is hot hot hot. But if you're not feeling so spicy, all you have to say is "lade yidian!" and the cook will turn down the heat. Toilet paper is provided to blow your nose...and you'll be washing it down with hot water, naturally.

Hmmmm...I'm not quite at the point of naming foods, but my foreign teacher friends and I have come up with our own names. These would include "Chinese Chorizo" (stir-fried sausage), "Chinese hashbrowns," a minced beef/cilantro dish similar to the Laotion dish laap, 5-alarm breakfast noodles (great way to wake up), and my personal favorite, sauted and fried bee larvae...two varieties, both quite tasty. Though the way bacon or beef jerky is made here looks and smells nasty, I must admit it usually tastes great in most dishes, including a delicious combo with eggplant. The noodle shops are fantastic, serving heaping servings of mushrooms, seaweed, tofu, spring rolls, and potatoes, setting you back for 2 kuai.

I can't say I was very impressed with Shanghai food...I found it bland and greasy...and I was eating in some upscale restaurants. Most street food here blows Shanghai food away, in my humble opinion.

I hear Sichuan has the high heat too...can't wait to try it out!

Roberto!

[xiaoyu]

hot pot! glorious hot pot! i so miss eating it.... hard to find in my area right now..... though it was a tough call .... a lot of dongbei dishes are also my favs..... dalian and shenyang really have a great selection..... their seafood is the best!

but nothing beats hot pot and the chilis! with a bottle of harbin beer!

xiaoyu.... living without the spice of life!

[MyTurnNow]

I found the consistently best food in DongBei. Good stuff; gets ya through them long winter nights. Nice strong flavors...the food in Greater Shanghai often seems disappointingly wimpy in comparison. And I could live on jiaozi; they're holiday food down here.

A lot of writers class the food of the Northeast (and Beijing and North Central China as well) as a variant of food originating in Shandong. Seems credible enough from my experience.

But Manzu (Manchu) food is still alive and well, thank you. My many Manzu friends would be deeply shocked at the suggestion of its demise. The old Qing Court food is gone, of course, except for the pale aftershocks served to tourists, but there is still an abundance of Manzu dishes out there.

Hard to pick one but perhaps the best single meal I've had here was in the Yanbian Autonomous Region far up in Jilin Province near North Korea. They put quite a feed on for me...great blend of Korean and Manzu influences. I became suspicious later when they started posing me and one of the daughters (whom I'd never met) for wedding pictures... But boy, what a feast...

And truth be told I've never been to a part of China that didn't have great food, good beer, and pretty girls...

Favorite dish? Oddly enough, white cabbage stir-fried with big chunks of ginger and hot peppers. Never been a cabbage fiend before but can't seem to get enough of it.
MT

[MyTurnNow]

Roger,
I'm with you on the Shangri-La Tibetan Dry Barley wine. Could cook with it but God forbid I ever venture another mouthful of that *beep*.
It must match the food...Ive heard Tibetan called the worst food on the planet, worse even than English.