Ｆｏｏｄ，Ａｄｖｅｎｔｕｒｏｕｓ Ｆｏｏｄ，ｗｉｔｈ Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ Ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｉｓｔｉｃｓ

ＷＩＬＬＩＡＭ　ＨＥＳＳ

Inever really ate Chinese food before coming to China. Thats the conclusion I reached many years ago, after my first visit to the PRC. I had long enjoyed the tasty, somewhat exotic delights of suburban Chinese restaurants in the US: limpid mo-shoo pork, the pu-pu platter, sautéed meat in a heavy sauce with canned pineapple chunks, and of course the fortune cookie – the ubiquitous after-dinner treat which, to Chinese people, is an overseas idiosyncrasy. But this is not really Chinese food. My memories of Chinese dishes outside of China are pretty repetitive. Regardless of which item you order, it seems always to be more or less the same, plus or minus broccoli and snow peas.

Chinese classes teach foreigners basic Chinese food vocabulary, including the characters for various ways of cooking meats, vegetables and maybe even cashews. But in real situations this doesnt get us very far. Names for dishes such as “waterfall of jade petals,” and “clouds floating through moonbeams” make it difficult to know what is what. Some restaurants take the opposite approach of giving more literal names to dishes that disguise something complex and unique. But even intermediate food vocabulary can be daunting. As a big fan of Chinese food and the kinds of gatherings with friends that Chinese dining involves, a few pointers come to mind for new arrivals or visitors to Beijing.

For the many of us that have been raised on occasional fortune-cookie-Chinese food, upon arriving in China local cuisine becomes an instant attraction. Exploration and experimentation then ensue. Yet due to the local emphasis on hospitality, as well as the herding behaviors of foreigners, many continue to eat the low-end of Chinese cuisine. Your Chinese friends want you to eat well. This generally means dishes within the typical comfort zone. This continues until they become bold enough to hoodwink you into eating animal parts that they know will make you writhe at the mere thought of them.

Everyone has a story about a dish they ate at a banquet, probably followed by a slug of baijiu. Such events provide a unique culinary bonding experience: you will never forget when, where and who fed you a certain dish. When asked the inevitable question after your return home, you will always have a ready story. Groups of friends, however, tend to order familiar dishes. Dining out together is enjoyable, but the most memorable meals are likely to be those ordered with a sense of adventure. Once initiated in dishes such as stomach, eyeballs, intestines, scorpions, bone marrow, and gelatinous duck blood that make most foreigners shudder, there is little to fear.

With this in mind, here are a few suggestions that may come in handy for new arrivals to Chinas big cities. Gastronomical bravery is at the top of the list. There are numerous foreign-language publications that have comprehensive restaurant listings, including addresses and phone numbers. They make sound recommendations as to which dishes to try, but often in the most accessible and mainstream restaurants located in predominantly foreigner-frequented neighborhoods. There is much more to discover.

Restaurants in Beijing that are also listed in visitors guides, and guaranteed to yield memorable eating experiences, are those run by provincial governments. More or less every one of Chinas 30 mainland regions has a representative restaurant in the capital. It is usually attached to a guesthouse bearing the regions name. Although one cannot necessarily judge a regions cuisine by its representative restaurant in Beijing, its bound to feature certain home ground characteristics. Some, for example, pack in guests the same way they do the chili peppers in their dishes. In others, the formality and variable service of a bygone era accompanies large plates of roast meat. In any event, all are worth exploring. As many do not have foreign-language menus, it may be best to rely on the recommendations of the staff. They generally hail from the relevant region and can advise on dishes not to be missed. In this case, be brave and decline dishes deemed suitable for “foreign friends.” You may actually find that you like spicy lung slices, or other parts of the animal that “your” people dont usually eat.

It is also a good idea to eat dishes in season. These may include those made of the Chinese cabbage you see stacked up against old courtyard walls, or of golden corn kernels drying on a walkway, or tanks of hairy crabs. All are best enjoyed at the appropriate season. You should stick to this principle when traveling in China. Nowadays you can generally see familiar dishes such as gongbaojiding just about anywhere. But it would be a great shame to pass over a great local noodle dish in favor of such cliché fare!

One of the side benefits to being adventurous is that at some time or other you may be called upon to entertain family members from overseas, or even a finicky local work superior. This requires a list of go-to and back-up places to accommodate the tastes of diverse guests. Many foreigners quickly take on Chinese sensitivities when hosting groups of family members and colleagues, making the utmost effort to show them the hospitality that local friends have shown them.

It is in the situation where Chinese and foreign friends eat together that the matter of cultural norms arises. A Chinese host generally orders more food than the guests present are likely to be able to eat. This is a gesture of hospitality, and also provides enough variety to ensure that there are dishes to suit everyones taste. Foreigners, on the other hand, are generally programmed to order no more than can be comfortably eaten. This reduces the number of dishes, and increases the pressure to ensure each selection is to everyones taste. Then there is the matter of paying the bill. A balance needs to be struck between giving the Chinese host face if they are treating, by not ordering the cheaper dishes in the knowledge that you are spending someone elses money and, if you are the host, ordering dishes that all your guests will like. In such cases it is best to order the restaurant specialties.

The Chinese proverb min yi shi wei tian translates roughly as “the people take food as heaven.” It expresses gratitude for enough to eat. It is also a tribute to both man and woman – hence the heavens – for the way in which food is prepared. Visitors to China rapidly come to appreciate the ceremony of bringing people together to eat as one of the most gratifying aspects of being here. In this sense, maybe I did eat Chinese food when growing up, even though it was not really Chinese food.

WILLIAM HESS works for an economic consulting firm in Beijing.