One myth that needs to dispelled is that fact that dog meat is widely eaten. First off, China is massive - it's the size of a continent. You can't tar over a billion people with the same brush. Some people here do eat dog. Those people generally live in the far northeast of China (since I understand eating dog meat is predominantly a Korean practise), and in the far south of China (Cantonese people). As far everyone else.... Well, to be honest, it is actually very difficult to find dog meat. There are a few restaurants that include dog on the menu, but if you ask about it they very rarely have it. Also, dog meat is considered "winter food", since it is said to have a warming effect onthe body. I have to confess here, I did manage to track down a restaurant that sold it. I tried it.... it's just meat. Didn't taste weird, it's just meat. However, I did find it to be full of bones and gristle, and for that reason I won't be eating it again.
Getting back on topic though, there are only a few things that you can find back home that can also be bought here. (I think the dish that's the closest to being the same on all continents is sweet and sour pork. But just don't ask for sweet and sour chicken/beef/prawns, since this will be met with a mixture of confusion and disgust.) So... what do people eat? It varies a lot from place to place, with each province staking claim to its own unique dishes and flavours. Here in Shaanxi province, here are two of the most popular:
Liang pi. This is basically cold noodles, covered in chilli oil. Somewhat amusingly, you can also get "hot cold noodles", which I like to call "noodles".
This one is a very commonly-seen snack in Xi'an - rou jia mo (meat and bread). Its often called a "Chinese hamburger" by Chinese english-speakers. Usually, this is stewed mutton (though sometimes beef) and gravy put inside some flat bread. Awesome.
