07.17.07

老外菜， Chinese Food Recommendations for Foreigners

Posted in Announcements, Food and Drink at 1:41 pm by Benjamin Ross

I’m in the process of developing a new website which will function as a guide for foreigners to order Chinese food in China. The idea is to compile a relatively comprehensive listing of common Chinese dishes including a picture, Chinese, pinyin, and English. The idea is that people who don’t speak Chinese (or those that do) can then print out the Chinese characters, or use the pinyin to order dishes, that they would otherwise not be able to order. Eventually, I am going to break things down into regional cuisines, and include several pages on vegetable disambiguation, noodle terminology, etc, but I am still in the process of taking photos, writing text, and working on format. For starters, here’s a list of Chinese dishes, which generally seem to appeal to Western taste buds, and can be ordered across China. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at bensinchina at yahoo.com. Enjoy.

	宫保鸡丁	gong1 bao3 ji1 ding1	Kung Pao Chicken; a sweet and spicy Sichuan chicken dish cooked with peanuts, dried hot peppers, and cucumbers.
	铁板牛肉	tie3 ban3 niu2 rou4	beef on a skillet; usually comes with green peppers and onions
	青椒炒牛肉	qing1 jiao1 niu2 rou4	beef with green peppers
	青椒炒肉丝	qing1 jiao1 chao3 rou4 si1	Small stringy pieces of pork stir-fried with green peppers (sometimes green hot peppers), carrots, and onions.
	鱼香肉丝	yu2 xiang1 rou4 si4	A sweet and slightly spicy pork dish cooked with wood ear mushroom and green hot peppers. Literally, the name of this dish means “smells like fish pork,” but if cooked properly, it will taste nothing like fish.
	糖醋排骨	tang2 cu4 pai2 gu3	pork ribs braised in sweet sauce
(no picture yet)	菇老肉	gu1 lao3 rou4	sweet and sour pork
(no picture yet)	麻辣豆腐	ma2 la4 dou4 fu2	spicy Sichuan-style tofu
	家常豆腐	jia1 chang2 dou4 fu2	“homestyle” tofu
	笋干炒肉丝	sun2 gan1 chao3 rou4 si1	dried and processed baby bamboo shoots stir fried with pork. Try asking for it with hot peppers (加辣椒 jia1 la4 jiao1)
	干遍土豆丝	gan1 bian4 tu3 dou4 si1	Spicy Sichuan style potato slices cooked with hot peppers. This is the closest thing you are going to get to french fries in Chinese food.
	炒青菜	chao3 qing1 cai4	炒青菜 is a general term for stir-fried vegetables. Just ask for 炒青菜and you will get the dafault vegetable of the day. For more options, go to the leafy vegetable page.
	醋溜大白菜	cu4 liu4 da4 bai2 cai4	bok choy stir-fried with vinegar. If you like spicy food, ask for it with hot peppers (加辣椒 jia1 la4 jiao1).
	蛋炒饭	dan4 chao3 fan4	egg fried rice
	咖喱牛肉饭	ga1 li2 niu2 rou4 fan4	curry beef with rice; usually topped with potatoes carrot shards, and often a green vegetable. This dish is commonly served as a single person meal, rather than as a dish. Thus it makes for a great meal when you are eating alone, or not in the mood for going family style.
(no picture yet)	西红柿炒蛋	xi1 hong2 shi4 chao3 dan4	stir fried egg and tomatoes
(no picture yet)	红烧日本豆腐	hong2 shao1 ri4 ben3 dou4 fu2	red-cooked Japanese (egg) tofu
(no picture yet)	回锅肉	hui2 guo1 rou4	Sichuan style sweet/spicy pork fat
(no picture yet)	红烧肉	hong2 shao1 rou4	Chairman Mao’s favorite dish. Pork fat cooked in in a sugary sauce.

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27 Comments »

John said,

July 17, 2007 at 2:03 pm

Cool idea. Recent arrivals really need a bilingual menu. You should include a printable PDF version.

Here are my thoughts on the idea.

Make sure to add # 饺子, 扬州炒饭, and 羊肉串.
Chris said,

July 17, 2007 at 4:27 pm

Excellent work so far. I would like to add 木须肉 (i think those characters are right), 肉末茄子 and 土豆丝, the dish which is also often the cheapest thing on the menu.

And an entire section on hot pot terminology would be really useful.
Jason said,

July 17, 2007 at 4:47 pm

Radical. I’ll be using this. (At least referencing it)
Keep it up. I’d love it if you were to add not-so-common dishes too. I, like many laowai with minimal Chinese skills, know all of these dishes far too well and am eager to expand my repertoire.

