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Chinese cuisine: the 25 dishes and drinks most written about

Tofu, Soy sauce, Peking duck and 22 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.

Entries
25
Photographed
25
Fetched
2026-09-25

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Peking duck
Peking duck · Chinese roast duck dish · Mr Wabu, CC BY-SA 2.0

Chinese cuisine, ranked

Most written-about first. Each description summarises the dish or drink's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.

  1. Tofu 1

    Tofu

    Soy-based food used as a protein source

    Also called bean curd, a food made by curdling soy milk and pressing the curds into white blocks of four degrees of firmness: 'extra firm', 'firm', 'soft' and 'silken'.

    Wikidata · Photo: DryPot, CC BY-SA 3.0

  2. Soy sauce 2

    Soy sauce

    East Asian liquid condiment

    A liquid condiment from China, traditionally brewed from a fermented paste in which soybeans and roasted grain are combined with brine and with kōji moulds, Aspergillus sojae or Aspergillus oryzae. It is known for its salty taste and strong umami.

    Wikidata · Photo: Tim Reckmann from Hamm, Deutschland, CC BY 2.0

  3. Peking duck 3

    Peking duck

    Chinese roast duck dish

    A dish from Beijing prepared since imperial times, prized for its thin, crisp skin; authentic versions serve mostly skin with little meat, carved at the table by the cook.

    Wikidata · Photo: Mr Wabu, CC BY-SA 2.0

  5. Mooncake 5

    Mooncake

    Chinese baked item

    A Chinese baked delicacy traditionally eaten at the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節), a festival mainly of the harvest, which legend also links with watching the moon.

    Wikidata · Photo: Lybil BER, CC BY-SA 3.0

  6. Fried rice 6

    Fried rice

    Asian rice dish

    Cooked rice stir-fried in a frying pan or wok, usually mixed with other ingredients such as meat, seafood, vegetables or eggs, and eaten as a main dish or alongside another.

    Wikidata · Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0

  7. Century egg 7

    Century egg

    Chinese preserved egg

    Also called alkalised or preserved eggs, a Chinese dish of quail, chicken or duck eggs preserved for weeks or months, depending on the method, in a mix of rice hulls, quicklime, salt, ash and clay.

    Wikidata · Photo: en:User:Kowloonese, CC BY-SA 3.0

  9. Baozi 9

    Baozi

    Chinese filled bun

    Also called just bao, a filled bun leavened with yeast, found in many Chinese cuisines. Fillings and methods vary a great deal, but the buns are most often made of wheat flour and steamed.

    Wikidata · Photo: J. Samuel Burner, CC BY 2.0

  10. Wonton 10

    Wonton

    Type of Chinese dumpling

    A Chinese dumpling found in many regional styles of Chinese cooking, also spelled wantan or wuntun from Cantonese, or wenden from Shanghainese.

    Wikidata · Photo: Oldie~commonswiki, CC BY-SA 3.0

  11. Zongzi 11

    Zongzi

    Traditional Chinese food

    Also called zong, rice dumplings or, sometimes, Chinese tamales, a traditional Chinese dish of glutinous rice stuffed with many kinds of filling and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Fillings may be sweet, such as red bean paste, or savoury, such as Chinese sausage or pork belly.

    Wikidata · Photo: Benjwong, Public domain

  12. Jiaozi 12

    Jiaozi

    Chinese dumplings

    A Chinese dumpling, usually a filling of vegetables or ground meat wrapped in thinly rolled dough and sealed by pressing the edges together.

    Wikidata · Photo: Bioniclepluslotr, CC BY-SA 3.0

  14. Shrimp paste 14

    Shrimp paste

    Fermented condiment

    Also called shrimp sauce or prawn sauce, a fermented condiment widely used in Southeast Asian and coastal Chinese cooking. It is made mainly of finely crushed krill or shrimp mixed with salt and fermented for several weeks.

    Wikidata · Photo: Hminandar, CC BY-SA 3.0

  15. Dim sum 15

    Dim sum

    Chinese cuisine

    A wide range of small Chinese dishes traditionally eaten at restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum is associated with Cantonese cooking, though some other Chinese cuisines have them too.

