China

🇨🇳China

Tofu Pudding

豆腐花

Barely set soy curd scooped in soft sheets, served sweet with ginger syrup in the south or savoury with soy, chilli and pickles in the north.

🇨🇳China

Tomato and Scrambled Egg

西红柿炒鸡蛋

Tomatoes cooked down with soft scrambled egg and a pinch of sugar, the first dish most Chinese people learn to make.

🇨🇳Guangdong, China

Tong Sui

糖水

A Cantonese sweet soup or dessert, served warm or cold, made with ingredients like red beans, mung beans, lotus seeds, sweet potato or tapioca in a sugary broth.

🇧🇹Tibet, Bhutan

Tsampa

糌粑

Roasted barley flour, the staple of the Tibetan plateau, mixed with tea and butter into a dough.

🇨🇳China

Tsingtao Beer

青岛啤酒

A pale lager brewed since the German concession at Qingdao, using Laoshan spring water, and the beer poured by default across China.

🇨🇳Guangdong, China

Turnip Cake

萝卜糕

Grated daikon bound with rice flour, studded with dried shrimp and cured sausage, steamed into a block and then pan-fried in slices.

🇨🇳Sichuan, China

Twice-Cooked Pork

回锅肉

Pork belly boiled whole, sliced thin, then returned to the wok with broad-bean paste, sweet flour paste, leeks and green garlic until the slices curl.

🇨🇳Xinjiang, China

Uyghur Nan Bread

馕

A wheel of dense wheat bread stamped in the centre with a nail pattern, sprinkled with sesame and onion, baked against the wall of a clay tandoor.

🇨🇳Xinjiang, China

Uyghur Pilaf

抓饭

Rice steamed over lamb, carrot and onion in mutton fat, sometimes with raisins or chickpeas, traditionally eaten with the hand.

🇨🇳China

Water Spinach

空心菜

A hollow-stemmed leafy green from paddy edges, stir-fried hard with garlic or fermented bean curd so the stems stay squeaky.

🇨🇳Sichuan, China

Water-Boiled Fish

水煮鱼

Sliced white fish poached in a chilli-and-Sichuan-pepper broth over bean sprouts, then buried under dried chillies and doused with smoking hot oil at the table.

🇨🇳China

Wenchang Chicken

文昌鸡

Wenchang chicken, the Hainanese free-range bird that is the ancestor of Hainanese chicken rice, is a named GI product and the anchor of Hainan's cuisine.

🇨🇳China

West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce

西湖醋鱼

Grass carp starved for days to clear its muddiness, poached briefly and cloaked in a clear sweet-and-sour vinegar sauce.

🇨🇳Guangdong, China

White Cut Chicken

白切鸡

A whole chicken poached just to the point of setting, plunged into iced water so the skin tightens, chopped on the bone and served at room temperature.

🇨🇳Guangdong, China

Wife Cake

老婆饼

A flat flaky pastry round filled with candied winter melon and glutinous rice flour, faintly sweet and chewy inside a shattering crust.

🇭🇰Guangdong, Hong Kong

Wonton Noodle Soup

云吞面

Springy alkaline egg noodles under prawn-and-pork wontons in a clear broth built on dried flounder and pork bone.

🇨🇳Guangzhou, China

Wonton Soup

馄饨汤

A Chinese soup of delicate pork-and-shrimp wontons in a clear, savoury broth, garnished with scallions and sesame oil.

🇨🇳Jiangsu, China

Wuxi Pork Ribs

无锡排骨

A Jiangsu dish of pork ribs slow-braised in soy sauce, rock sugar, rice wine and star anise until dark, glossy and meltingly tender, distinctly sweet.

🇨🇳China

Xianbing (Chinese Meat Pie)

馅饼

Pan-griddled wheat pie stuffed with seasoned pork and chive — a northern Chinese home and street staple unrelated to roujiamo's baked pocket.

🇭🇰Guangdong, Hong Kong

XO Sauce

XO酱

A luxury relish of dried scallop, dried shrimp, cured ham and chilli fried in oil, invented in Hong Kong hotel kitchens and named after the brandy grade.

🇨🇳Yunnan, China

Xuanwei Ham

宣威火腿

A dry-cured mountain ham aged one to three years, deep red and salty, used in slivers to season soups and steamed dishes rather than eaten in slices.

🇨🇳Tibet, China

Yak Butter Tea

酥油茶

Po cha: tea churned with yak butter and salt into a rich, warming drink of the Tibetan plateau.

🇨🇳Guangdong, China

Yan Wo (Bird's nest soup)

燕窝汤

Clear soup of swiftlet nest dissolved in sweet stock; the nest is almost pure protein thread and gives a slippery, faintly glutinous texture. Trade is dominated by purpose-built nest farms.

🇨🇳Jiangsu, China

Yangzhou Fried Rice

扬州炒饭

Day-old rice fried with egg, small prawns, diced ham, peas and spring onion, each grain separate and lightly gilded.

🇨🇳China

Yellow River Carp in Sweet and Sour Sauce

糖醋鲤鱼

A whole carp scored, fried until arched, and coated in a sweet-sour sauce of sugar and vinegar thickened to a gloss.

🇨🇳China

Yong Tau Foo

酿豆腐

A pick-your-own assembly of beancurd, bitter gourd, chilli and okra stuffed with fish paste, served in clear soup, dry with sauce, or in laksa gravy

🇨🇳Yunnan, China

Yunnan Fermented Rice Drink

甜白酒

A Yunnan sweet drink of fermented rice, sweet and faintly alcoholic, served cool.

🇨🇳Yunnan, China

Yunnan Milk Fan

乳扇

Cow's milk curdled with papaya juice, stretched into a sheet and wound onto sticks to dry into a hard fan, then grilled or fried.

🇨🇳Jiangsu, China

Zhenjiang Black Vinegar

镇江香醋

Glutinous rice vinegar fermented in open jars and aged, dark brown, faintly sweet and much softer than a Western vinegar.

🇨🇳Chengdu, China

Zhong Dumplings

钟水饺

Pork dumplings served without soup under sweetened soy sauce, red chilli oil and mashed garlic.

🇨🇳China

Zhu za tang (Pig's organ soup)

Zhu za tang is a Teochew soup of pork organs and peppery broth, served from Singapore hawker stalls.

🇨🇳Sichuan, China

Zigong Cold Rabbit

冷吃兔

Zigong cold-eaten rabbit, cold rabbit in numbing chilli oil sold by the box, is a named Sichuan city speciality; rabbit is farmed livestock.