There is no such thing as Chinese food
Eight major regional traditions and 47 dishes worth crossing a city for. What you have eaten at home is a narrow slice of one of them, adapted to local produce a century ago.
Sichuan 川菜
Not simply hot — the defining sensation is ma la, a numbing tingle that arrives before the heat does.
Cantonese 粤菜
The cuisine the West thinks of as Chinese food — and almost nothing you have eaten abroad resembles it.
Beijing & the North 京菜
Imperial kitchens, Mongolian lamb, wheat rather than rice, and the most famous roast bird in the world.
Jiangnan 江南菜
The refined, faintly sweet cooking of the Yangtze delta — knife work, clear broths and freshwater everything.
Hunan 湘菜
Hotter than Sichuan and without the numbing to soften it — dry heat, smoke, and pickled everything.
The Northwest 西北菜
Lamb, wheat, cumin and the tandoor — the food of the Silk Road, closer to Central Asia than to Beijing.
Yunnan & Guizhou 滇黔菜
Wild mushrooms, sour broths, flowers, fermented everything — the most botanically curious cooking in China.
Dongbei & Shanxi 东北与山西
Enormous portions, vinegar on everything, and thirty named shapes of noodle.