With Chinese New Year approaching we decided to take a look at our favourite Chinese dishes. The Irish LOVE Chinese cuisine, like you wouldn’t believe!. In a recent Valentine’s survey by JUST EAT. 42% of Irish people choose Chinese cuisine as the perfect date night dish. It’s the go to takeaway when we want to treat ourselves at the end of the week. So, there is no better, more delicious way to ring in the Chinese New Year, 2015 the Year of the Sheep than ordering one of the following dishes all available on JUST EAT. Even better, use the app, where you can order faster than you can say ‘Kung Food’!
Aromatic Duck Pancakes
Crispy Asian pancakes with succulent duck, fresh veg and hoisin sauce, these are generally supposed to be shared but you could find yourself scoffing the whole lot!
Orange Chicken
This dish originated in Hunan, but the one we enjoy nowadays is an American variation on the original recipe. Sweet orange flavoured chicken in a fresh batter makes for a tasty dish.
Beef Chow Mein
These stir-fried noodles doused in a rich soy-based sauce with strips of tender beef are a standard Taishanese meal. The name Chow Mein is an Anglicisation of ch?u-mèing – we appear to have forgotten the ‘g’ somewhere along the way.
Prawn Toast
This is one of the kind of dishes that you never really understand how it’s made or what exactly is in it, but you just know that it’s really yummy. It’s actually made from small triangles of bread, brushed with egg and coated with minced shrimp and water chestnuts, then cooked by baking or deep frying – who knew?
Special Fried Rice
Now this is a seriously simple dish that is so popular, mounds of fluffy rice with a colourful array of fresh veg, meat and prawns all fried up together with eggs in a piping hot wok. The ultimate comfort food.
Chicken and Cashew Nuts
Another Chinese-American dish that involves tender chunks of chicken combined with crispy roasted cashews, vegetables and are a light sauce made from garlic, soy sauce and hoisin sauce – so good.
Spring Rolls
You’ve got so many options when it comes to spring rolls and dipping sauces, whether it’s meat or all sorts of vegetables houses in a satisfyingly crispy exterior. Another one that’s allegedly for sharing, but you’d have to truly love someone to share your spring rolls with them!
Beef and Black Bean Sauce
This Cantonese dish involves beef slow-cooked in a thick sauce made from ground black beans. This is a really rich but moreish recipe.
Pork Yuk Sung
Almost like pork spring rolls made from lettuce wraps instead of flour, so great for anyone avoiding gluten or trying to be healthy. These are also packed to the brim with protein.
Dumplings
Doughy lumps of fried goodness, these are unbelievably tasty and have a cool legend associated with them too. The story goes that they were invented in the era of the Three Kingdoms (225 AD) when a general dammed up a poisoned marsh during combat with the Nanman using dumplings instead of the heads that the Nanman used. Bit weird but if it means we got dumplings out of it, we’re not complaining…
So there you have it, ten varied dishes to choose from this Thursday to celebrate Chinese New Year. What will you be having?