China is famous for many things – the Great Wall, giant pandas, kung fu, and of course, the food. Chinese cuisine is popular all around the world, and for good reason. The Chinese take great pride in their food, and they love it when foreigners rave about how delicious it is. Throughout the years here on the Chinese language and culture blog, food has been a hot topic. After all, for those learning Chinese and hoping to travel in the country, one of the main concerns is being able to read menus and order food. Here are some of our finer posts and videos about all things Chinese food in one easy to navigate post:
This post is a great place to start for learning useful restaurant related language. After studying this one thoroughly, you should be able to get a table and order with confidence.
There are a lot of dishes in China that show up on menus all over the country. This post teaches you the names of 20 such dishes, with Chinese characters, pinyin, English, and pictures.
Learn how to make Kung Pao Chicken and improve your Chinese at the same time!
Chinese food is definitely not General Tso’s chicken, egg rolls, and fortune cookies. Learn more about some famous dishes and what real Chinese food is.
Did you know that China actually has Eight Great Culinary traditions? These can be further broken down into the four main regions, and we discuss what northern cuisine is like here.
Perhaps the most famous kind of Chinese food around the world is Cantonese food, which we talk about in this post along with the rest of southern China.
Going to a restaurant is great and all, but to really get into Chinese food you’re going to have to hit the streets. Take a photo tour of some awesome street eats around the country.
You can’t eat street food all the time, and once in a while you’ve got to treat yourself to a nice meal. Cue Beijing roast duck, a meal so good it’s fit for an emperor!
Check out this video I made a while back in one of Beijing’s best roast duck restaurants.
Who wants some “Hunan taste hair belly meat”? I know I do!
Many restaurants in China want to have English names on their menu, but online translators tend to come up with some pretty hilarious names. See for yourself.
I had so many great Chinglish menu pictures that I just had to go ahead and make another post!
After reading all of those posts, seeing all those mouth-watering pictures, and watching those videos, I’m sure you all want to run to the nearest Chinese restaurant right now. Remember, one of the best ways you can practice your language skills is by going to a restaurant. I’m not talking about simply reading the menu and ordering, but also striking up conversations with fellow diners, or even with the waiters themselves. I can’t tell you how many free Chinese lessons I’ve gotten just by giving a simple 你好 (hello) or 干杯 (cheers) to some other people in the restaurant. Chinese people are always excited to see foreigners enjoying their cuisine, and are even more excited when you try to speak their language.
Sasha is an English teacher, writer, photographer, and videographer from the great state of Michigan. Upon graduating from Michigan State University, he moved to China and spent 5+ years living, working, studying, and traveling there. He also studied Indonesian Language & Culture in Bali for a year. He and his wife run the travel blog Grateful Gypsies, and they're currently trying the digital nomad lifestyle across Latin America.
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