sour sweet bitter spicy

Appetite for China posted this list of the 100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die. Time to prove my mettle. Crossed out are the foods I’ve eaten before.

1. Almond milk
2. Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
3. Asian pear
4. Baby bok choy ♥
5. Baijiu
6. Beef brisket
7. Beggar’s Chicken
8. Bingtang hulu ♥ in the summer in Beijing they have a restaurant version of this, usually candied apples or bananas. they’re sooo good. a must-try if you’re ever in beijing.
   
9. Bitter melon
10. Bubble tea ♥
11. Buddha’s Delight
12. Cantonese roast duck ♥♥♥♥♥
13. Century egg, or thousand-year egg ♥
14. Cha siu (Cantonese roast pork)
15. Char kway teow ♥
16. Chicken feet
17. Chinese sausage
18. Chow mein
19. Chrysanthemum tea ♥
20. Claypot rice
21. Congee ♥♥♥
22. Conpoy (dried scallops) ♥♥
23. Crab rangoon
24. Dan Dan noodles
25. Dragonfruit
26. Dragon’s Beard candy
27. Dried cuttlefish
28. Drunken chicken
29. Dry-fried green beans ♥
30. Egg drop soup
31. Egg rolls
32. Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese
33. Fresh bamboo shoots
34. Fortune cookies
35. Fried milk ♥ mostly in the gulab jamun Indian version
36. Fried rice ♥ properly done!
37. Gai lan (Chinese broccoli) ♥
38. General Tso’s Chicken
39. Gobi Manchurian
40. Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
41. Grass jelly ♥
42. Hainan chicken rice
43. Hand-pulled noodles ♥
44. Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers)
45. Haw flakes ♥
46. Hibiscus tea ♥
47. Hong Kong-style Milk Tea ♥
48. Hot and sour soup
49. Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger -> i need to order this next time i go to a HK cafe. it sounds really good.
50. Hot Pot ♥
51. Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
52. Jellyfish ♥
53. Kosher Chinese food that shouldn’t even be called Chinese food shudders
54. Kung Pao Chicken ♥
55. Lamb skewers (yangrou chua’r) ♥♥♥♥ one of the best parts about beijing
56. Lion’s Head meatballs
57. Lomo Saltado
58. Longan fruit
59. Lychee ♥
60. Macaroni in soup with Spam
61. Malatang
62. Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk ♥♥♥ HELL YEAH
63. Mapo Tofu ♥♥♥
64. Mock meat
65. Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety) pretty sure i’ve had the snow skin variety ♥
66. Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf) usually pork
67. Pan-fried jiaozi ♥
68. Peking duck ♥♥♥♥
69. Pineapple bun ♥
70. Prawn crackers
71. Pu’er tea
72. Rambutan
73. Red bean in dessert form ♥♥♥
74. Red bayberry
75. Red cooked pork
76. Roast pigeon ♥♥♥ i assume they mean quail
77. Rose tea ♥♥♥♥
78. Roujiamo
79. Scallion pancake
80. Shaved ice dessert ♥♥
81. Sesame chicken
82. Sichuan pepper in any dish
83. Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai) ♥♥
84. Silken tofu
85. Soy milk, freshly made ♥
86. Steamed egg custard
87. Stinky tofu ♥♥♥♥♥
88. Sugar cane juice ♥
89. Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
90. Taro
91. Tea eggs ♥
92. Tea-smoked duck ♥
93. Turnip cake (law bok gau) ♥
94. Twice-cooked pork ♥
95. Water chestnut cake (mati gau) ♥
96. Wonton noodle soup
97. Wood ear ♥♥
98. Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) ♥♥♥♥
99. Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style) ♥
100. Yunnan goat cheese sad that i haven’t tried this yet. looks so good. cheese and chinese food? unheard of! (unless you’re in HK which … as a former british colony, doesn’t really count)

okay, i think i’m qualified to write this blog. woohoo! it’s funny how i’ve had so much stuff on this list but i never knew what they were called or how to make them. i think i’ll try to cook my way through this list (the recipes i can make anyway).

i have a lot more to expound on the items on this list so look for it in future blogs. AfC put together a great list. although i’m wary of classifying some of the American-Chinese dishes on the list as “Chinese food.”