Chinese cuisine has a very high reputation worldwide and represents the magnificent culture of the Chinese nation's almost five-thousand-year old glorious history. China's very varied cuisine is considered as one of the top three in the world.
Eating in Beijing
Peking Duck is the epitome of Beijing cuisine and is well known both at home and abroad. The dish is mostly prized for the thin, crispy skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat.
Mongolian Hot Pot is another great example of traditional Beijing cooking. Thin slices of various meats are dangled or placed in a boiling pot with various kinds of vegetables until they're done, and then eaten with special sauces and side dishes. This dish is especially favored during the cold season. Dong Lai Shun,You Yi Shun and Neng Ren Ju are famous flavor restaurants serving this kind of boiled mutton.
Imperial Court Food and Official Food are two main branches of Beijing cuisine. They both stress a light and tender taste of the food, but the imperial court food is particular about beautiful shape of a course and prefers to use rare ingredients. The official food is developed from the household food of the aristocrats and the imperial officials. Now, the Tanjia Cuisine and Family Li Imperial Cuisine are better known as official food.
Palace Chicken Cubes is a spicy chicken dish with peanuts and other vegetables. For some reason this dish is never the same from one restaurant to another. Perhaps this adds to its appeal, as it is very popular with foreigners.
Snacks. A great variety of popular snacks may be tasted. Some are made of sticky rice, like Ludagunr (Glutinous Rice Rolls with Sweet Bean Flour, ???) and Sticky Rice with Sweet Fillings. Some use flour as the main ingredient, such as Fried Ring, Fried Dough Twist, steamed rice dumplings and Clay Oven Rolls. Bean Juice is the favorite snack of the local people, but hasn't earned recognition from foreigners. If you are not a vegetarian, Quick-fried Tripe. Filled Sausage and Fried Liver will appeal to you.
Refreshments, the most common refreshments in China can be found in Beijing. The most authentic Beijing pastry could be found at Dao Xiang Cun, a legendary name in the city. Xiang Ju Gong and Da Shun Zhai are two famous shops selling pastry of Muslims. The most famous refreshment brand that highlights the imperial recipes is Zheng Ming Zhai, available today in both Beijing's tea houses and supermarkets.
Eating in Shanghai
Small Steamed Buns often confused for dumplings - come full of tasty (and boiling hot!) broth inside with a dab of meat to boot. The connoisseur bites a little hole into them first, sips the broth, then dips them in dark vinegar to season the meat inside.
Raw Fried Buns, unlike steamed dumplings, these larger buns come with dough from raised flour, are pan-fried until the bottoms reach a deliciously crispy brown, and have not made their way to Chinese menus around the world.
Shanghai Hairy Crab, the best eaten in the winter months (Oct-Dec) and paired with Shaoxing wine to balance out your yin and yang.
Eating in Xi'an
Mutton Paomo, as the most representative local food and a "unique food peculiar to Shaanxi", the well-known Muslim snack named Mutton Paomo (Yangrou Paomo) enjoys an international reputation. The main materials used in this snack are mutton and pancakes. The culinary art required for Pancake slices soaked in mutton soup is very carefully selected, the craft of boiling meat is very exquisite too. The mutton soup is the essence of this snack, beside the main materials, the ingredients, such as shallot, ginger, Chinese prickly ash, aniseed, fennel, cassia, etc., also play very important roles in this food.
Try to image that you are tearing a pancake into small pieces, soaking them in a bowl of the boiling mutton soup and taste them at once in a winter morning; you will know why it is a popular snack among Xi'an citizen.
Qishan Noodles have a long history. Since the Qing Dynasty, the reputation of this food had already spread widely. Qishan Noodles gets the name only because its hometown is Qishan County, Xi'an.
The noodles are very particular. They must be hand-made of good wheat flour so the taste can catch your stomach at once. With many kinds of ingredients include pork shreds, day lily, egg, wood fungus, and bean curd which are flavored with a variety of spices, the hot and sour soup with slightness noodles, is suitable for both the elderly and young.
Liangpi, as a dish of cold noodles in a sauce that hits every possible flavor category (sweet, tangy, savory, herbal, nutty and dozens of others), Liangpi (cold noodles) is a famous summer snack (also sold in winter) in Xi'an. It is a noodle-like Chinese dish made from wheat or rice flour.