Chinese food really is a mixed bag! (Patreon)

It goes without saying but when most people think of Chinese food in the west, images of fried rice, noodles and orange chicken come to mind, I don't need to tell you guys as most of you have probably seen my Quest for the Best Chinese in America series that I did with C-milk over on ADVChina when we searched the West coast of America looking for authentic Chinese food (and found a lot of it). During a conversation the other day I was asked what the food was like in China and it got me thinking, just how is the food in China? 

The answer would have to be "diverse" and it's a no brainer since China is a massive country with plenty of local specialties. The thing is that it's also usually fairly basic, Southern Chinese food (which is what you get in the west since most western Chinese food is based on Southern Cantonese cuisine) consists of a lot of rice and vegetable dishes whereas the north is more about noodles and dumplings. This is of course a vast over-simplification... but since I'm oversimplifying I may as well give you a very very simplified map of Chinese food:

South - Bland 

North - Hearty

East - Sweet

West - Savoury

Central - Spicy

Something along those lines ;) I can't tell you just how delighted I am to have the opportunity to discover a completely new food landscape in the USA (it's very bad for my weight, but so bloody delicious) and I'm always excited to introduce newcomers in China to some of my favourite Chinese cuisines. For a start I will always recommend Dongbei (North Eastern) food to any foreigner who visits China, it has just the right mix of foreigner friendly and exotic dishes to make it quite the experience. Should you find yourself in a Dongbei restaurant I will give you three dishes to try out first:

1) 锅包肉 Guō bāo ròu 

 This is a glazed pork dish which has a sweet and crispy honeyed glaze on the outside, a big favourite amongst me and my friends.

2）地三鲜 di sān xiān

This dish "Three fresh from the ground" tastes way better than it looks and consists of eggplant, potatoes and bell peppers all in an awesome sauce!

3）京酱肉丝 Jīng jiàng ròu sī 

This is my favourite of the three and basically you take the marinaded meat strips and wrap them in either a wheat based or toufu based wrap along with some fresh leeks/onions and cucumber, seriously tasty

Not your average Chinese dishes that you'd be used to back home but you can always ask your local Chinese restaurant if they have these dishes on their secret menu!

Looking forward to the week ahead and also looking forward to seeing you in this Friday's video, it's going to be epic (since it's looking like my new documentary will be out Friday if all goes well!).

- Stay Awesome

SerpentZA