Authentic real deal Chinese food

Wolfetone · August 2018

In the last twelve months been to USA (x4), New Zealand, South Africa, France (x2), Germany (x2) and now it's the trip I'm dreading (food wise) .... China.

I like the people, don't mind the travel and am interested in the culture but I have also heard tales of what is eaten. I have also heard that the etiquette is that the hosts choose what the guests eat.....

merlin · August 2018

I've been to Beijing, Shanghai and Urumqi (and surrounding towns and villages). Didn't have a single bad meal anywhere. Some were less good that others, but none were bad.

There is a really huge amount of regional variation across China, from hot/numbing Szechuan, to delicate Fujian.
Good luck and enjoy! There's plenty of bad press about authentic real deal Chinese food, but I loved it.

Kilgore · August 2018

Authentic Chinese chips are delicious, much better than the westernised takeaway version you get here.

Jez6345789 · August 2018

Yes and if they are anything like my old supplier they like to bring you the live snake, bull testicles ETC to see if you are man enough for the job. If only to laugh at you if you decline but its always been good-humoured. 10 years ago I lived on Pot Noodle these days it's better and you can find stuff you sort of recognise. That said out of politeness we sat and ate the prepared workers lunches for those assembling our booth at the trade show last year as they offered and that seemed to involve avoiding a lot of things on the tray I recognised the chicken so dug into that only to find it full off small shards of razor-sharp smashed chicken bones which they liked to spit.

But its all good and most hotels have western type food if it all gets too much.

As much as I like to travel and enjoy the culture I still struggle with China its just too far off my radar of tastes.

regards JEZ

merlin · August 2018

Oh, forgot to say. When I was working at the Shanghai Expo (loved going to Shanghai, it's where my grandfather was born) we all stayed at the Westin Shanghai, right on the Bund, they had a huge slap-up western breakfast with fried bread, bacon, sausages, eggs, hash browns, smoked salmon etc etc, which the French team tucked into like it was their last meal. I snuck into the Chinese breakfast area and helped myself to the congee, which was truly excellent.

cpcompany · August 2018

Been to Beijing and the only bad meal I had was he breakfast in the hotel of the national stadium. No idea what they served us but it was inedible, and I can eat pretty much anything. I had peking duck the night before in the stadiums restaurant and it was amazing.

the only bother I had was when I ate Chinese dumplings and the waitress poured my dip away because I was eating it Japanese style, and they wanted me to eat it with just vinegar as a dip.

cpcompany · August 2018

The scorpions on sticks in the market was slightly freaky. Didn’t fancy trying one even for the novelty factor

Ossyrocks · August 2018

I spent two weeks working in Shanghai in 1995. When we were left alone to choose what to eat, we had some fantastic meals. When we went out with the hosts for corporate hospitality, we got some quite challenging dishes put in front of us. 1000 year old eggs, pickled jellyfish, huge and barely cooked black carp, three foot long eels etc. I even saw prawns that were still alive and so frisky they were jumping out of the dish onto the table.

We we quickly learned that if you’re going to eat meat, order “shredded” of any variety. There’s a chance it will be cooked. Also, ask for rice up front, it took us three days before we got any because it was on the dessert menu!

I didn’t get an upset stomach at all, but I did lose half a stone.

Good luck!

Rob

EricTheWeary · August 2018

My bro in law worked in China a couple of years ago ( building trains) and the company put him up in a hotel and it seems to have been very ordinary western style hotel food.
I had a mate who travelled a lot around China and he loved the food but he’d done his research and this was 20+ years ago so I guess it wasn’t as westernised. He was a fairly strict vegetarian so I’m sure he wasn’t eating bull testicles - lot of veg,noodles, tofu.

scrumhalf · August 2018

I was in China in 2003, and the food was almost always good.

That included a dumpling house in Xian where there was no English menu for tourists and we just pointed to what other people had. I have an easily upset digestive system but the Immodium remained unopened for the month I was there.

Emp_Fab · August 2018

Oh dude......

You're gonna be eating stir-fried cat's penises and minced bear paws drizzled in goat's jizz.

Take some pot noodles.

merlin · August 2018

Emp_Fab said:

Take some pot noodles.

Don't bother, you'll get loads on offer over there. On the flight back from Beijing there were stacks of them for the passengers to help themselves too. Instant noodle are REALLY popular over there

JDE · August 2018

You’ll be fine, don’t worry. You can get a shit meal in England, and don’t forget China is a billion times the size of here.
Go for:
Anything fried (obviously),
Fish or seafood “in general” (see avoid no. 2) - bold but will pay off,
All dumplings. All.
Anything cooked with tea.

Avoid:
Fermented/aged eggs.
Sea urchins. Forget it, even for a laugh.
Anything pickled apart from vegetables.
Just a personal tip but I would avoid cream/milk. I’d actually avoid all dairy tbh, but that’s more my stomach.

interstellar · August 2018

sea urchin is delicious ignore the above

boogieman · August 2018

We went to China earlier this year, the food was absolutely delicious. Imagine the best Chinese meal you’ve had in the U.K., but much nicer because it’s made with fresher ingredients.

axisus · August 2018

My friend went to China some years back doing mission stuff. He had a blast actually, he is something of an entertainer and they toured around orphanages making the kids happy, just with simple stuff - juggling, riding unicycles etc. The kids absolutely loved it, it was like the best thing ever for them, which I guess is rather sad in one way. Anyway, he said that he was told that people would get offended if you didn't eat what they offered you, he even ate Sheep's eyeball! Fortunately he is a person who will eat absolutely anything food wise. I remember him eating a whole lemon once, peel and all.

boogieman · August 2018

JDE said:

You’ll be fine, don’t worry. You can get a shit meal in England, and don’t forget China is a billion times the size of here.
Go for:
Anything fried (obviously),
Fish or seafood “in general” (see avoid no. 2) - bold but will pay off,
All dumplings. All.
Anything cooked with tea.

Avoid:
Fermented/aged eggs.
Sea urchins. Forget it, even for a laugh.
Anything pickled apart from vegetables.
Just a personal tip but I would avoid cream/milk. I’d actually avoid all dairy tbh, but that’s more my stomach.

You hardly see dairy food out there. Milk seems to be more for tourists. One of my friends, who travels in the Far East a lot for work, told me that the Chinese think westerners are really odd for eating yogurt and cheese and that we smell of stale milk to them.

57Deluxe · August 2018

/\ that's OK - with their rotten teeth they actually smell of acetylene which is a putrifying gas emitted in the tooth decay

RaymondLin · August 2018

The Chinese eat a lot of Pork and Chicken and vegetables, steamed bread etc. Dumplings, noodles, stir fried pork, steamed fish, tofu.

There will be few diary or cheese base food and actually coffee is really good…the reason is that tea is very popular so tea is like our instant coffee whereas they make coffee like a speciality so almost all coffee are really good there.

The weird stuff are there but you got to look for it and ask for it.

This is like the stereotype of Japanese food is all about Sushi, in actual fact the japanese eat sushi about once a month.

midlifecrisis · August 2018

is it still true that the chinese definition of fast food is a greyhound?

merlin · August 2018

midlifecrisis said:

is it still true that the chinese definition of fast food is a greyhound?

No, this is the kind of thing that Phil the Greek would say.

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Authentic real deal Chinese food

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