Trail5 steps

Eating China (and its travels)

A spice that vibrates, a dish its hometown rejected, and two words for one drink.

Chinese food is many cuisines, and some of what the world calls “Chinese” was invented far from China. Follow the flavours out and back.

Start the trail →

I
Begin with the buzz of Sichuan pepper.
No. 108FactCuisine & Food
Sichuan pepper makes your lips buzz at 50 Hz It isn’t a pepper and it isn’t hot. It makes your mouth tingle, and researchers found the tingling feels like a vibration of about 50 times a second.
II
Then the belt-wide noodles of Xi’an.
No. 013DishCuisine & Food
A noodle dish whose name has 58 strokes Xi’an’s wide, hand-pulled biangbiang noodles are written with one of the most complex Chinese characters in use. It wasn’t in any dictionary, and only entered Unicode in 2020.
III
Cross the Pacific to a Chinese dish invented in Taiwan and sweetened in New York.
No. 045DishCuisine & Food
General Tso’s chicken is unknown in General Tso’s home province America’s favourite Chinese takeaway dish was invented in Taiwan, sweetened in New York, and was too sweet to sell in Hunan.
IV
And its dessert, which isn’t Chinese at all.
No. 041DishCuisine & Food
Fortune cookies are Japanese, by way of California You won’t find fortune cookies in China. They descend from a Kyoto cracker, reached America through Japanese immigrants, and were taken over by Chinese restaurants during World War II.
V
Finish with China’s greatest export, and the two words the world uses for it.
No. 116Word originLanguage
Tea if by sea, chai if by land Almost every language calls tea either “te” or “cha”, and which one it uses depends on how tea first arrived: by Dutch ship or by overland trade.