List of Chinese Dishes

Dishes by main ingredient

Noodles

• Chinese noodles – One of the core pillars of Chinese cuisine and many other Asian countries - the plain old noodles. They were introduced during Han Dynasty (25-220 AD).
• Chow mein – Stir-fried noodles that are also very popular in US, UK and many other international territories.
• Noodle soup – Very popular food that mixes soups with noodles in a thousand different variations of ingredients.
• Zhajiangmian –Stir fried mix of thick wheat noodles, ground pork and salty fermented soybean sauce paste. Many variations of this dish exist across Asia.
• Lamian – Noodle dish that uses dough that is stretched in strands. This dish is has no connection to modern Spaghetti.

Rice

• White Rice – Traditional cooked rice.
• Fried Rice – Stir-fried steamed (cooked) rice with added ingredients (meat, vegetables, eggs…).

Pork-based dishes

• Dongpo pork – Popular dish of Hangzhou cooking style, made by pan-frying and then red cooking pork belly into small 2 inch square pieces that have both meat and fat.
• Sweet and sour pork – Pork dishes that are heavily spiced with wide variety of sweet and sour sauces.
• Twice cooked pork – Popular Sichuan-style dish that first simmers pork belly in spiced water until it’s half-cooked, then refrigerated, cut in smaller pieces, and then again fried in oil with additional vegetables.
• Char siu – Barbecued thin slices of pork that are cooked either in oven or over fire.

Poultry-based dishes

• Century egg – Dish made by preserving duck, chicken other types of eggs for several weeks in a solid mixture (clay, ash, salt, quicklime…).
• Duck's head – Popular dish that involves mixing various spices with stir-fried head of a duck.
• Kung Pao chicken – Popular Szechuan chicken-based dish that involves stir-frying chicken meat with vegetables, spices and other ingredients.
• Peking Duck – Very famous dish that involves specially bred ducks that are seasoned and roasted in oven. After cooking it is seasoned with cucumber, scallion, pancakes, sweet ban sauce and sometimes other seasonings.
• Soy egg –Egg snacks cooked in water that is seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and other spices and herbs.
• Tea egg – Egg snack that is boiled once in water, cracked a little and then boiled again in tea so that little of tea substance can enter into egg.

Vegetable-based dishes

• Buddha's delight –Vegetarian Chinese drink that was traditionally enjoyed by Buddhists. It involves frying various vegetables and seasonings in soy sauce.
• Pickled vegetables –Vegetables (or fruits) with seasonings that were fermented in salty water. Also vegetables can be pre-marinated in soy sauce or other sauces.

Dishes by cooking method

Dumplings

• Baozi – Steamed bun on bread that can be filled with various ingredients, including meat and vegetables.
• Dim sum – One of the most famous Cantonese dishes, countless types of food that is prepared in small bite-sized portions.
• Guotie – Northern-Chinese type of dumplings, with fillings of port, cabbage, ginger, scallions and other ingredients.
• Jiaozi –Chinese style of dumplings, larger than Guotie and with thicker skin.
• Mantou – Steamed bred or buns (sized 4-15cm) that are popular in North china where wheat is produced more than rice.
• Wonton – Small sphere-shaped dumplings that are made both by frying or boiling.
• Xiaolongbao –Shangai dish, a very popular soup dumpling.
• Zongzi –Glutinous rice that is wrapped in leaves (usually bamboo or reed) and then cooked or boiled.

Pastry

• Longevity buns –Celebratory meal (birthdays, special occasions) that consists from steamed buns that are filled with various ingredients. Buns are shaped like peaches.
• Cong you bing – Salty scallion pancakes that are made from dough (not batter).
• Mooncake – Pastry delicacy that is eaten during days of celebration (birthdays, festivals).
• Sachima –Sweet pastry food popular in Manchu, Canton and Fujian.
• Shaobing –Layered flatbread that has optional stuffing or sesame on top. More popular in Northern and Central China.
• Youtiao – Also known as Chinese oil stick, Chinese doughnut, and fried breadstick. Basically it is lightly-salted deep-fried strip of dough, usually eaten at breakfast as an accompaniment for rice congee or soy milk.

Soups, stews and porridge

• Congee –Rice porridge, often served as a part of a larger meal that has meat, fish and other foods.
• Hot and sour soup – Regional dish of Beijing and Sichuan. It is called “hot and sour” because it uses red peppers or white pepper for providing hot feeling and vinegar for providing cold feeling.
• Hot pot –Single name for many varieties of Chinese and Asian stews.
• Tong sui –Single name for large collective of sweet soup deserts that are eaten at the end of the bigger meals.

