干煸牛肉丝 Spicy Fried Beef Jerky

Pinyin: Gān Biān Niú Ròu Sī

I love beef jerky and I who doesn't love fried food, so put them together and it's a match made in heaven, a Chinese food heaven.

Judging by the spicy nature of this dish and the meat involved I'd have to say it's a Si Chuan dish. Oh yah, and the fact that I ordered it from a Si Chuan restaurant. Mind you though, it isn't that spicy, just enough to be flavorful.

Doesn't the meat look so nice and tender, LOL, it's not at all, it's a bit crunchy which is kind of a welcome change. It's not often that one has crunchy meat. So as a change from the norm and a pretty taste food regardless, this dish has become one of the ones I feel good returning back to.

手播笋 Sweet Pickled Bamboo

Pinyin: Shǒu Buō Suǎn

China is known for their bamboo, it really does permeate all aspects of life and as pictured it permeates into food as well.

You are looking at pieces of bamboo that have been sweet pickled, or something pretty close to that. I ate this at a Shanghainese restaurant and I have reason to believe it is in fact a Shanghai food. As most Shanghai food goes, it is a little sweet. This isn't like an American sweet pickle though, it's not as sweet and of course the flavor is a bit different, better, honestly.

Served cold as an appetizer, you only eat the insides, the hearts, so to speak. Everything that you see in this picture, you don't eat. The stuff you are looking at is tough, and as soon as it is in your mouth you know it isn't for eating.

Oddly enough I went to the grocery store last night and found this same stuff for sale in the refrigerated section.

海鲜锅巴 Sweet and Sour Shrimp over Rice Cakes

Pinyin: Hǎi Xiān Guō Bā

Every once in awhile you run across one of those dishes that you just think to yourself "damn this is pretty good", well this is one of them!

I just recently got back from a trip to Wu Hu in Anhui province and I witnessed some old guys making these rice cakes. I didn't get to see the whole process, but it involved cool cook wear and lots of oil, so I was pretty excited to actually be eating them.

And I was delighted when they poured shrimp in sweet and sour sauce over these rice cakes to make this particular bit of Shanghai cuisine. The rice cakes remained pretty crisp throughout the meal and the sweet and sour wasn't too overpowering. I just wish there were more shrimp.

脆皮豆腐 Sweet and Sour Tofu

Pinyin: Cuì Pí Dòu Fǔ

This dish could almost be mistaken for American Chinese food, except that it's made of tofu and not meat.

It's the classic sweet and sour style, it's just that it uses chunks of tofu that have been battered and fried. The tofu isn't overpowering and it's a refreshing change to find a dish so close to the American imitation.

Seems kind of funny actually that the USA would imitate something made in China. It's the 180 degree opposite almost all the other times.

葱姜百叶 Onion and Ginger Tripe

Pinyin: Cōng Jiāng Niú Bǎi Yè

How the times have changed. There was a time where I wouldn't touch cow stomach in any form. I laughed at just the prospect of someone eating tripe. These days however I know that cows have several stomachs and depending on the stomach the meat is a little different. The tripe used in this dish according to the Cook's Thesaurus is called Honeycomb tripe and comes from the second stomach of the cow.

So here are the facts of this dish. It's a cold one, an appetizer of sorts, that mixes the tripe with spring onions and ginger, lots and lots of ginger. It's decent enough, not my favorite, but decent nonetheless, and the ginger is extremely strong so you better be a fan.

芝麻牛肉 Fried Beef with Sesame Seeds

Pinyin: Zhī Ma Niú Ròu

Fried, battered, beef. Totally reminds me of chicken fingers but made of beef. They even gave us ketchup to dip them in which was totally weird. I've never been at a Chinese restaurant no matter how shoddy where they actually served us Chinese food with ketchup. I almost cracked up on the spot.

I'm not sure that this is a traditional sort of dish, I seriously doubt it in fact, but it is at least pretty American and if you are into fast food you'll undoubtedly have a taste for this.

The sesame seeds, BTW, are just hanging out there to break up the monotony of greasy brown fried batter.

酸辣白菜 Sour and Spicy Cabbage

Pinyin: Suān Là Bái Cài

A way way spicy version of a classic dish. This dish normally is a bit less red and has a bit fewer peppers.

But the fact of the matter is, nearly every take on this dish is good. It's so basic and as such is more or less a staple of home style Chinese food.

