Order these

Food worth remembering

Skip the picture menu at the hotel door. If a place is full of tour groups, walk one street over. Beijing duck on the 10th. Xi'an cumin lamb on the 14th. Chengdu hotpot on the 17th, medium. Chongqing hotpot on the 20th, hotter, and xiaomian on the 21st. Yangshuo beer fish at the house. Shanghai dinner on Anfu Road. Everything else is optional.

Peking duck

Night one, Siji Minfu or Da Dong. Skin first, then the meat, then the soup if they bring it. Do not order a second meat course. Also: dumplings and zhajiang noodles in the hutong the next night. Jianbing is breakfast, not dinner. The good shop has a line and no English menu.

Cumin lamb

Muslim Quarter, the first night in Xi'an, then out by 9.

Biang biang and roujiamo

Wide, hand-ripped noodles. One bowl is a meal. Ask for mild chili if the first plate is a dare. Roujiamo, the lamb burger, for the walk. Persimmon cakes if they are in season. Paomo the next night if someone wants to tear bread into soup.

Mapo tofu

This is the Chengdu dish, not a side. Zhong dumplings. Peppercorn chicken. The cooking class on Friday is how you learn which peppercorn is the numbing one.

Hotpot, twice, on purpose

Chengdu on the 17th, medium. Chongqing on the 20th, hotter, more oil, more offal if anyone wants it. Do not eat the Hongya Cave version. A window seat beats a famous room.

Xiaomian

Small noodles, chili, a stool. Lunch on the Dazu day. This is the bowl you remember when the hotpot is too much.

Beer fish

At the house, not on West Street. River fish, tomatoes, beer, a mountain of garlic. Stuffed snails if someone is brave. The retreat can set this table. A village kitchen beats a hotel show.

Xiaolongbao, shengjian, scallion oil noodles

Soup dumplings: pick them up, bite a hole, soup first, then the rest. Shengjian, the pan-fried ones, if the shop has a line. Scallion oil noodles. Hairy crab is the wrong month. Dinner on Anfu Road, not in a tower on the Bund.