Chinese Food Quiz
Peking duck, dim sum, mapo tofu and General Tso: 15 questions on China's regional kitchens.
Peking duck, roasted until the skin is lacquered and crisp, is the signature dish of which city?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Beijing
Peking duck is Beijing's most celebrated dish, with roots in the imperial kitchens of the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The duck is air-dried, glazed and roasted so the skin can be carved into thin pieces and wrapped in pancakes with spring onion and sweet bean sauce.
Quanjude, the most famous Peking duck restaurant, opened in Beijing in 1864 and roasts its ducks hanging in an open fruitwood oven.
Dim sum, the small steamed and fried dishes served with tea, belongs to which regional cuisine?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Cantonese
Dim sum is a Cantonese tradition from Guangdong and Hong Kong, where going out for yum cha, literally drinking tea, means sharing baskets of har gow, siu mai, char siu bao and other small dishes in a busy teahouse.
The name dim sum is usually translated as touch the heart, and in traditional restaurants the dishes are pushed around the room on steam carts.
Mapo tofu and kung pao chicken are classics of which province, famous for its numbing, spicy flavour profile?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sichuan
Both dishes come from Sichuan in southwest China, whose cooking is defined by mala, the combination of fiery chillies and tingling Sichuan peppercorns. Mapo tofu was created in Chengdu in the 1800s at a restaurant run by a woman nicknamed pockmarked grandma.
Kung pao chicken is named after Ding Baozhen, a 19th-century Qing governor of Sichuan whose official title was Gongbao, or palace guardian.
Mooncakes, dense pastries with a sweet filling and often a salted egg yolk, are traditionally eaten during which festival?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mid-Autumn Festival
Mooncakes are exchanged and shared at the Mid-Autumn Festival, held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month when the moon is full. The round shape and the yolk at the centre both symbolise the moon and family reunion.
Classic fillings are lotus seed paste and red bean paste, but modern bakeries sell ice cream, custard and even durian versions.
Xiaolongbao, the thin-skinned dumplings filled with meat and hot soup, are most associated with which city?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Shanghai
Xiaolongbao are a Shanghai speciality, traced to the nearby town of Nanxiang in the 1870s. The soup comes from a cube of jellied pork stock folded in with the filling, which melts into broth as the dumplings steam in bamboo baskets.
The polite way to eat one is to lift it onto a spoon, nip the skin, sip out the broth and then eat the dumpling with black vinegar and ginger.
Sichuan peppercorns are prized for producing which unusual sensation in the mouth?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
A tingling numbness
Sichuan peppercorns, the dried husks of a prickly ash berry, contain a compound that makes the lips and tongue buzz and go numb, a sensation the Chinese call ma. Combined with chilli heat, la, it gives Sichuan food its signature mala flavour.
The peppercorns are not related to black pepper or chillies, and the tingling has been measured as vibrating the lips at about 50 times per second.
General Tso's chicken is named after a 19th-century military leader from which Chinese province?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Hunan
The dish honours Zuo Zongtang, a Qing dynasty statesman and general from Hunan, but he never ate it. Chef Peng Chang-kuei, a Hunanese cook who fled to Taiwan, created it there in the 1950s and introduced a sweeter version to New York in the 1970s.
When Peng opened a restaurant serving the dish in Hunan itself in the 1990s, locals found it far too sweet and it soon closed.
Fortune cookies, served in Chinese restaurants across America, most likely came from which immigrant community in California?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Japanese
Fortune cookies evolved from a Japanese cracker called tsujiura senbei, and Japanese immigrants served them in California tea gardens and bakeries in the early 1900s. Chinese restaurants adopted them after Japanese Americans were interned during World War II.
When a New York company tried to sell fortune cookies in China in 1992, the idea failed because customers found them too American.
Char siu, the glossy red-edged barbecue hanging in Cantonese restaurant windows, is made from which meat?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Pork
Char siu is pork, usually shoulder or loin, marinated in honey, hoisin, soy sauce, five-spice and fermented red bean curd, then roasted on long forks over fire. The name means fork roasted in Cantonese.
The same pork, diced into a sweet sauce, is the filling of char siu bao, the fluffy steamed buns that are a dim sum staple.
Panda Express, the largest Chinese restaurant chain in the United States, was founded in 1983 in which state?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
California
Andrew and Peggy Cherng opened the first Panda Express in a shopping mall in Glendale, California, in 1983, building on the family's Panda Inn restaurant in nearby Pasadena. The chain grew to more than 2,000 locations.
Its best-selling Orange Chicken was introduced in 1987 and was developed by chef Andy Kao, who says he created it at a Panda Express in Hawaii.
For roughly how long are century eggs actually preserved in their coating of clay, ash, salt and lime?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
A few weeks or months
Despite the name, century eggs are cured for only weeks to a few months in an alkaline mixture that turns the white into dark translucent jelly and the yolk creamy grey-green. Their origin dates to the Ming dynasty.