Also, as far as the 鱼香 variety goes, I’m gonna have to say 鱼香茄子 tops my list.
Jeremy Yeh said,

July 17, 2007 at 10:27 pm

wow,my mouth is waterin! starvin now…
btw,u r kinda focusin on sichuanese dishes,huh? what about local food,fukienese cuisine,they r fantastic too!
Michael Doo said,

July 17, 2007 at 11:01 pm

You should also include how to order delivery. I remember when I was living in Shanghai there were places that delivered but I had no clue what the correct dialogue should be.
danjo said,

July 17, 2007 at 11:06 pm

I like 苜蓿肉, and a wide variety of （什么什么）炒肉 with such unique vegetables as 木耳 and 蒜苔. It is mostly particular to northwestern China, especially Xinjiang and Gansu I believe, but 大盘鸡 goes over really well with foreigners. If someone opened a “Big Plate of Chicken” restaurant in an American college town I think it would be a big hit. And don’t forget 糖醋里脊; in my area (Gansu) we don’t have 菇老肉 and that is the only “sweet and sour pork,” one of the overall favorites.
Benjamin Ross said,

July 18, 2007 at 1:00 am

Danjo-
Good idea on delivery ordering dialogues…I’ll get to work on that. I have to say I totally agree with you on 大盘鸡. I ate that daily when I was in Xinjiang, and the name is so perfect…”big plate of chicken.” Definitely would be a late-night hit in American college towns. As for 菇老肉, we don’t have it either here in Fuzhou. Instead we have a similar dish called 荔枝肉 which is available in any Fuzhou restaurant, but I have yet to see it anywhere else. As far as I can discern, It’s pretty much the same thing as 菇老肉,
Alan said,

July 18, 2007 at 1:12 am

Dude, you are having too much fun! Can you do a picture and description on Buddha Jummping over the Wall? It’s supposed to be a Fuzhou dish, but I never saw it when I was living in Fuzhou in the early 80’s. In fact, I have never had it.
Peter said,

July 18, 2007 at 3:26 am

this is an awesome idea!
my wife needs pictures when i try to explain these dishes to her.
what about chrispy fried chicken? Chuy4 pi2 ji1
Laura Lee said,

July 18, 2007 at 9:55 am

Alan,

Please push Ben into bankruptcy — Buddha Jummping over the Wall could be very pricey. A good, authentic Buddha Jummping over the Wall costs over RMB 1000.
Laura Lee said,

July 18, 2007 at 10:48 am

I am sorry. I meant ” Please don’t push …”
G. T. Lin said,

July 18, 2007 at 11:00 am

大盘鸡, any similarities to Gen Tso’s Chicken?
Benjamin Ross said,

July 18, 2007 at 11:18 am

@Alan

Buddha Jumping Over the Wall (佛跳墙) is a quite famous dish here in Fuhzou, consisting of something like forty different kinds of exotic seafood all mixed together. I’ve had it once or twice at weddings, and would say it fits in the category of what I call “face food,” food that’s good, but not that great, and more than anything used as a way to impress your guests. Unless any fancy weddings come up soon, I probably won’t get the chance to photograph any, unless somebody wants to sponsor me…as Laura Lee mentioned, it is quite pricy.

@ G. T. Lin

大盘鸡 really isn’t anything like the legendary General Tso’s chicken. I really haven’t had anything too close to General Tso’s chicken in China before, and the Chinese don’t know what they are missing because General Tso sure cooks some mean chicken. However, last time I was in Shanghai, I noticed they had an “American Chinese Restaurant.” Anybody tried it out? Do they have General Tso’s chicken?
Darcy said,

July 18, 2007 at 1:07 pm

Great idea! I could’ve used it when I was living over there, heh.
MDC said,

July 18, 2007 at 1:56 pm

Ben-

Great idea, great site. I suggest slightly modifying the yu xiang rou si description–no need to scare off the uninitiated. I’ve heard that “yu xiang” sauce was originally used in a fish dish, hence “fish flavor” sauce. Now the sauce is more often served with pork or eggplant (So. Damn. Good.) and most definitely does not smell like any fish I have ever come across.