I've actually made this dish a few times so I'll attempt a recipe here:

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups of cabbage cut into pieces
• 10-12 peppercorns
• 3-4 dried chili peppers
• 1-2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
  
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• pinch of julienned ginger
• salt

Steps:

1. Sprinkle salt over the cabbage and let it set for about ten minutes. It's important that the salt touches as much of the cabbage as possible, it's intended simple to extract some of the water from the cabbage.
2. Mix the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, salt and cornstarch together in a small bowl with a bit of water.
3. Pour the excess water out of the cabbage
4. Put a few tablespoons of oil in a wok and set it over high heat.
5. Add the peppercorns and dried chili peppers to the hot oil and cook for about twenty seconds.
6. Add the cabbage to the hot wok and stir the cabbage in with the oil.
7. After several minutes and the cabbage is cooked, add the mixture in the bowl to the wok and continue to stir.
8. Remove from heat and place into a bowl for serving.

You'll notice right away that your mixture looks significantly less red and significantly more brown. That's the lack of chili sauce and the addition of soy sauce.

So give it a try and tell me what you think.

蒜泥百肉 Steamed Pork with Garlic

Pinyin: Suàn Ní Bái Ròu

Meat, my oh my what a tasty site. I have to be thankful for the little pleasures a dish like this brings to me in Shanghai. For you see, this meat is exquisitely flavored, it only has a small bit of fat attached, the garlic, peanuts and cilantro are balanced nicely, and the clincher for me is that this dish is completely bone free.

After so many meals spent chewing around, through and over bones it is refreshing to just simply eat a piece of meat with total disregard.

I highly recommend this dish, not just for the lack of bones, but because of the taste. Served as an appetizer it seemed to set the tone for the entire meal, which turned out to be tasty.

皮蛋豆腐 Tofu with Century Egg

Pinyin: Pí Dàn Dòu Fu

Raise your hand if you wanna munch down on six month old eggs, OK how about three month old? Well ya even I wouldn't raise my hand, but that's exactly what you get when you order this dish.

Century Eggs have been cured and aged for over one month, they've turned green and smell of ammonia. Wikipedia has an in depth article on them here.

Honestly in a dish like this they aren't all that bad. They add a slight flavor, but it's good, I usually steer clear of eating too much of the actual egg pieces and I thoroughly enjoy this dish.

It's an appetizer of sorts served nearly everywhere, it could be considered vegetarian, and asking a vegetarian to eat a three month old egg might be amusing. This dish is actually interesting because it's one of the few dishes actually served cold, the colder the better IMHO.

公鸡煲 Cock Pot

Pinyin: Gōng Jī Bǎo

Beer, the saving grace of this meal. It's a damn shame actually cause the chicken was so tasty. A little spicy and well marinated even though it I spent a good portion of the meal fishing through chicken bones.

Likealocal has an in depth review of one of these restaurants here.

After you get done eating the chicken, it more or less turns into a hot pot where you can add various vegetables, tofu, meats, etc. It's a good idea in theory except that the napalm keeping it warm just isn't capable of actual cooking.

Unfortunately all of the cooking happened so freakin slow that what should have been a twenty minute meal turned into an hour long meal, and instead of one beer turned into three, which honestly wasn't all that bad.

纸锅鱿鱼 Paper Pot Spicy Squid

Pinyin: Zhǐ Guō Yóu Yú

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning." If this is you, you'll get a kick out of this dish. From above it looks like an unassuming dish of food, but what you can't see is the plate of napalm sitting underneath it.

Almost every time I go for dinner at a decent to good restaurant in Shanghai I end up with fire on the table. It seems to be quite the norm that the primary dish on the table is being heated/cooked while it's on the table.

This one is some spicy squid in a paper pot (i.e. the white accordion looking thing). I believe it's a Hunan style dish, and frankly it's pretty damn good. I'm a huge fan of squid and octopus in all its forms.

On a side note though one time I was eating some squid I chomped down on a tiny tiny piece of the beak of the squid and crack goes my tooth. After several trips to the dentist, a lot of drilling, and a fair bit of pain, I now have a gold crown on that tooth!

糟毛豆 Wine Soaked Soy Beans

Pinyin: Zāo Máo Dòu

This is a beer food if ever there was beer food in China. It's quite simply soybeans soaked in Chinese wine and then served up cold.

Now of course you don't eat the pods, you just suck out the beans inside and spit the pods onto the plate. Flipping them around with your chopsticks can be a challenging feat and fun too!

The term Zāo actually refers to foods being soaked in Chinese wine and is a traditional Shanghai style of cooking. It's also possible to find chicken, chicken feet, and sliced meat in this same style.

I've heard that people from outside of Shanghai aren't too fond of this style of cooking, and I must admit the first time or two I had it I wasn't impressed, but since then it's grown on me a bit and I rather enjoy it now.

什锦菌菇汤 Mushroom Soup Medly

Pinyin: Shí Jǐn Mó Gū Tāng

Mushrooms galore! I do love mushrooms and consequently this soup is mighty tasty. There are at least three types of mushrooms in here, I think there might even be four or five and that broth is phenomenal, I don't know what it was made out of but WOW.

