20 Traditional Chinese Food Dishes You Need to Try, According to a Chinese-Malaysian Chef

• Also Called: Chǎofàn

“Rice is a staple in Chinese cuisine,” Yinn Low tells PureWow. “Chinese fried rice is a complete meal that feeds the entire family. The combination of ingredients can be anything from protein (chicken, pork, shrimp) to vegetables (carrots, peas, onions). It’s a wholesome meal for dinner.” It also happens to be simple and quick to make at home, but as Yinn Low advises, “for the best fried rice, leftover rice will be best.” (I know what I’m doing with my take-out leftovers.)

• Also Called: Běijīng Kǎoyā

“Personally, I think Peking duck is the best way to eat duck,” Yinn Low says of the Beijing dish. “Crispy roasted duck sliced into bite-sized pieces, rolled up in a wrapper with salad and hoisin sauce.” Peking duck is seasoned, dried for 24 hours and cooked in an open-air oven called a hung oven, so it’s not something you can fully replicate at home...but it is a traditional Chinese food that I recommend ordering from a real-deal restaurant. (It’s traditionally carved and served in three courses—skin, meat and bones in the form of broth—with sides like cucumbers, bean sauce and pancakes.) However, if you want to try it yourself, The Woks of Life has a simplified recipe that's worth checking out.

• Also Called: Chòudòufu

The name kind of says it all: Stinky tofu is fermented tofu with a strong odor (and it’s said that the stronger it smells, the better it tastes). Tofu is brined in a mixture of fermented milk, vegetables, meat and aromatics before fermenting for up to several months, kind of like cheese. Its preparation depends on the region, but it can be served cold, steamed, stewed or deep-fried with chile sauce and soy sauce on the side.

• Also Called: Chǎomiàn

“Other than rice, noodles are a mainstay in Chinese cooking,” Yinn Low says. “Just like with fried rice, there are endless variations on chow mein. For busy parents, this is an easy dish to make for the entire family. And if you can’t find traditional Chinese food egg noodles or chow mein noodles, you can use cooked spaghetti to make the dish instead.”

• Also Called: Báizhōu

Congee, or rice porridge, is a nourishing, easy-to-digest meal (particularly for breakfast). Congees differ from region to region: Some are thick, some are watery and some are made with grains other than rice. It can be savory or sweet, topped with meat, tofu, vegetables, ginger, boiled eggs and soy sauce or mung beans and sugar. And since it’s ultra-comforting, congee is also considered a cure-all for when you’re sick.

I love this cheater's recipe for it by cookbook author Sarah Owens. “It traditionally takes hours to complete,” she writes, “but by soaking, portioning and freezing the rice ahead of time, it quickly thickens to a beautiful canvas for any number of toppings. Although cooking times may vary, this recipe is meant to work with whatever type of rice you may have on hand.”

• Also Called: Ròu Jiā Mó

A pita-like bun filled with tender braised pork may not be what you consider a burger, but it’s delicious nonetheless. The street food originated in Shaanxi in northwest China. The meat contains more than 20 spices and seasonings, and since it’s been around since the Qin dynasty (circa 221 B.C. to 207 B.C.), some may argue that it’s the original hamburger.

• Also Called: Cōng Yóu Bǐng

No maple syrup here: These savory pancakes are more like supremely chewy flatbread with bits of scallion and sesame oil mixed into the dough. They’re served as street food, in restaurants and in supermarkets both fresh and frozen. Since they’re pan-fried, they have the ideal balance of crispy edges and soft insides.

In cookbook author Betty Liu's recipe for scallion pancakes, the secret is you su, or ‘oil paste.’ “I use scallion oil as the base of my you su, so the scallion flavor is doubled without doubling the number of scallions in the pancake,” she explains. “Too many raw scallions can expel too much water, causing the pancake to be soggy. This way, both the flavor and the texture are optimized.”

• Also Called: Gong Bao Ji Ding

“This is probably the most well-known Chinese chicken dish outside of China,” Yinn Low says. “It’s also an authentic and traditional dish that you can find in many restaurants in China.” The spicy, stir-fried chicken dish originates from the Sichuan province of southwestern China. While you’ve probably had the Westernized version, the real thing is fragrant, spicy and a bit mouth-numbing, thanks to Sichuan peppercorns. If you want to avoid the Americanized copycat, Yinn Low says the O.G. is actually quite easy to recreate at home.

• Also Called: Baozi

There are two types of baozi, or bao: dàbāo (big bun) and xiǎobāo (small bun). Both are a bread-like dumpling filled with everything from meat to veggies to bean paste, depending on the type and where they’re made. They’re usually steamed—which makes the buns delightfully squishy and soft—and served with dipping sauces like soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and chile pastes.

