Chinese
Har Gow (Crystal Shrimp Dumplings)
The Cantonese dim sum whose wrapper you can see the shrimp through. The translucency is not a technique but an ingredient: only wheat starch, with the gluten washed out, turns clear as it steams. Plain flour gives you a white dumpling skin no matter what you do to it.
Dan Dan Noodles (Sichuan Noodles in Chilli-Sesame Sauce)
Sichuan noodles built over a spoonful of sauce — sesame paste, soy and chilli oil sitting in the bottom of the bowl — with dry-fried minced pork on top, tossed at the table. It is not a soup: the sauce goes under the noodles rather than over them, and that arrangement is the dish.
Guobaorou (Crisp Sweet-and-Sour Pork Slices)
Wide slices of pork in a potato-starch batter, fried twice and tossed for ten seconds in a syrup of reduced sugar and vinegar. No starch slurry goes into that sauce — the point that separates it from Korean tangsuyuk, and the reason the coating stays crisp as it cools.
Mala Xiang Guo (Dry Spicy Stir-Fried Pot)
The same ingredients as malatang, stir-fried instead of simmered. Everything is blanched or fried dry first and then tossed over high heat for well under a minute, so the chilli oil and spices coat the food directly rather than sitting in a broth.
Peking Duck (Lacquered Roast Duck with Pancakes)
A whole duck scalded to tighten the skin, painted with maltose water, dried for a day and then roasted, so the skin shatters like glass inside a thin pancake. The crispness comes from the drying, not the roasting — with moisture left on the surface, no oven setting saves it from turning to leather.
Huoguo (Sichuan Mala Hot Pot)
The Sichuan and Chongqing hot pot: a red broth built by frying doubanjiang and whole spices slowly in beef fat, then used to cook whatever you dip in it. Frying the bean paste long and gently without scorching it, and adding the peppercorns last, are what keep the heat and the numbing separate.
Char Siu (BBQ Pork)
Cantonese barbecue pork (siu) marinated in a sweet-savory glaze and roasted until glossy and lightly charred. Tender inside with that signature red sheen, it is sliced over rice and noodles or piled onto ramen.
Chow Mein
Chinese stir-fried noodles — boiled noodles tossed over high heat with vegetables and meat in a glossy soy-based sauce, laced with smoky wok flavor. A 15-minute one-pan dish that's perfect for clearing out the vegetable drawer.
Orange Chicken
American-Chinese favorite: crispy fried chicken tossed in a glossy sweet-and-sour orange sauce of orange juice, soy, sugar, and vinegar. Crunchy on the outside, sticky-glazed all over — irresistible over a bowl of rice.
Hong Shao Rou (Red-Braised Pork Belly)
Pork belly braised low and slow in caramel and soy until red and glossy — one of China's most-loved dishes. The fat melts to a silky jelly and the meat turns tender, all wrapped in a sweet-savory sauce made for rice.
Beef and Broccoli
Thin-sliced beef and crisp broccoli stir-fried fast in a glossy oyster-sauce glaze — the Chinese takeout classic. Piled over rice it's a full meal, and a cornstarch marinade makes the beef remarkably tender.
Yuxiang Eggplant (Fish-Fragrant Eggplant)
A Sichuan dish of tender eggplant tossed with garlic, ginger, and doubanjiang in a sweet-sour-spicy 'yuxiang' sauce. 'Fish-fragrant' refers to the garlic-ginger-scallion aroma, not fish — superb over rice.
Kung Pao Chicken
A Sichuan stir-fry of diced chicken with peanuts and dried chilies in a sweet-savory-tangy sauce. Premix the sauce and it's a 20-minute wok dish — superb over rice.
Egg Fried Rice
The foundation of Chinese fried rice — made from just day-old rice and eggs. Stir-fry the grains loose over high heat, coat them in egg, and finish with soy and scallion. Add whatever's in the fridge for endless variations; the easiest, most satisfying meal.
Tomato & Egg Stir-fry
China's everyday home dish made with just tomato and egg. Fluffy scrambled egg meets sweet-tangy tomato, perfect spooned over rice. Few ingredients, minimal technique — in China it's often the first dish people learn to cook.
Xiaolongbao (Shanghai Soup Dumplings)
Shanghai-style soup dumplings — a thin wrapper enclosing pork filling and a 'stock jelly' that melts into hot broth as they steam. Bite in and the soup bursts out, which is why they're called soup dumplings. Eaten with slivered ginger and black vinegar.
Malatang (Spicy Numbing Soup)
Chinese build-your-own spicy-numbing soup — pick your ingredients and simmer them in a mala broth of Sichuan peppercorn, doubanjiang, and chili oil. Load it with sweet-potato noodles, bok choy, meat, and mushrooms; today's hottest bowl.
Mapo Tofu
China's classic Sichuan dish — tofu and minced meat simmered in a fiery doubanjiang sauce fried until red, finished with tongue-tingling Sichuan peppercorn. Spoon it over rice and a bowl disappears.