Countdown with me: My top 5 Chinese dishes

For my year end round-up, I want to share some of my favorite dishes that didn't make it into my column this year. Fair warning: I always want to encourage folks to try restaurants and dishes that may seem a bit adventurous, but these just might become your next favorite foods. So, here are my top five fantastic dishes you may not have considered ordering--all of them are great for sharing with a big group, and as a bonus they are all super affordable too.

No. 5

Yumen Kezhan's gluttonous bullfrog (chan zui niuwa 馋嘴牛蛙) with flaming hot chilies and a fistful of Sichuan peppercorn. Your lips burn like coals, and yet, you cannot stop eating these addictive little frog parts.

No. 4

Hong Rui Xing's asparagus with crab legs and poached egg white (lusun xietui 芦笋蟹腿). This is a gorgeous dish with bright green tender asparagus, pillowy egg white and loads of hairy crab leg meat.

No. 3

Boduo Xinji's pork neck and zucchini in XO sauce (XO jiang chao xiaogua zhujingrou XO酱炒小瓜猪胫肉). The pork neck is delightfully chewy and savory, but the crisp, subtly sweet zucchini lightly coated in XO sauce gets snapped up even faster than the juicy pork.

No. 2

Hao You Hui's Jinhua bone soup hot pot (tese jinhua gutou shaguo 特色金华骨头沙锅). A huge hit with my friends and family, the giant pig leg bones are to be eaten last when the soup is rich after lengthy simmering. The soup base comes thick with tofu skin noodles (houbaiye 厚百叶) and chewy dried bamboo shoots (sunjian 笋尖). At the end of the veggie feast, you lug the bones out of the giant terracotta pot, pull on your plastic gloves and put your straw in to suck out the marrow--this is not the time to be genteel.

No. 1

Spicy Joint's fried pig feet (kouwei zhushou 口味猪手). Although Spicy Joint is the city’s top Sichuan spot, this dish originally hails from Hunan. The feet are boiled until soft, fried in spicy oil and served with minced scallions. These luxuriously glutinous and fatty treats are not to be sniffed at--they are to be devoured and craved on a semi-regular basis.

So now you have my cheat sheet to stellar Chinese dishes for the winter season. It’s time to dig in to some unusual treats with gusto and a cheerful group of friends; that’s what the holidays are for.

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