Sweet

Taste: sweet

Soybean milk is made with a mix of beans. The typical type is made by soybean, however, it can also be made by black beans or green beans, and sometimes a mix of both. You can find freshly blended or boiled soy milk in disposable cups at most breakfast restaurants. It's very convenient for a take-out as well.

Taste: sweet

Sugar-coated haw, which is called "Tang Hulu" or "Bingtang Hulu" in Chinese, is a traditional Beijing snack of candied fruit. Although "Hulu" refers to bottle gourd in Chinese, this snack actually doesn't use bottle gourd for ingredients, but most commonly use haws. Similar to Basi Digua, Tang Hulu is made by dipping a stick of haws into hot molten rock sugar syrup, and after it cools down, a harden, glittering and crystal sugar coating comes out. The bamboo skewer used for penetrating haws is approximately 20cm long, which is suitable for placing around 7 haws on it. Before the snack fully prepared, there is usually a second coating that should be attached outside the sugar coating, using sesame sprinkles for most of the time. However, recently, some vendors will also use chocolate for the second coating. Different recipes have been created with the main fruit ingredients.Traditionally, the fruit used has been Chinese hawthorn, but in recent times vendors have also used various other fruits, such as cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges, strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, kiwifruit, bananas, or grapes.

Taste: sweet, or salty

Tofu pudding is a popular Chinese snack made with very soft tofu, which is made from raw soybeans.Flavors of tofu pudding vary by region. In the Northern China, people like to have salty toppings on tofu pudding, which consists of soy sauce, meat and spring onions. However, in the southern China, people prefer the sweet version with ginger and brown sugar syrup, and fruits toppings on it. In recent years, there is a trending joke popular among Chinese kids that eating salty or sweet tofu pudding will affect your friendship with others.

Taste: sweet

This type of glutinous rice flour dumpling is round-shape and sweet, for that its fillings consist of sweet fillings such as sugar, sesame, osmanthus flowers, sweet bean paste and sweetened tangerine peel. This snack is eaten in both northern and southern China, while southerners refer them as "Tangyuan" and northerner refer them as "Yuanxiao". And "Yuanxiao" also refers to a traditional Chinese festival which is also known as Lantern Festival in each lunar year's January 15th. The two Chinese characters literally means "first evening", being the first full moon after Chinese New Year, which is always a new moon. And due to its round shape and the homophone of family union, Chinese people imply the meaning of best wishes for families into this dessert.

While tangyuan was originally a food eaten during festivals, it has evolved into a dessert consumed all-year-round rather than simply a festival food. For instance, tangyuan is traditionally in white color. Yet, in order to cater to consumers’ needs and changing tastes, dessert specialty shops create new flavors or colors of tangyuan by substituting the traditional filling with chocolate, mashed potato and pumpkin paste.

Taste: sweet

This is a classic and special dessert originating from Southern China, especially the Hubei Province where lotus are widely planted. Lotus root is stuffed with sticky rice, boiled with sugar until tender, then served with a sweet and refreshing osmanthus syrup. During the fully steaming or simmering process, the lotus root will lose most of its crispiness and crunchy texture. The sticky rice tastes gooey, sweet, and infused with a nice aroma from the lotus root. The osmanthus syrup has a flowery fragrance, an amber color, and sweet taste. All of these add a fantastic taste to the whole dish. Although the dish is sweet, is referred to as a appetizer in many restaurants. Lotus root is a popular ingredient in Chinese cooking and Chinese medicine due to its health benefits. Fresh lotus root can be added to stews, salads, soups, and stir fried and braised dishes. It can be ground into powder to make drinks, or to processed to make lotus starch. It’s a very important part of Chinese cuisine, in the same way the potato is to American food culture.

Taste: sweet and sour

In Chinese, "Tang" means sugar, and "Cu" vinegar. Therefore, this rib dish is full of the rich taste that is sweet and sour. This is a very famous Shanghai dish that could be both served as an cold appetizer or a hot entry dish, which depends on the size of the ribs. The ribs are lightly marinated and coated with cornstarch, then deep fried quickly to get a crispy surface without cooking through. Then the sweet and sour sauce is quickly cooked and reduced in hot oil. In the end, the ribs are added back for a quick stir fry to coat the sauce and just get them cooked through. It might sound like an easy dish, but, the actual process is quite daunting. The authentic sweet and sour pork is quite difficult to replicate.

Taste: sweet

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes is a very common home style dish, which is very easy for cooking by hand. It tastes especially fresh with an original taste and flavor as well as high nutritional value. Only five simple steps if you want to try it by yourself:

• First, the proportion of egg to tomato should be proper - usually two eggs and 1 tomato is enough for one person.
• Second, the egg must be stirred well to make a more well-distributed taste and attractive color.
• Third, add the egg and tomato slice into the pan, stirring them all together. Enough oil should be added in this step in order to avoid sticking to the pan.
• Four, some white sugar can be added in when stir-frying the tomatoes to neutralize its sourness.
• Five, after the heat being turned off, add a little salt to make the dish more fresh and original.

The red and golden color is also an important reason why Chinese people love this dish so much. Red and golden color both represents luck and happiness in Chinese culture.

Taste: sweet

Its Chinese name is "Basi Digua" or "Basi Hongshu", in which the "Digua" and "Hongshu" both refer to sweet potato. This is a hot entry kind of like a dessert, especially popular in northern China. The key point of "Basi" is to use the heated rock candy to make a crispy and crystallized sugar coating outside the sweet potato. However, when the dish is just finished, the rock candy is still melting and thus can be drowned into the filiform. When it cools down, the sugar coating is formed. This is a process similar to making glass. In some traditional Chinese restaurants, this dish even is a challenging test for trainee chefs to prove their skills and proficiency. Ingredients such as yam, apple and banana can all be cooked with "Basi".