Beijing’s a great place for culinary exploration. Most of us live surrounded by restaurants, and most of us have restaurants nearby serving cuisines we’ve yet to try.
For many of us, our only limits are our time, our budgets, and our waistlines, but if you are one of the thousands of laowai living with Chinese menu illiteracy, do not despair.
Walking into a restaurant, perusing the menu（菜单，cài dān） and ordering a meal is easier than you think.
If you’re keen to conquer ordering in Chinese but you’re still stuck seeking out restaurants with picture menus, check out our list of 25 basic characters you’ll need to get started.
These characters won’t automatically direct you to the best items on the menu, nor will they allow you to understand every menu item, but they will allow you to start confidently identify ingredients you enjoy without needing pictures or English translations.
肉 (ròu, meat)
羊肉 yáng ròu – mutton
牛肉 niú ròu – beef
鸡肉 jī ròu – chicken
猪肉 zhū ròu – pork
鱼 yú – fish
Notes:
1. In most restaurants, 肉 by itself on a menu means pork but in Muslim restaurants肉 by itself usually means mutton.
2. If the thought of accidentally ordering offal fills you with dread, avoid menu items with characters that include the 月 radical. Most characters for offal include 月, including 肝 (gān, liver), 肠 (cháng, intestines) and 肺 (fèi, lungs).
菜 (cài, vegetables)
土豆 tǔ dòu – potato
茄子 qié zi – eggplant
菇 gū – mushrooms
豆 dòu – beans and peas
葱 cōng – vegetables from the onion family
Note: On menus, the character 菜 usually refers to any kind of green vegetable. If you’re looking for greens, choose menu items that include the character 菜.
Other items
鸡蛋 jī dàn – eggs
豆腐 dòu fu – tofu
面 miàn – noodles made of wheat
粉 fěn – noodles made of any other starch, including rice, sweet potato, or mung beans
Cooking methods
炒 chǎo – wok-fried or stir-fried
烧 shāo – braised
凉拌 liáng bàn – prepared raw like a salad
干锅 gān guō – served sizzling in a small wok
丝 sī – shredded
辣 là – made spicy with the addition chili oil, chili paste, or dried or fresh chili
Note: On menus, characters with the 火 radical, like 炒 and 烧 usually refer to a cooking method.
The characters above are enough to get you in the door and ordering off a Chinese menu. Either memorize them or save this page as a cheat sheet.
Below are our top 10 foreigner favorite menu items to look out for. If you are a laowai you probably like these dishes:
Kungpao Chicken
宫保鸡丁 gōng bǎo jī dīng
A dish of cubed chicken cooked with chili, Sichuan peppercorns, peanuts, and leeks (some lesser restaurants use cucumber). Named for Qing Dynasty 宫保 (palace guardian) and governor of Sichuan, Ding Baozhen 丁宝桢 (the 丁 is coincidental).
Shredded Pork with the Fragrance of Fish
鱼香肉丝 yú xiāng ròu sī
The fragrance of fish is debatable, but the tastiness of shredded pork fried with wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, carrots, and ginger is not.
Dry-fried Green Beans
干煸豆角 gān biān dòu jiǎo, a.k.a. 干煸四季豆 gān biān sì jì dòu
Often referred to as "the crack beans" by those unfamiliar with its Chinese names, this dish of green beans fried sometimes with minced pork but always with chili, and salt.
Brocoli fried with Minced Garlic
蒜蓉西兰花 suàn róng xī lán huā
The Chinese dish most likely to make laowai say “If my mom made vegetables like this I would have eaten them.”
Mapo beancurd
麻婆豆腐 má pó dòu fu
Named for a Qing Dynasty Chengdu restaurateur, this dish of tofu braised in chili bean paste, Sichuan peppercorns and minced pork is perfect for getting the rice down (下饭 xià fàn).
Tomato Fried with Egg
西红柿炒鸡蛋 xī hóng shì chǎo jī dàn
Simple comfort food and ranked only behind 麻婆豆腐 (above) in its ability to 下饭.
Smashed Cucumber
拍黄瓜 pāi huáng guā
拍 actually means beat, smack or clap. Sesame oil, minced garlic, cooking wine, soy sauce and vinegar lift cucumber to unimaginable heights in this classic cold dish. Best paired with a cold 燕京啤酒 yān jīng pí jiǔ on a hot afternoon but tasty anytime.
Twice-cooked Pork
回锅肉 huí guō ròu
Fatty pork first boiled with green onions, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns and cooking wine before being cooled, sliced and fried with chili and green peppers. One of the world’s greatest combinations of oil, salt and spice.
Chicken Fried with Chili
辣子鸡 là zǐ jī
The ubiquitous bones in this dish of deep-fried chicken pieces with ginger, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilies turns some foreigners off, but for tenacious diners the rewards are great.
Fried Potato, Peppers and Eggplant
地三鲜 dì sān xiān
Often a staple for foreign vegetarians, this garlic-fried trio often leaves laowai wishing for a higher ratio of potato.
Source: The Beijinger
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