These Dishes Will Totally Change The Way You Order Chinese Food

While American Chinese food generally tends to revolve around four or five generic dish preparations - sweet and sour, sesame, stir-fried, etc. - there is, in fact, a robust and delicious variety of foods from the Middle Kingdom.

In honor of the Chinese New Year (Year of the Horse), we present you with a couple of menu items you've probably overlooked but should be ordering.

Since some of these items are a little off the beaten path and might not be on every menu, we provided the Chinese name and characters as well as the English name, so you can show your favorite local spot that you are in the know.

Produced by Daniel Goodman. Originally published in July 2013.