Menu Decoder
Chinese dish names are honest: cooking method + ingredient. Learn six or seven characters and most of a menu becomes readable. This is that, against a clock.
A real dish name appears exactly as a menu prints it. Work out what arrives before the clock runs out — the reveal shows you which characters gave it away.
Keyboard: 1–4 to answer, Space to continue.
Game over
The characters that do the work
How it was cooked
- 炒 chǎo — stir-fried
- 蒸 zhēng — steamed
- 烤 kǎo — roasted or grilled
- 炸 zhá — deep-fried
- 煮 zhǔ — boiled
- 烧 shāo — braised (红烧 = in soy sauce)
What's in it, and the warnings
- 牛肉 niúròu — beef · 猪肉 zhūròu — pork
- 鸡 jī — chicken · 鱼 yú — fish · 虾 xiā — shrimp
- 辣 là — chilli heat
- 麻 má — numbing, from Sichuan peppercorn. Not the same thing.
- 丁 / 丝 / 片 — diced / shredded / sliced
The full guide, with sixty characters and how a whole dish name assembles, is on reading a Chinese menu.
Frequently asked questions
Does 鱼香肉丝 contain fish?
No — and it is the trap this game exists for. 鱼香 (“fish-fragrant”) is a Sichuan sauce of pickled chilli, garlic, ginger and vinegar that was traditionally used with fish. The dish itself is shredded pork.
What is the difference between 辣 and 麻?
辣 (là) is chilli heat. 麻 (má) is the tingling numbness of Sichuan peppercorn, which is a completely different sensation and the one that surprises first-timers. 麻辣 means the dish delivers both.
Are these real dishes?
Yes — all forty are dishes you will find on ordinary menus across China, written the way a menu writes them. Learning them is genuinely useful the first time you are handed a menu with no pictures.
Next
Learn what to say once you have chosen in ordering in a restaurant, race the clock on travel phrases in Travel Survival Sprint, or take the food vocabulary quiz.