Regional dishes

• Anhui – Bang Tofu, Bright Pearl Abalone , Caterpillar Fungus Duck, Crab and Fish Stomachs, Crab-apple Flower Cake, Dried Pot Tofu, Five Colours Fish Cake, Five Colours Fish Cake, Flower Mushroom Frog, Fried Pumpkin Dumplings, Fried Tofu Curd Balls, Fuli Roast Chicken, Ginger Duck, Hay Wrapped Fragrant Ribs, Jade Rabbit Sea Cucumber, Lotus Seed Pod Fish, Phoenix Tail Shrimp, Potato Croquet, Silver Fish Fried Egg, Soy Braised Mandarin Fish, and many others.
• Beijing – Peking Duck, Zhajiangmian, Xianbing, Crullers, Hot and sour soup, Peking barbecue, Peking barbecue, Instant-boiled mutton, Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs, Beggar's Chicken, Moo shu pork, Soft fried tenderloin, Meatball soup, Fried sesame egg cake, Lard with flour wrapping glazed in honey, Chinese cabbage in mustard, Preserved fruit, Iced fruit, Xing ren cha, Beijing yoghurt, Fuling pancake sandwich and many others.
• Cantonese –Braised abalone, Shaved ice, Beef chow fun, Bird's nest soup, Black sesame soup, Cantonese seafood soup, Char siu, Crispy fried chicken, Duck with taro, Guilinggao, Little pan rice, Red bean soup, Roast squab, Roast suckling pig, Sea cucumber, Seafood with bird's nest, Shark fin soup, Snow fungus soup, Sour spare ribs, White cut chicken, Winter melon soup, Wonton noodles, Yeung Chow fried rice, Youtiao, Zhaliang and many others.
• Chaozhou – Teochew-style steamed pomfret, Pork jelly, Steamed goose, Teochew chicken, Oyster omelette, Salted vegetable duck soup, Pig's organ soup, Bak kut teh (soup), Popiah, Teochew hot pot, Spring rolls with prawn or minced meat fillings, Yusheng, Fishballs, Mee pok, Bak chor mee, Kueh chap, Teochew rice noodle soup, Yam dessert, Chai tao kway, Fun guo, Crystal balls, Chwee kueh, Oolong tea and many others.
• Fuijan – Oyster omelet, Popiah, Ban mian, Popiah, Stuffed fish balls, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, Ngo hiang, Minshengguo, Fragrant snails in wine, Clams in chicken soup, Crispy skin fish rolls, Drunken ribs, Eastern Wall Dragon Pearls, Braised frog, Five Colours Shrimp, Five Colours Pearls, Yanpi, Misua and many others.
• Hunan – Beer duck, Changsha-style rice vermicelli, Changsha-style stinky tofu, Cured ham with cowpeas, Dong'an chicken, "Dry-wok" chicken, Homemade-style bean curd, Lotus seeds in rock sugar syrup, Mao's braised pork, Mala chicken, Smoky flavours steamed together, Spare ribs steamed in bamboo, Steamed fish head in chili sauce, Stir fried duck blood, Stir fried meat with douchi and chili peppers, Mashed shrimp in lotus pod, Pearly meatballs, Pumpkin cake, Shredded pork with vegetables and many others.
• Jiangsu – Braised spare ribs, Fried gluten balls, Ji-yu soup, Ji-yu with fried shallots, Wuxi-style xiaolongbao, Whitebait omelet and many others.
• Sichuan – Chongqing spicy deep-fried chicken, Dandan noodles, Fuqi Feipian, Sichuan hotpot, Kung Pao chicken, Mapo tofu, Shuizhu, Twice cooked pork, Zhangcha duck Dan dan noodles, Bon bon chicken, Spicy deep-fried chicken and many others.
• Yunnan – Banana flower, Pineapple Rice, Erkuai, Across the Bridge Noodles, Hong dou, Jidou liangfen, Juecai, Granny's potato, Lufu, Mi gan, Pu'er Tea, Steam Pot Chicken, Rubing (goat milk cheese), Rushan (cow milk cheese), Shiping Tofu, Yiliang Roast Duck, Xuanwei Ham, Zhé'ěrgēn and many others.
• Zhejiang – Beggar's Chicken, Braised Sliced Pork, Cold Chicken Cooked in Wine, Dongpo Braised Pork, Fish Ball in Light Soup, Fried Eel Slices, Fried Pigeon with Spiced Salt, Fried Shrimps with Longjing Tea, Fried Stuffed Bean Curd Paste, Fried Sweet and Sour Pork, Hangzhou-Style Duck Pickled in Soy Sauce, Old Duck Stewed with Bamboo Root & Ham, Red-Stewed Duck, Sauteed Broad Beans with Ham, Sauteed Shrimps, Sizzling Rice in Tomato Sauce, Steamed Pork with Rice Flour in Lotus Leaf, Stewed Spring Bamboo Shoots, Stir-Fried Spring Chicken with Chestnuts, West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce and many others.