The one drawback is those little white MSG laden balls of fish, crab, and other. I'm just not a huge fan of MSG so anytime I can avoid it I try, if you feel the same way, you best be avoiding those little white balls. Think of them as round hot dogs made from fish or crab or something else. And remember in China feet, heads, gizzards, and the like are all delicacies so I'm curious exactly what is left over to make these little balls.

蒜香骨 Garlic Fried Pork Ribs

Pinyin: Suàn Xiāng Gǔ

Who doesn't love ribs! Granted they aren't barbecued baby back ribs, but beggars can't be choosers. The way I see it, actually getting a full rib is a small miracle.

This is a tantalizing dish. Normally only chicken is deep fried. Deep fried ribs are a bit out of the ordinary, but what really makes these shine, and makes the grease dripping from them worthwhile is the fact that they must have been coated/marinated in garlic before being fried, and my oh my what a wonderfully garlicky delight.

松仁玉米 Corn with Pine Nuts

Pinyin: Sōng Rén Yù Mǐ

A lovely concoction of corn (with accessories, peas and carrots) and pine nuts. That's right pine nuts, they might rarely be eaten in the West, but in China where everything is fair to eat, pine nuts are fairly normal.

I'd have to say this could almost pass for a Western dish, and certainly it's a safe dish for almost everyone to eat. I will say though that eating corn with chopsticks is quite the challenge and even chopstick experts eventually revert to using the old fashioned soup spoon.

豆瓣菌菇炒虾仁 Broad Beans and Mushroom Stir Fry with Shrimmp

Pinyin: Dòu Bàn Jūn Gū Chǒu Xiā Rén

This dish goes along the lines of good concept, poor results. Everyone says it looks good. It seems good, it's got shrimp and mushrooms, just a few peppers to add spice.

But in the end I'd have to say it just falls down with those beans. See how damn big they are, nearly the size of my thumb, and when you bite into them it's like biting into a mushy old bean.

Get smaller beans and I'll be back to try this one again, but until then you can keep it all to yourself.

白椒炒鸡杂 White Pepper and Chicken Bits Stir Fry

Pinyin: Bái Jiāo Chǎo Jī Zá

Mmmm chicken bits. Hearts and livers and intestines and gizzards (I'm not even sure what gizzards are), mix them all up, add a few spices and peppers and you have a surprisingly good dish.

That's right it's good, not just a "not bad" kind of good but an honest to goodness order it again kind of good. I never really thought I'd find myself saying this, but chicken intestines and duck intestines are good. Can't say I care much for pork intestines, but if it's coming from a bird it' a different texture, certainly smaller, and has a better taste about it.

Oh remember I said they added peppers to this dish, yah well they are hot, damn hot. I was sweating while eating this dish. It was a paltry 35 degrees outside, but I doubt that had anything to do with it.

青椒豆腐干 Green Pepper and Tofu Stir Fry

Pinyin: Qīn Jiāo Dòu Fǔ Gān

I used to consider green peppers in the same category as brusssel sprouts, and that's the category of absolutely disgusting vegetables to be avoided at all costs, but lately I haven't been so repulsed by them.

For instance this dish is vegetarian seeing as how it's just got peppers and tofu, and I actually like it. It's got some spicy red peppers in there, but that's just for a little flavor it's not sweating spicy.

The particular tofu used in this dish is called dou fu gan (豆腐干). It's basically pressed and dried, or dried and pressed. This tofu isn't "mushy" like some people think of tofu and it's really quite useful in stir fry dishes and the like.

剁椒鱼头 Mashed Pepper Fish Head

Pinyin: Duò Jiāo Yú Tóu


The first time you see a dish like this it might be a little startling, it was for me, and then the next thing that races through your mind is "What in the hell we're gonna eat fish head, there isn't anything on a fish head worth eating".

But in actuality this dish is pretty damn good, and there's a surprising bit of meat on this particular fish head.

I don't know what kind of fish this is, something big obviously. The head has been slit down the middle starting at the top of the head going down to just the lower jaw and then spliced open and laid out. The peppers aren't spicy at all, they just add flavor and it's not the awful flavor from bell peppers either.

凉拌金针菇 Golden Straw Mushrooms with Sesame Oil

Pinyin: Liáng Bàn Jīn Zhēn Gū

This one's good, but you've gotta know I'm a fan of mushrooms (even if they aren't magic).

