We have put together this guide to make ordering Chinese food a much easier task, as we have compiled many of their dishes and recipes
This year the rooster is playing. And in her honor we have made a wonderful guide that will help you the next times you decide to order Chinese food in a restaurant.
Which by the way, in case anyone doubts it, what we here in the West understand by Chinese food has little to do with what the traditional cuisine of this country really is? The dishes that we can find in Chinese restaurants have been adapted to the tastes and customs of our culture.
In reality, the original Chinese people who live there do not usually eat a menu with first and second courses. The most common is to place plates in the center of the table and chop with chopsticks. Neither the three delights rice nor the spring rolls that we know here are the recipes that they usually prepare. Yes, it is true that rice is a basic dish in your kitchen and they usually accompany many of your dishes with this food. They also eat a lot of chicken and pork, as well as vegetables, and in one part of China, the cuisine has a distinctly spicy touch.
The dishes to order Chinese food that you will love
Beyond sweet and sour chicken or three delicacies fried rice, we find other typical dishes of Chinese cuisine. In fact, we can differentiate different gastronomic trends within China, among which the following stand out. On the one hand, Cantonese cuisine, in which fruits, seafood and sweet and smooth flavors prevail; also the Beijing cuisine, with products from the north of the country and more elaborate dishes, many of them prepared over low heat. On the other hand, we find Sichuan cuisine, in which spicy is the protagonist, and Hangzhou cuisine, with ancient recipes in which fish and vegetables are the main foods.
From all these trends we take the best dishes to order Chinese food in a restaurant with free delivery service. So you can innovate and ask for things that perhaps you had not asked before due to ignorance. You can find most of these dishes in Chinese food establishments outside of China, many of them in Chinese restaurants in Spain.
Starters and soups
Dim sum
Dim sum is a very typical dish in Chinese cuisine, which can be eaten for breakfast or as an aperitif, even in the middle of the afternoon. It is usually eaten with its most popular drink: tea.
It is a kind of small-sized buns that can be filled with various foods, such as meat, vegetables or fruits. When ordering Chinese food, it is an easy dish to find in many restaurants. They are usually prepared steamed, in most cases, although there is also the option of making them fried.
Spring rolls
One of the typical products of Chinese gastronomy that we know best in the West is spring rolls. Of course, with some nuances. The Chinese make this food through very fine dough of a paste that is prepared with wheat flour or rice flour. Here, in Spain and other western countries, it is common to find them with dough that includes another ingredient: the egg. In addition, we are used to finding them larger in size, while in China the size is smaller.
The filling is made from different very chopped vegetables, including carrots, onion, Chinese cabbage and bean sprouts. Meat and soy sauce are also added.
Shark fin soup
Shark soup is a dish that we can also find in many Chinese gastronomy establishments in our country. There they consider it a very special dish, which is usually served at celebrations and special events. It is something of a symbol of prestige and health.
In reality, the shark fin, the star of this dish, is quite tasteless and provides little nutritional value. In addition, there is usually a lot of controversy around the use of a part of the shark to make a plate of food. However, in Chinese cuisine it is highly valued, and they include chicken broth, mushrooms and pork in the soup to give it more flavor.
In eastern restaurants in the West, even in Spain, we can order Chinese food and choose shark soup in many establishments.
Jiaozi
Jiaozi are a type of Chinese dumplings very similar to gyozas, which we already talked about in our article dedicated to Japanese gastronomy.
They have thin dough and are filled with various foods, such as meat, vegetables or fish. They can be cooked in different ways: steamed, fried or boiled. They are characterized by having a very soft and fluffy texture, nothing like the dumplings of Spanish cuisine, totally crunchy, to which we are used.
Rice dishes
As we have anticipated, rice is the base for many of the dishes of Chinese gastronomy. However, it has little to do with the rice three (or a thousand) delicacies that we find in Chinese restaurants in the West.
