2009 Jun 11 How Many of These Can You Check Off?
"1.3 billion people must be eating something right." Over at Appetite for China, a great food blog about China, I stumbled upon a good list of "100 Chinese Foods to Try."
Print it out, check 'em off, and compare with friends and co-workers. No doubt, some good (or bad) stories will arise...
"Top 100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die"
1. Almond milk
2. Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
3. Asian pear
4. Baby bok choy
5. Baijiu
6. Beef brisket
7. Beggar's Chicken
8. Bingtang hulu
9. Bitter melon
10. Bubble tea
11. Buddha's Delight
12. Cantonese roast duck
13. Century egg, or thousand-year egg
14. Cha siu (Cantonese roast pork)
15. Char kway teow
16. Chicken feet
17. Chinese sausage
18. Chow mein
19. Chrysanthemum tea
20. Claypot rice
21. Congee
22. Conpoy (dried scallops)
23. Crab rangoon
24. Dan Dan noodles
25. Dragonfruit
26. Dragon's Beard candy
27. Dried cuttlefish
28. Drunken chicken
29. Dry-fried green beans
30. Egg drop soup
31. Egg rolls
32. Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese
33. Fresh bamboo shoots
34. Fortune cookies
35. Fried milk
36. Fried rice
37. Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
38. General Tso's Chicken
39. Gobi Manchurian
40. Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
41. Grass jelly
42. Hainan chicken rice
43. Hand-pulled noodles
44. Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers)
45. Haw flakes
46. Hibiscus tea
47. Hong Kong-style Milk Tea
48. Hot and sour soup
49. Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
50. Hot Pot
51. Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
52. Jellyfish
53. Kosher Chinese food
54. Kung Pao Chicken
55. Lamb skewers (yangrou chua'r)
56. Lion's Head meatballs
57. Lomo Saltado
58. Longan fruit
59. Lychee
60. Macaroni in soup with Spam
61. Malatang
62. Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
63. Mapo Tofu
64. Mock meat
65. Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety)
66. Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
67. Pan-fried jiaozi
68. Peking duck
69. Pineapple bun
70. Prawn crackers
71. Pu'er tea
72. Rambutan
73. Red bean in dessert form
74. Red bayberry
75. Red cooked pork
76. Roast pigeon
77. Rose tea
78. Roujiamo
79. Scallion pancake
80. Shaved ice dessert
81. Sesame chicken
82. Sichuan pepper in any dish
83. Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
84. Silken tofu
85. Soy milk, freshly made
86. Steamed egg custard
87. Stinky tofu
88. Sugar cane juice
89. Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
90. Taro
91. Tea eggs
92. Tea-smoked duck
93. Turnip cake (law bok gau)
94. Twice-cooked pork
95. Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
96. Wonton noodle soup
97. Wood ear
98. Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)
99. Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
100. Yunnan goat cheese




admin
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
think i've tried 'em all, with the possible exception of:
39. Gobi Manchurian
57. Lomo Saltado
as i have no idea what they are
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Jerry
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
Gobi Manchurian seems to be more of an Indian dish:
http://www.indianfoodforever.com/indo-chinese/gobhi-manchurian.html
Perhaps similar in origin to "Chicken Manchurian," which is purely an Indian invention (inspired by their take on Chinese food).
About.com says Lomo Saltado is a "Chinese-Peruvian" dish that incorporates stir-fry and potatoes
http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/fusionfare/r/lomosaltado.htm
could be absolutely delicious, or disgusting ...
Jerry Chan, Editorial Director
the_remedy (not verified)
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
So some of those are not actually Chinese food?
JenniferYingLan
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
Here's a little history on Gobi Manchurian: Indian-Chinese Cauliflower Fritters.
http://appetiteforchina.com/recipes/gobi-manchurian-indian-chinese-cauli...
I'd make some for you guys if I had cooking utensils at my place. Not saying they'd taste good, but that'd be a check on the list.
wefrucar
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
It's harder to recognize what some of these dishes are without the real Chinese name.