They are also called thousand-year eggs and pidan, and are often served with silken tofu or in congee with lean pork.
Baijiu, China's national spirit, is most commonly distilled from which grain?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sorghum
Most baijiu is made from sorghum, fermented in pits or jars with a starter culture called qu and then distilled to a strength that is often above 50 percent alcohol. It is the best-selling spirit in the world by volume.
Kweichow Moutai, the most famous baijiu brand, was served to Richard Nixon by Zhou Enlai during the president's 1972 visit to China.
Lee Kum Kee, now one of the biggest Chinese sauce makers, was founded in 1888 to sell which sauce?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Oyster sauce
Lee Kum Sheung founded Lee Kum Kee in 1888 in Nanshui, Guangdong, to sell his version of oyster sauce, a thick brown condiment made by slowly reducing oyster extracts. It is now a staple of Cantonese stir-fries and vegetable dishes.
Company legend says Lee discovered the sauce by accident after leaving a pot of oyster soup simmering until it reduced into a dark, intensely savoury paste.
Dongpo pork, a slow-braised square of pork belly named after a Song dynasty poet, is a speciality of which city?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Hangzhou
Dongpo pork is named for Su Dongpo, the 11th-century poet and official who governed Hangzhou and is said to have cooked pork with soy sauce and rice wine for workers dredging West Lake. It remains the city's best-known dish.
Hangzhou's other classic dishes include West Lake vinegar fish and beggar's chicken, which is baked in lotus leaves and clay.
Which of these is NOT counted among the traditional Eight Great Cuisines of China?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Yunnan
The Eight Great Cuisines are Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan and Anhui. Yunnan has a celebrated food culture of its own, including crossing-the-bridge noodles and wild mushrooms, but it is not one of the eight.
An older grouping called the Four Great Cuisines named only Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese and Huaiyang, the refined cooking of the Yangzhou area.
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All Food and Drink quizzes →About the Chinese Food Quiz
China does not have one cuisine but at least eight great ones, from the numbing chillies of Sichuan to the delicate steamed dishes of Guangdong. General Tso's chicken, the most famous Chinese dish in America, was invented in New York in the 1970s, fortune cookies trace back to Japanese immigrants in California, and the first oyster sauce company opened in 1888.
These 15 questions start with Peking duck, dim sum and mooncakes, then move through soup dumplings, Sichuan peppercorns and char siu to the stories behind American Chinese food and a final test on the Eight Great Cuisines. It suits takeaway regulars and travellers alike.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
Does the Chinese Food Quiz include American Chinese food?
Yes. A few questions cover dishes such as General Tso's chicken, fortune cookies and Panda Express, and the explanations tell you how they differ from food in China.
Which regions of China does the quiz cover?
Questions touch on Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan and Hangzhou, and the last question asks about the Eight Great Cuisines.
How many questions are in the Chinese Food Quiz?
There are 15 multiple choice questions with four options each, instant feedback and a score at the end.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Peking duck, roasted until the skin is lacquered and crisp, is the signature dish of which city?
Beijing Peking duck is Beijing's most celebrated dish, with roots in the imperial kitchens of the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The duck is air-dried, glazed and roasted so the skin can be carved into thin pieces and wrapped in pancakes with spring onion and sweet bean sauce. Quanjude, the most famous Peking duck restaurant, opened in Beijing in 1864 and roasts its ducks hanging in an open fruitwood oven. - Dim sum, the small steamed and fried dishes served with tea, belongs to which regional cuisine?
Cantonese Dim sum is a Cantonese tradition from Guangdong and Hong Kong, where going out for yum cha, literally drinking tea, means sharing baskets of har gow, siu mai, char siu bao and other small dishes in a busy teahouse. The name dim sum is usually translated as touch the heart, and in traditional restaurants the dishes are pushed around the room on steam carts. - Mapo tofu and kung pao chicken are classics of which province, famous for its numbing, spicy flavour profile?
Sichuan Both dishes come from Sichuan in southwest China, whose cooking is defined by mala, the combination of fiery chillies and tingling Sichuan peppercorns. Mapo tofu was created in Chengdu in the 1800s at a restaurant run by a woman nicknamed pockmarked grandma. Kung pao chicken is named after Ding Baozhen, a 19th-century Qing governor of Sichuan whose official title was Gongbao, or palace guardian. - Mooncakes, dense pastries with a sweet filling and often a salted egg yolk, are traditionally eaten during which festival?
Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncakes are exchanged and shared at the Mid-Autumn Festival, held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month when the moon is full. The round shape and the yolk at the centre both symbolise the moon and family reunion. Classic fillings are lotus seed paste and red bean paste, but modern bakeries sell ice cream, custard and even durian versions. - Xiaolongbao, the thin-skinned dumplings filled with meat and hot soup, are most associated with which city?
