Che fan le ma?

Everyone knows Chinese food is great. Its enjoyed all around the world is very popular in Britain. Still we were pleasantly surprised to find that Chinese cuisine is a lot more diverse and fascinating than we were used to and an integral part of the Chinese culture, it soon became one of our favourite past times.

Ihsan says these Tangbao (a type of small soup and meat filled dumpling, local to Xi'an) were his favourite, and you wouldn't argue with him from the look on his face.

What surprised us the most was the number of Halal options available to us, Muslim establishments were widespread and served a huge variety of cuisine. All we had to do was keep an eye out for the characters "Qing Zhen" "清真" literaly meaning pure truth, or Halal or anything associated with Islam. "清真" can be found everywhere from posh city centre restaurants to back alley stalls and even on supermarket shelves! With the exception of pork dishes we were able to try most major Chinese cuisines.

Traditionally pork and also chicken used to be the preferred meats for Chinese people, with mutton being considered filial animals, and cattle being considered beasts of burden. Beef and mutton were used as the Halal alternative to pork by Muslims and are now much more popular in China. We were mainly eating at Halal alleyway restaurants, or vegetarian restaurants and Buddhist temples which usually have a small strictly vegetarian restaurant inside for the residents monks as well as visitors.

For such a large country it is inevitable that there will be different culinary methods around the country. In Britain and many Western countries most Chinese restaurants are run by immigrants from Guandong and Southern China including Hong Kong so they serve a lot of South Chinese food. But there are also distinct Northern (Mandarin and Muslim), Eastern and Western (Sichuanese) styles.

Northern cuisine was favoured by the Imperial courts and had many influences. We tried one of its most famous dishes, Peking Duck, on our first few days in Beijing, after wandering down a few backstreets.

After watching the chef roast the glazed duck on a pole on an open fire oven, he brought out the duck and chopped it into thin slices.

The duck is eaten with scallions and cucumber with plum sauce, all wrapped in a thin pancake wrap. Delicious!

Nothing is wasted with the left over bones and excess fat made into a soup which is served last.

Another famous Northern dish we tried was Mongolian hotpot. It had been introduced to China by its Mongol invaders who used to use their helmets to boil meats during their rampages through Asia. Ihsan enjoyed it, but my first experience left me hot and sweaty wondering why i was paying so much to cook my own food.

Hot hot hot! We dipped a large selection of meats and vegetables in the hot pot which slowly change the flavours of the soup. Ihsan says their trademark sauce was not that great.

Traditionally Chinese cuisine has always been about balance. Meals usually consist of a number of dishes that are meant to complement each other, with the principals of yin and yang or hot and cold foods applying. There is also a variety of different meats and seafood as well as vegetables while grains such as rice usually considered a cheap filler. Chinese food really stimulates all the senses as dishes include a contrast of different colours and textures.

Several dishes including chicken with green peppers and chilli, vegetables, egg fried rice, chilli infused bread and green tea at a Uyghur restaurant in Beijing.

Traditionally Muslim cuisine included flat breads, kebabs and noodle soups.

Kebab stalls are everywhere around China and they're "temlik" (Uyghur for delicious). They are covered in various spices including chillies and cumin seeds and, although usually mutton or beef, also include tofu and seafood.

A Xi'an speciality, "yangrou paomo." You are handed some bread which you break into small pieces over which a mutton, or another meat, and soup and noodles are poured. My favourite.

Fruits are delectable and plenty in the Northwestern province of Xinjiang, famous for its grapes and watermelons amongst others.

Someone couldn't wait to finish their watermelon and left it in an ashtray in our hotel lobby.

Breakfast isn't really a proper meal in China apart from in the Guandong (dim sum etc.), but you can usually find dumpling shops or grab a bowl of rice to keep you going until lunch.

Breakfast at Tianchi included bread, potato and lots of green tea. Heavenly.

We had to plan ahead and stock up on packs of instant noodles for our epic train journeys; especially once i got really ill after eating at the train restaurant carriage. They taste pretty good and are stamped Halal.

We wouldn't recommend many chicken dishes in China because it is usually a WHOLE chicken, including the whole head and claws. Bizarrely there is no breast meat and lots of bones. Btw there really isn't anything meaty on the chicken's head to eat - we tried.

There might be another update, with the mouth burning Sichuanese and exotic Southern cuisines including a famous restaurant called Gaylord(!), if we can recover the rest of our photos. Sadly they seem to have been destroyed by a very nasty virus but I've still got my hopes up they will reappear.

- Usman