Guangdong, Hong Kong
Pineapple Bun
菠萝包
A soft bun under a crackled sweet cookie crust, whose crazed pattern gives it the pineapple name; there is no pineapple in it.
eastern-asia
China
Explore 248 foods connected to China, from everyday staples to rare local specialties.
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Beijing Essentials
9 editor-selected foods for understanding the place through what people eat.
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Traditional foods from China.
248 foods in this view. Filter by category, type, rarity, or search every recorded name.
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Sichuan, China
Pixian Broad Bean Paste
郫县豆瓣酱
Fermented paste of broad beans and chillies aged in open clay jars for one to three years, the base seasoning of most red Sichuan dishes.
China
Png Kueh
饭粿
Pink peach-shaped rice cake stamped from a wooden mould, its glutinous rice filling seasoned with dried shrimp, mushroom and peanut, then pan-fried.
China
Popiah
潤餅
Fresh spring rolls with jicama, bean sprouts, lettuce, and sauce in thin wrapper, thin wrapper with crunchy jicama and fresh vegetables, a Nyonya street food classic
Guangdong, Hong Kong
Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai
烧卖
Open-topped dumplings of chopped pork and prawn in a thin yellow wheat wrapper, steamed and often crowned with roe or a dot of carrot.
Guangdong, China
Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens
梅菜扣肉
Meicai kourou steams pork belly upside down over preserved mustard greens, then turns out as a rich Hakka banquet dish.
China
Pork Floss (Rousong)
肉鬆
Rousong (meat floss), dried pork spun into a cotton-like fluff and eaten on congee and buns, is a named Chinese product bought by the jar.
China
Potstickers
锅贴
Dumplings fried flat-side down in a covered pan with a slurry of water and flour, which sets into a lace crust joining them together.
China
Preserved Radish
菜脯
Daikon salted and sun-dried for months or years until it turns dark and intensely savoury, chopped into omelettes and rice.
Yunnan, Hong Kong
Pu-erh Tea
普洱茶
Large-leaf tea from Yunnan pressed into cakes and aged, either slowly as raw sheng or by accelerated fermentation as ripe shu.
Shaanxi, China
Qishan Saozi Noodles
岐山臊子面
Thin noodles in a sharp vinegared broth with diced pork, carrot, wood ear and egg, sour and oily in equal measure.
Beijing, China
Quick-Boiled Tripe
爆肚
Sheep or beef tripe cut by section, dropped into boiling water for seconds, and eaten with a sesame-paste dip.
China
Red Bean Paste Bun
豆沙包
A soft steamed bun filled with sweetened azuki paste, eaten at breakfast or as a dim sum sweet.
China
Red Bean Soup
红豆汤
A sweet Chinese tong sui of red beans simmered with rock sugar, dried tangerine peel and sometimes glutinous rice balls, served warm.
China
Red-Braised Pork Belly
红烧肉
Cubes of skin-on pork belly caramelised in sugar then braised in soy, rice wine and spices until the fat is translucent and the sauce is a syrup.
Guangdong, Hong Kong
Rice Noodle Rolls
肠粉
Sheets of rice batter steamed on cloth, rolled around prawn, beef or fried dough stick, and flooded with sweetened light soy
China
Rice Wine
米酒
Cooking rice wine sold in tall green bottles, used by the cupful in sesame oil chicken, ginger duck and postpartum cooking.
Guangdong, Hong Kong
Roast Goose
烧鹅
Goose stuffed with a spice-and-soy marinade, sewn shut, inflated, air-dried and roasted over lychee wood until the skin is mahogany.
China
Sachima
萨其马
Strands of fried egg dough bound into a slab with malt sugar syrup and studded with raisins and sesame, cut into soft squares.
Guangdong, China
Salt-Baked Chicken
盐焗鸡
Yanju ji, whole chicken buried and baked in a mound of hot coarse salt, is a named Hakka dish and a distinct technique.
Beijing, China
Savoury Crêpe
煎饼
A thin mung bean and millet batter spread on a hot griddle, cracked with an egg, brushed with bean sauce and chilli, and folded around a crisp cracker.
China
Scallion Lamb
葱爆羊肉
Lamb slivers seared with great quantities of spring onion, garlic and a splash of vinegar, thrown together in under a minute.
Shanghai, China
Scallion Oil Noodles
葱油拌面
Noodles tossed in oil in which spring onions have been fried slowly to black, with soy sauce, sugar and dried shrimp.
China
Scallion Pancake
葱油饼
A savoury, flaky flatbread of wheat dough layered with scallions and oil, pan-fried until crisp and golden, a northern Chinese street food staple.
Guangdong, China
Sesame Balls
煎堆
Hollow glutinous rice dough balls rolled in sesame seeds and deep-fried until they puff, filled with sweet lotus or red bean paste.
Beijing, China
Sesame Flatbread
烧饼
A layered wheat flatbread coated in sesame seeds and baked against the wall of a drum oven, sometimes split and stuffed with braised meat.
Tibet, China
Sha Balep (Tibetan Meat Bread)
ཤ་བག་ལེབ
Sha balep, the Tibetan flatbread stuffed with spiced yak or beef and fried, is the plateau's most-eaten named dish.
China
Shacha Noodles
沙茶面
A Fujian and Taiwanese noodle soup of wheat noodles in a rich, savoury shacha (shacha sauce) broth made from roasted peanuts, shrimp, garlic and spices, topped with meat and seafood.
Guangdong, China
Shacha Sauce
沙茶醬
Paste of ground dried fish, shrimp, garlic, shallot and chilli in oil, used as a hotpot dip and a stir-fry base.
China
Shaoxing Rice Wine
黄酒
Amber wine brewed from glutinous rice and wheat qu, aged in clay jars, drunk warmed and used constantly in Jiangnan cooking.
Tibet, China
Shapta (Tibetan Stir-Fried Yak)
Shapta
Shapta, strips of yak or beef stir-fried with onion and chilli, is a named Tibetan dish served everywhere on the plateau.
Taiwan
Shaved Ice
剉冰
Coarse shaved ice topped from a counter of stewed toppings — red bean, taro, tapioca, grass jelly, sweet potato — and finished with condensed milk or sugar syrup.
Beijing, China
Shredded Pork in Sweet Bean Sauce
京酱肉丝
Pork slivers stir-fried in sweet fermented flour sauce, piled on shredded spring onion and rolled into thin tofu-skin sheets at the table.
Guangdong, Hong Kong
Shrimp Dumplings
虾饺
Whole prawns and bamboo shoot in a translucent wheat-and-tapioca starch wrapper, pleated and steamed in a bamboo basket.
Sichuan, China
Sichuan Hotpot
四川火锅
A cauldron of beef tallow, dried chilli and Sichuan pepper kept boiling at the table, into which you dip tripe, duck intestine, luncheon meat, tofu skin and greens.
Sichuan, China
Sichuan Peppercorn
花椒
The dried husk of the prickly ash berry, which produces a citrus aroma and a tingling numbness rather than heat; the ma in mala.