    Wikidata · Photo: Kolumbusjogger, CC BY-SA 3.0

  16. Pu'er tea 16

    Pu'er tea

    Variety of fermented tea produced in Yunnan Province, China

    Also spelled pu-erh, a fermented tea traditionally made in Yunnan Province, China, from leaves of Camellia sinensis var. assamica, the tea plant variety native to Yunnan.

    Wikidata · Photo: soultea.de /André Helbig, CC BY 3.0

  17. Rice milk 17

    Rice milk

    Plant milk made from rice

    A plant milk made from rice. Commercial versions are usually made from brown rice and brown rice syrup, may be sweetened with sugar or substitutes, and may be flavoured with common ingredients such as vanilla.

    Wikidata · Photo: Spinoziano, CC BY-SA 3.0

  18. Kung Pao chicken 18

    Kung Pao chicken

    Spicy stir-fried dish

    Also written Gong Bao or Kung Po, a spicy Chinese stir-fry of diced cooked chicken with peanuts, vegetables, chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. From its origins in Sichuan cooking it has spread across China, giving rise to regional versions, some milder than the classic.

    Wikidata · Photo: N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0

  19. Sugarcane juice 19

    Sugarcane juice

    Liquid extracted from sugarcane

    The liquid pressed out of sugarcane, drunk in many places, above all where sugarcane is grown commercially, such as Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, North Africa, mostly Egypt, and South America, especially Brazil.

    Wikidata · Photo: Food Trails, CC BY-SA 2.0

  20. Hot pot 20

    Hot pot

    Type of Chinese dish

    Also called hotpot or steamboat, a pot of soup or stock kept simmering on a heat source at the table, served with raw meats, vegetables and soy foods that diners cook quickly by dipping them in the broth.

    Wikidata · Photo: M. Weitzel, CC BY-SA 3.0

  21. Nian gao 21

    Nian gao

    Chinese food

    Sometimes translated as year cake, New Year cake or Chinese New Year's cake, and also called simply "rice cake", a food of Chinese cooking made from glutinous rice flour.

    Wikidata · Photo: Schawhoi Kamnls, CC BY-SA 4.0

  22. Shark fin soup 22

    Shark fin soup

    Soup in Chinese cuisine

    A soup or stew served in parts of China, in Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. The shark fins give texture; the flavour comes from the other ingredients.

    Wikidata · Photo: chee.hong, CC BY 2.0

  23. Tangyuan 23

    Tangyuan

    Traditional Chinese dessert

    A traditional Chinese dessert of glutinous rice formed into balls and served in hot syrup or broth. They range from marble-size to ping-pong-ball size, and are often filled.

    Wikidata · Photo: cherrylet, CC BY 2.0

  24. Baijiu 24

    Baijiu

    Distilled alcoholic beverage from China

    Also called shaojiu, a clear Chinese spirit, usually between 35% and 60% alcohol by volume (ABV). Each kind is fermented with its own starter (qū), which gives it its particular flavour.

    Wikidata · Photo: Badagnani, CC BY 3.0

  25. Grass jelly 25

    Grass jelly

    Asian jelly-like dessert

    Also called leaf jelly or herbal jelly, a jelly-like dessert from China, widely eaten in East and Southeast Asia.

    Wikidata · Photo: Supardisahabu, CC BY-SA 4.0

How this list was made

Every Wikidata item that is a dish, drink, dessert or cheese whose cuisine, on Wikidata, is Chinese cuisine, or whose country of origin is China, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 25 are shown.

Removed by hand

Wikidata files these under this list's query, but they are not what the list is about:

  • pasta — Italian, not Chinese.
  • pilaf — Central Asian, not particular to China.
  • ramen — Japanese; listed under Japanese cuisine.
  • miso soup — Japanese; listed under Japanese cuisine.
  • pierogi — Polish, not Chinese.
  • brittle — Found almost everywhere, not particular to China.

Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.

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