Also, I was under the impression that fortune cookies were an invention of the chinese restaurants in the US and not authentic. Was I wrong?
Sometimes I feel it is maybe unbearable always be traditional Chinese girl.
the_remedy (not verified)
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
Well spotted, wefrucar. And egg tarts are Portuguese, not Chinese.
This list is a farce.
jas5sk
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
Mooncake! Mooncake?? Nonsense, if that one's Chinese then I'll eat my hat at the next popular festival...
I thought Rambutan was mainly southeast asian.
Bench 400 or die trying.
the_remedy (not verified)
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
Prawn crackers are Indonesian. Javan, to be precise.
Dr Sloppy
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
Just in case someone offers you "traditional cooking from thousands of years ago".....
Almond = Mediterranean region
Pepper = India/Egypt
Leek = Egypt
Bean = Egypt
Potato = The Americas
Peanut = The Americas
Sweet potato = The Americas
Sweetcorn = The Americas
Tomato = The Americas
Pea = Egypt/Syria/Turkey/Jordan
Cauliflower = France
Eggplant = India
Asparagus = Egypt
Lettuce = Egypt
Cabbage = Mediterranean region
Apple = Turkey
Broccoli = Italy
Sugar cane = Southeast Asia
Durian = Southeast Asia
Orange = Southeast Asia
Brussels sprouts = Italy
Carrot = Afghanistan
Pineapple = the Americas
Radish - Europe
Onion = Egypt
Celery = Egypt
Rambutan = Sri Lanka
Turnip = Greece/Italy
Parsnip = Greece/Italy
Cucumber = India
Pumpkin = The Americas
Capsicum = The Americas
Passion fruit = The Americas
Avocado = The Americas
Watermelon = Egypt
spettro9
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
lomo saltado is Chinese-PeRRUUUUUUvian
I've had it and it's awesome.
esp. the french fry potato things that are stuck in the bottom...
Peruvian food is awesome.
I'll never get that in Beijing I believe.
but I will back in Jersey.
Chicha Morada
Papas alla Huancaina
Yucca
and stuff...
What China really needs:
- Bill Nye, "the Science Guy", to come teach them basic Science.
- Jared Diamond, Dan Brown, and Spencer Wells to teach them about world/human history.
- MLK and Gandhi and Einstein to teach them about what being human means.
the_remedy (not verified)
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
I love how Dr Sloppy can miss the point entirely and just be an overbearing twat.
Nice job, Slopster. Now how 'bout a list of dishes and their origins. You can start with the ones in that list in the OP.
lncs85
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
On the origin of fortune cookies:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/dining/16fort.html?pagewanted=all
wefrucar
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
A great deal of these dishes are not actually Chinese - a lot are from southeast asia... and then of course, the fortune cookie, which has never existed in china at all (and now it turns out they were created by Japanese-American immigrants? Hah, I love it!).
But this isn't because the author of the list is incompetent, she did actually mention the reason for this on the site:
"Some foods here are also present in other Asian countries, but I included them because they're so entrenched in Chinese cuisine. In addition to traditional Chinese dishes and ingredients, there are also some international interpretations of Chinese food and foods in Hong Kong and Macau that have developed in the past hundred or so years. In short, a modern take on Chinese food."
Sometimes I feel it is maybe unbearable always be traditional Chinese girl.
the_remedy (not verified)
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
List of American food:
Hamburger
Taco
Pizza
Spaghetti
BBQ
casserole
soup
chili
sandwich
sushi
spam
spam sushi
hot dogs
mustard
ketchup
mayonaise
General Tso chicken
Kung Pao Chicken
chao mein
beer
wine
Some foods here are also present in other countries, but I included them because they're so entrenched in American cuisine. In addition to traditional American dishes and ingredients, there are also some international interpretations of American food and foods in the US that have developed in the past hundred or so years. In short, a modern take on American food."
admin
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedant
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the_remedy (not verified)
Re: How Many of These Can You Check Off?
admin, seriously, please stop stalking me. I'm not interested in feuding with you.