If you can, get a copy of the (very extensive) menu from the Xiao Wang Fu mini-chain in Beijing. It is like Chinese Food for Foreigners 101, and I dream of the day I will again eat their deep fried pai gu on a regular basis. Not to mention their gan bian si ji dou. And their la zi ji ding. And their zi ran yang rou. But I digress…
Benjamin Ross said,

July 18, 2007 at 2:43 pm

I’m a little curious what everybody thinks of the brightness of those photos. I took most of them without a flash, then adjusted them a bit using the curves function in photoshop. Unfortunately I am using a laptop with a screen that might be a bit dim, thus causing me to overcompensate in my adjustments. Also, how is the speed of the site? I saved the images at at a relatively high compression ratio (10 in Photoshop) to preserve detail. They load a little slow on my computer, but I think that may be due to my slow Internet connection. What do all y’all think? I’d like to get it right so I don’t have to readjust all of the photos at a later date. Thanks.
Anonymous said,

July 18, 2007 at 3:43 pm

要吃美食到扬州来啊。
zuraffo said,

July 19, 2007 at 1:25 am

I think the brightness is just right. The contrast could use a little aligning though.
Jason said,

July 19, 2007 at 4:10 am

Alright, here’s what you’ve got to do. Bust into a wedding in Fuzhou, feigning foreign reporter status, snap a picture of the ‘Buddha Jumpkicking the Wall’ dish, and there’s your shot. This will quadruple the groom’s face and simultaneously get you the shot.
I hereby volunteer by boom skills.
pubed said,

July 19, 2007 at 4:51 pm

nice food
Jet So said,

July 20, 2007 at 8:24 pm

How about another notable local dish of Fuzhou:红糟鸡 (hong zao ji) – Red Vinasse Chicken. That was quite a popular dish of Fuzhou natives back in my grandmother’s time (i.e. Pre-Liberation times). Is that dish (and/or its variants) still around?
Benjamin Ross said,

July 21, 2007 at 2:43 am

@Jet So

Never heard of 红糟鸡 but it’s possible it’s still around with a different name. I was thumbing through the food section of my Berlitz Chinese guide earlier which appears to have been written in the early 90’s/late 80’s and I have never even heard of most of the dishes listed in the recommendations. So maybe names/trends change over time. It would be interesting for somebody to do a historical analysis of Chinese food.
Jenn said,

July 22, 2007 at 2:37 pm

Awesome idea!

I’d suggest adding 龙虾, since everyone is crazy about them right now. At least in Central China. You can order them with various types of flavoring too. Guests I’ve had here really like to get them since you really only eat them in Louisiana in the US (I think?). Plus, my Chinese friends who speak English always call them Lobsters, which is confusing.

Others that are typical, at least where I am, 蒜泥黄瓜，蒜泥生菜，兰州牛肉面，牛肉粉丝汤，鸭血粉丝汤，麻辣豆腐，糖酸里皆 (last character might be wrong, jie, but I think this is the closest to any American Chinese, General Tsao’s minus sesame seeds, maybe a mix with Sweet and Sour chicken. Here it usually has no bones, but may also be mostly breading.)

There is an amazing Macanese restaurant in Nanjing that has great wings, seasoned shrimp, noodles, everything basically. Oh and Amazing 西米露 (also not sure on the characters for this one, ximilu).

Also, there is a woman in China now on a Fulbright (or maybe a Fulbright Hayes, some sort grant) doing some historical research on food. I doubt she has a site up, but I’ll see if I can find anything. If I do, I’ll send a link.
Benjamin Ross said,

July 22, 2007 at 9:05 pm

Jenn-
Thanks for the suggestions. To clear things up a bit, 龙虾 is the Chinese word for lobster. But I think what you guys were probably eating were 小龙虾, what we would call crayfish. I remember they were the big rage when I was in Hunan last May Day. We have them here in Fuzhou too, but they aren’t as popular. Not really sure why because they are damn tasty.
Ben
Sandy said,

October 14, 2007 at 5:20 am

Great idea. I had such a list back in 2004 when I went to China, it was almost life saving. Now I’m leaving within a week to China again and can’t find the list on Internet anymore.
It was a list with a picture of the dish + chinese characters + pin yin + english translation. I just showed my card and pointed out the dish I liked and it worked perfectly.
Good luck!
j richter said,

January 6, 2008 at 12:38 pm

AWESEOME idea for the food challenged lao wai.
I spent 2 years in Asia and fell in love with lots of things I can’t get over here. I usually ate street food from local vendors and avoided sit-down places.

Things that might be great for beginners would be shao qie zi (spicy eggplant), ma po tofu or even ma la tofu, west lake beef soup (xi hu ni rou geng), cold salad (ban hua cai). then there are all the dishes I forget since then …. I just wish people would be more adventuresome when they travel and eat. Chinese food in China/Taiwan/HK is so different from the restaurants here.
Melissik said,

May 2, 2008 at 1:36 pm

One afternoon, I was in the backyard hanging the laundry when an old, tired-looking dog wandered into the yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home. But when I walked into the house, he followed me, sauntered down the hall and fell asleep in a corner. An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out. The next day he was back. He resumed his position in the hallway and slept for an hour.
This continued for several weeks. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: “Every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap. ”
The next day he arrived with a different note pinned to his collar: “He lives in a home with ten children – he’s trying to catch up on his sleep.”

I cried from laughter
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