I've only ever had this dish at one restaurant and I'm sure it's widely available. It's basically these long white stringy kind of mushrooms called Jin Zhen Gu (金针菇) with diced scallions and mixed cooked in sesame oil. The few times I've had it, it's always been served warm, not hot yet not cold. I'm not sure how they cook it, once in the morning and then left out all day or cooked on demand and then cooled before served or some other method.

I looked up the mushrooms on Google or Wikipedia and turns out they have several English names, but looks like the most common is Golden Straw Mushrooms. They may look like straw but are more white than golden. One thing they didn't mention on Wikipedia is that these things are stringy and a little chewy, more than once I've tried to eat them too fast and nearly choked on them. It seems to me the most popular place to find these mushrooms is either in hot pot or soup, actual food dishes seem to be rather rare.

家常豆腐 Homestyle Tofu

Pinyin: Jiā Cháng Dòu Fǔ

Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of my favorite dishes. The way I see it, it has almost everything good mixed up together into one pretty damn fine dish.

First you've got your tofu, a kind of firm/fried tofu, then you've got chunks of pork, some mushrooms, and then it's all mixed up and cooked in a sweet and spicy kind of sauce.

It's not vegetarian, but it's got plenty of tofu. It'll keep carnivores satisfied cause it's got meat. It's spicy enough to keep things interesting, but sweet enough you won't break into a sweat. If you can't tell I love this dish and thankfully it can be ordered at nearly every Chinese restaurant worth it's weight in rice.

肥肠鱼 Spicy Fish and Intestines

Pinyin: Féi Cháng Yú

There's nothing better than intestines in the morning! Except of course intestines at night, oh my god, wait, wait, I've been in China too long cause that just can't be right.

So what do you get when you have pieces of bony fish, pig intestines, lots of hot peppers, and far too much oil. No it's not deep fried anything, instead it's spicy fish and intestines more or less boiled together with a nice thick layer of chili's and oil.

Ya so I'm harping on this pretty hard, but it's really out of love. I do like this dish, granted I sift through the intestines and just go for the fish, but really it is a damn good dish that certainly deserves a try or two or three. But do remember there are bones in that there fish so chew wisely, of course, you could always go for the boneless, skinless intestines.

苦瓜肉片 Stir Fried Bitter Melon and Pork

Pinyin: Kǔ Guā Ròu Piàn

Oh my this one is a real doozy. People either love it or hate it. I'm more of a hater, but coming around to the tolerating side of things. It's the damn bitter melon (the green stuff) that makes this dish just so.

Bitter melon looks like a cucumber gone wrinkled, but tastes like sucking on an aspirin. It is one of the most bitter things I've tasted and for the most part I can't stand it. According to Chinese traditional medicine the bitterness has a cooling effect on the body which is especially good during the summer, ironically that's precisely when this vegetable is in season.

While I may have a hate relationship with this vegetable, your Chinese friends will probably feel the same way, but entice you to eat it at least once. Like everything in life I recommend you try it at least once and choose to hate it all on your own.

什锦豆腐 Tofu Medley

Pinyin: Shí Jǐn Dòu Fǔ

Well I contemplated not blogging about this dish because it's not something I recommend. I've had decent versions of this dish, but this one isn't at all. It's got loads of MSG, is far too slimy even for me, and it's got no flavor to speak of.

If you are really interested in it, as you can see it's just tofu, carrots, and peas. Occasionally other things are added, say shrimp or bits of meat.

I guess if you are a fan of tofu give it a try, it's possible you'll like it, but don't get your hopes up. The name shen jing dou fu simply means that it's tofu with everything else, so it's usually composed of all the stuff that's just laying around in the fridge.

香菜拌素鸡 Chopped Cilantro and Suji

Pinyin: Xiāng Cài Bàn Sù Jī

I've only ever eaten this dish once, but damn was it good. It's so simple its stupid. It amounts to sliced suji, cilantro, and sesame oil all mixed together, no cooking involved.

When I had it, it was served not cold, but not hot either, just sort of room temperature. It was one of the first dishes on the table and was just an appetizer.

Suji is something I've only ever seen in China and if you want it you'll probably have to hit up an Asian grocery store, or just come to China. It's a sort of tofu and you'll sometimes see it translate as vegetarian chicken or duck. Suji is made by tightly rolling layers of tofu film together and working a little magic (I don't know the full process and it's damn hard to find on Google).

酸辣黄瓜 Sour and Spicy Cucumber

Pinyin: Suān Là Huáng Guā

This is one variation of a classic Chinese dish which you can order at nearly every Chinese restaurant. It's simply chopped up uncooked cucumbers, but it's not just that, it's got lots of diced garlic and in this case lots of spicy oil.

Chances are if you've been in China very long you've undoubtedly eaten this particular dish. It's usually the first dish that comes onto the table and is eaten almost like an appetizer.