The foods most popular in China are the biggest nightmare for the Western world.
So forget noodles, stir-fried vegetables, and lemon chicken in this glorious list, the stars are actually creatures that people usually step on.
Our favorite food, like most of the things we like, is a function of growing conditions.
For example, there is no need to be disgusted by people frying cockroaches and eating them for pleasure.
After all, when we snacked on chocolate spread in kindergarten and cottage cheese at school, young Chinese stomachs had to deal with chihuahuas and cockroaches.
And hey, it is likely that a Chinese person who meets a Western dish say your grandma’s gefilte fish will think you are the most disgusting thing on earth.
So you didn’t grow up in China.
You snacked on chips instead of scorpions, and if you arrive in Beijing you will just be tourists with strange eyes, too late to change your culinary taste. So please, a little tolerance when reading the list of popular Chinese foods we prepared.
And a small recommendation not before eating.
Pig Skin Salad
Ingredients: as mentioned, pig skin.
Where: in an average restaurant in China.
Note: the dish is disguised as a harmless potato salad so be careful.
Those who fell for it report that, unlike finely chopped salad, it does not suit the Western palate. On the other hand, they survived to tell the story.
Homemade alternative: crispy bacon.
Chicken Feet
Ingredients: chicken feet, chicken toes, chicken nails, Sichuan sauce.
Where: canned, in restaurants, in supermarkets.
Quite a hit.
Note: just to be clear there are nails.
And it is not known that Chinese chickens do pedicures.
Homemade alternative: gnaw alone.
Tiger and Dragon Fight on a Plate
Ingredients: cat meat (tiger) and snake meat (dragon).
Where: in high-end restaurants, by pre-order only.
Catching all these dragons is a headache.
Note: despite the name, no one really intends to serve dragons and tigers. Not because the Chinese are particularly humane, but because it is just expensive (tigers) and imaginary (dragons). Instead, you get snake and cat as mentioned. Feel better?
Homemade alternative: shawarma.
Bamboo Shoots
Ingredients: not wood, bamboo.
The things we make garden chairs from.
Where: bamboo shoots are included in many Chinese dishes, especially in the south.
Note: it is tasty. And no one has to die for it.
Homemade alternative: borrow a worn garden chair from the neighbor. Sit on it and imagine how great it would be if you were now in China.
Fried Chicks
Ingredients: the grandchildren of the chickens from section 2.
Where: not everywhere in the giant country can you get fried chicks, but in Beijing’s food market you can.
If you came and have no trace of humanity in your blood/never raised hamsters/vegetarians get a rash worth checking.
Note: we don’t want to, but they are cute and have almost no meat. Do the math.
Homemade alternative: very young chicken skewers.
Poodle
Ingredients: Pekingese, Labrador, German Shepherd almost anything that wags its tail and barks.
Where: mainly in the south, the periphery of China.
Don’t think that in an average Beijing restaurant you get Rex on a plate.
Note: even the Chinese are starting to look askance at those who eat it.
Homemade alternative: chicken in a bad restaurant.
Seaweed and Lettuce Soup
Ingredients: plant (lettuce) and plant-animal (seaweed).
Where: everywhere in the country.
Note: locally this dish is considered simple.
On the other hand, cat meat is considered something special, so maybe adopt your own standards.
Homemade alternative: pick some fresh garden leaves, peel sushi greens, chop, boil in water, and please do not eat it.
Cockroaches, Jerusalem Crickets, Worms, Bees
Ingredients: you are stepping on them right now.
Where: Beijing market, markets in general, usually on a stick or in a snack bag.
It is a kind of local hot dog. In southern China, you can enjoy a luxurious version of young bees called baby bee.
Note: comes complete with antennae.
Baby bee tastes like crunchy snack and is spicy, suitable for the Mediterranean palate.
Homemade alternative: gummy spiders.
Turtle Soup
Ingredients: turtle, water, spices.
Where: only in luxury restaurants, by pre-order. Also, you will pay many yuan for a turtle sometimes whole to float in your soup.
Note: turtle soup, which emperors used to enjoy, is considered a longevity elixir. But the same could be said about a saint’s tomb, without eating the turtle.
Homemade alternative: Leonardo (turtle leader), Donatello (likes inventing tricks), Raphael (funny but cheeky), Michelangelo (he dances).
Orange Scorpion
Ingredients: scorpions, deep oil.
Where: in markets, on the street, on a stick five small brown ones or one big black.
Note: not only is the venom removed, they are even healthy according to Chinese medicine. On the other hand, stomach upset is not so healthy. So know your limits.
Homemade alternative: lucky Scorpio man.
If you prefer to die rather than eat scorpion,
Those who do not want to risk but also do not want to fast, better go to the safe option: candied fruits (or candied cherry tomato) if you want something on a stick, plain rice if you want something filling, noodles in soup (and just stir-fried), dozens of vegetables and at least 20 types of forest mushrooms.
There are reasonable dishes like these everywhere, and probably your body and a number of animals will thank you.