Shanghai Xiaolongbao are a Shanghai speciality, traced to the nearby town of Nanxiang in the 1870s. The soup comes from a cube of jellied pork stock folded in with the filling, which melts into broth as the dumplings steam in bamboo baskets. The polite way to eat one is to lift it onto a spoon, nip the skin, sip out the broth and then eat the dumpling with black vinegar and ginger. - Sichuan peppercorns are prized for producing which unusual sensation in the mouth?
A tingling numbness Sichuan peppercorns, the dried husks of a prickly ash berry, contain a compound that makes the lips and tongue buzz and go numb, a sensation the Chinese call ma. Combined with chilli heat, la, it gives Sichuan food its signature mala flavour. The peppercorns are not related to black pepper or chillies, and the tingling has been measured as vibrating the lips at about 50 times per second. - General Tso's chicken is named after a 19th-century military leader from which Chinese province?
Hunan The dish honours Zuo Zongtang, a Qing dynasty statesman and general from Hunan, but he never ate it. Chef Peng Chang-kuei, a Hunanese cook who fled to Taiwan, created it there in the 1950s and introduced a sweeter version to New York in the 1970s. When Peng opened a restaurant serving the dish in Hunan itself in the 1990s, locals found it far too sweet and it soon closed. - Fortune cookies, served in Chinese restaurants across America, most likely came from which immigrant community in California?
Japanese Fortune cookies evolved from a Japanese cracker called tsujiura senbei, and Japanese immigrants served them in California tea gardens and bakeries in the early 1900s. Chinese restaurants adopted them after Japanese Americans were interned during World War II. When a New York company tried to sell fortune cookies in China in 1992, the idea failed because customers found them too American. - Char siu, the glossy red-edged barbecue hanging in Cantonese restaurant windows, is made from which meat?
Pork Char siu is pork, usually shoulder or loin, marinated in honey, hoisin, soy sauce, five-spice and fermented red bean curd, then roasted on long forks over fire. The name means fork roasted in Cantonese. The same pork, diced into a sweet sauce, is the filling of char siu bao, the fluffy steamed buns that are a dim sum staple. - Panda Express, the largest Chinese restaurant chain in the United States, was founded in 1983 in which state?
California Andrew and Peggy Cherng opened the first Panda Express in a shopping mall in Glendale, California, in 1983, building on the family's Panda Inn restaurant in nearby Pasadena. The chain grew to more than 2,000 locations. Its best-selling Orange Chicken was introduced in 1987 and was developed by chef Andy Kao, who says he created it at a Panda Express in Hawaii. - For roughly how long are century eggs actually preserved in their coating of clay, ash, salt and lime?
A few weeks or months Despite the name, century eggs are cured for only weeks to a few months in an alkaline mixture that turns the white into dark translucent jelly and the yolk creamy grey-green. Their origin dates to the Ming dynasty. They are also called thousand-year eggs and pidan, and are often served with silken tofu or in congee with lean pork. - Baijiu, China's national spirit, is most commonly distilled from which grain?
Sorghum Most baijiu is made from sorghum, fermented in pits or jars with a starter culture called qu and then distilled to a strength that is often above 50 percent alcohol. It is the best-selling spirit in the world by volume. Kweichow Moutai, the most famous baijiu brand, was served to Richard Nixon by Zhou Enlai during the president's 1972 visit to China. - Lee Kum Kee, now one of the biggest Chinese sauce makers, was founded in 1888 to sell which sauce?
Oyster sauce Lee Kum Sheung founded Lee Kum Kee in 1888 in Nanshui, Guangdong, to sell his version of oyster sauce, a thick brown condiment made by slowly reducing oyster extracts. It is now a staple of Cantonese stir-fries and vegetable dishes. Company legend says Lee discovered the sauce by accident after leaving a pot of oyster soup simmering until it reduced into a dark, intensely savoury paste. - Dongpo pork, a slow-braised square of pork belly named after a Song dynasty poet, is a speciality of which city?
Hangzhou Dongpo pork is named for Su Dongpo, the 11th-century poet and official who governed Hangzhou and is said to have cooked pork with soy sauce and rice wine for workers dredging West Lake. It remains the city's best-known dish. Hangzhou's other classic dishes include West Lake vinegar fish and beggar's chicken, which is baked in lotus leaves and clay. - Which of these is NOT counted among the traditional Eight Great Cuisines of China?
Yunnan The Eight Great Cuisines are Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan and Anhui. Yunnan has a celebrated food culture of its own, including crossing-the-bridge noodles and wild mushrooms, but it is not one of the eight. An older grouping called the Four Great Cuisines named only Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese and Huaiyang, the refined cooking of the Yangzhou area.
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