• Also Called: Mápó Dòufu

Maybe you’ve tried mapo tofu, but Westernized versions of the tofu/beef/fermented bean paste dish are usually way less spicy than their traditional counterpart, which is laden with chile oil and Sichuan peppercorns. It has a little bit of everything: textural contrast, bold flavors and lots of heat. Fun fact: The literal translation of the name is “pockmarked old woman’s bean curd,” thanks to origin stories that claim it was invented by...well, a pockmarked old woman.

• Also Called: Chāsīu

Technically, char siu is a way to flavor and cook barbecued meat (specifically pork). Its name means “fork roasted,” since the Cantonese dish is cooked on a skewer in an oven or over a fire. Whether it’s pork loin, belly or butt, the seasoning almost always contains honey, five-spice powder, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and red fermented bean curd, which gives it its signature scarlet hue. Char siu can be served alone, with noodles or inside baozi.

• Also Called: Zha Jiang Mian

These fried sauce noodles from the Shandong province are made with chewy, thick wheat noodles (aka cumian) and topped with zhajiang sauce, a rich mixture of ground pork and fermented soybean paste (or another sauce, depending on where in China they’re made). It’s sold just about everywhere in the country from street vendors and fancy restaurants alike.

• Also Called: Hundun Tang

“Wontons are one of the most authentic Chinese dumplings,” Yinn Low says. The wontons themselves are made with a thin, square dumpling wrapper that can be filled with proteins such as shrimp, pork, fish or a combination, depending on the region (Yinn Low’s recipe calls for shrimp). The broth is a rich concoction of pork, chicken, Chinese ham and aromatics, and you’ll often find cabbage and noodles mingling with the wontons.

• Also Called: Xiao Long Bao

On the other hand, soup dumplings are dumplings with the soup inside. The filling is made with a pork stock that’s so packed with collagen that it solidifies as it cools. Then, it gets folded into a delicate wrapper that’s pleated into a neat little packet and steamed, melting the broth. To eat a soup dumpling, simply bite the top off and slurp out the broth before popping the rest in your mouth.

• Also Called: Huǒguō

Hot pot is less a dish and more a communal dining experience where everyone sits together and cooks their food in the same vessel. “You have a pot of simmering [seasoned] broth at the center of the table with raw meats, seafood, vegetables, tofu, starches and other ingredients cut into small pieces for fast cooking,” Woks of Life blogger Sarah Leung told PureWow. “You drop these ingredients into the simmering pot to cook and enjoy them, usually with a dipping sauce.”

Not only are the dippers endlessly versatile, but so is the broth. “The type of hot pot broth depends on the preferences of your group, as well as the region you’re in,” says Leung. “In Sichuan province, for example, the broth is filled with spicy chiles and numbing Sichuan peppercorns. Mongolian- or Northern Chinese-style hot pot is lamb-based. Other popular flavors include herbal chicken broths, mushroom-based broths and tomato-based broths.”

• Also Called: Lo Mai Gai

Another dim sum favorite, lo mai gai is a Cantonese dish of rice, Chinese sausage, chicken, mushrooms and other aromatics, which are typically wrapped in lotus leaf before being steamed. The key to its impeccably sticky texture is glutinous rice, which contains less amylose (a type of starch) and sticks together like glue when cooked.

• Also Called: 海南鸡饭

Hailing from the southern province of Hainan, this delicately flavored, poached chicken dish is supremely comforting. The chicken is gently poached in broth, along with rice and aromatics like ginger, scallion and garlic, then served with cucumbers and chile sauce or oil. (The origins are hotly contested, and it’s commonly associated with Singaporean cuisine too.)

• Also Called: Liáng Bàn Gié Zi

The garnishes can vary, but Chinese-style steamed eggplant is distinctive for its juicy, tender texture and sweet flavor. The preparation involves tossing the cooked vegetable in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and sesame oil. Since eggplant is slightly spongy by nature, it will soak up all the flavorful sauce.

If eggplant Parm is the only way you eat the vegetable, this recipe from Liu will convert you. “Eggplant is often fried with a lot of oil and ends up being too heavy for my tastes, but steamed eggplant is light and a wonderful vessel to soak up sauce. It’s a fast way to cook eggplant, and even more important, the texture transforms and becomes silky soft, tender and creamy.”

• Also Called: Jiaozi

Jiaozi are a type of dumpling that’s filled with meat and vegetables and made with a thinner dough than baozi. They can be boiled, steamed, pan-fried, deep-fried or served in soup. The tiny, savory parcels are considered symbols of good fortune. Though they’re most popular during Lunar New Year, they’re also eaten year-round.

• Also Called: Chūnjuǎn

Spring rolls are a type of Cantonese dim sum. Thin dough is stuffed with vegetables or meat, wrapped and fried until crispy and golden. These handhelds, especially popular in Eastern China for Lunar New Year, symbolize wealth and are named spring rolls because they’re eaten during Spring Festival.