Chinese cuisine · Eight great traditions, one wok logic: soy, rice, wheat and the regional map behind "Chinese food".
The dishes that carry Chinese cuisine are the ones a market cook and a home kitchen would both recognise.
Eight signatures below explain the table to a first-time diner and to a grocer stocking the aisle.
City Foodsters · CC BY 2.0
Roast duck with pancake, scallion and sweet bean sauce. Beijing's banquet bird.
Hang-dry and maltose glaze are the craft; carving tableside is theatre.
“Skin crispness is the honesty test.”
LeonardKong · CC BY 2.0
Small plates from har gow to char siu bao, taken with tea.
Cart service is fading; tickets and QR codes replaced many trolleys.
“A cuisine of many bites, not one plate.”
ZhengZhou · CC BY-SA 4.0
Silken tofu in chili-bean sauce with minced beef or pork and Sichuan pepper.
Chen Mapo's Chengdu shop is the origin story restaurants still cite.
“Mala should numb; if it is only hot, the peppercorn was skipped.”
Peachyeung316 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Soup dumplings from the Jiangnan region, now a Shanghai-and-Taiwan export.
The soup is aspic that melts. A hole in the skin is a failure.
“Bite, slurp, then eat — not a single gulp.”
Simon Shek · CC BY-SA 3.0
Cantonese roast pork with a maltose-soy glaze, hung in siu mei windows.
The red is often fermented red bean curd or colouring; the point is the caramel edge.
“Siu mei is a window craft, not a home oven hobby for most families.”
Praneeth Thalla · CC BY-SA 4.0
A simmering pot — spicy Chongqing, clear Beijing, or yuanyang split — into which the table dips meat and greens.
It is a winter social form that became an all-year chain industry.
“The diner is the cook; timing is the skill.”
Amazingloong · CC BY-SA 4.0
A griddled crepe with egg, sauce, crispy wonton sheet and herbs.
Northern commuter food that Instagram later treated as a discovery.
“Street breakfast is a cuisine's honesty.”
Steven G. Johnson · CC BY-SA 3.0
Diced chicken, chili, peanut and Sichuan pepper — and a sweeter American cousin.
Gong Bao was a late-Qing official; the dish outlived the title.
“Peanuts should stay crisp. Sauce should not be a glue.”
Stats are relative 0–100 marks within this cuisine, for comparison only.
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Does Peking duck abroad still count as Chinese cuisine when the pantry is rewritten?
Capitals claim Dim sum; provinces disagree, loudly.
Fermented heat and shared grills: kimchi, gochujang and banchan from the Korean Peninsula.
Overall 76 🍣Dashi, rice and seasonal restraint: washoku from sushi counters to home miso soup.
Overall 72 🍲Herbs, nuoc mam and a French-colonial overlay: pho, banh mi and the regional split from Hanoi to the Mekong.
Overall 68 🌶️Hot, sour, salty, sweet: nam prik, fish sauce and the regional map from Bangkok street to Isan grilled chicken.
Overall 77