Here are some I get often:
酸辣汤 （hot & sour soup)
西湖牛肉汤 (west lake beef soup)
丝瓜鸡蛋汤 (string gourd & egg soup)
咸菜土豆汤 (preserved bokchoy & potatoes soup)
馄饨汤 (wonton soup)

As to the Soups, practically all of the chinese soups i have had have been either extremeley watery, far too salty or containing fish heads.

But each to their own

Those listed above are just normal Chinese people eat everyday.

Maybe if you go to Korea you will find they eat dog on a daily basis.

Anyone care to help with a translation please?

Put it another way, if you are over in Japan, would you be happy to eat sashimi off ordinary slab?
I wouldn’t! I would demand for real deal, that is a cut off a live fish, ike zukuri.

I am also a really big fan of 重庆鸡公褒 (chong qing ji gong bao). The 18/28/38 rmb sweet and spicy hot pot (they don’t have this in beijing)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18823924@N00/

1st guy: “Oh that lao wai has good taste; Ma pu doufu.”
2nd guy (unimpressed): “Yeah, foreigners always eat that, and yu xiang rou si”

Screw you! I thought. I’m not that predictable am I?

Beyond what’s already been listed, this is what I like to eat. Keep in mind that dishes of the same name vary a lot from place to place, chef to chef. What may be spectacular in one shop may be markedly unspectacular in another. But take my word for it, this stuff is GOOD:

牛肉芹菜 - niu rou qin cai - Beef and celery. Simple. Common. Cheap. Totally delicious. I like it with a hint of ginger.

柠檬鸡 - ning meng ji - Lemon chicken. Classic lao wai Chinese food.

春卷 - chun juan - ah yes, what is this weird lao wai obsession with spring rolls? The Chinese I’ve met seldom eat it. I still gobble them up at every opportunity.

排条 - pai tiao - strips of pork or chicken crumbed and deep-fried. Not traditional Chinese food but findable and delicious. I buy it from my local late night stall for 8 yuan.

土豆饼 - tudou bing - potato (pie?) - Coarsely shredded potato fried up crispy like and shaped like a pancake. A favorite when I lived in Sichuan. Common in the west and just like french fries except stuck together.

脆皮豆腐 - cui pi dou fu - crispy skin toufu - just like it sounds, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, served in a sweet and sour sauce. Familiar and exotic.

炒粉丝 - chao fen si - Fried vercemilli noodles. Maybe it’s Korean, but can be found in quite a few Chinese places. I can get it from my local late night stall for 3 yuan.

醉鸡 - zui ji (drunken chicken) - This is a little special I think. Mostly served in expensive places. Swimming in rice wine (and other stuff I’m sure). Could be classified as chainsaw chicken but after getting my chopsticks around a nice bit of meat and dropping it into my mouth I instantly became a believer.

干煸四季豆 - gan bian si ji dou - same as the one above but with green beans.

糟溜黄鱼 - zao liu huang yu - Maybe not so common, but a good boneless fish dish.

狮子头 - shizi tou (lion’s head) - pork meatballs - just proof that being able to read Chinese characters doesn’t entitle you to know what you’re ordering. wtf?

肉夹馍 - rou jia mo - a Xian snack that’s something of a chinese hamburger. The best ones come from street stalls, with cumin and coriander. Yum!

宝贝汤 - bao bei tang - just try your luck if you’re in Guangdong and see what happens.

茄子塞肉 - qiezi sai rou - meat stuffed eggplant - Another favorite when I was in Sichuan. Oily, unhealthy, divine!

黄瓜 - huang gua - cucumber - apparently just being able to name a vegetable can get you a dish in a Chinese restaurant. Sliced raw cucumber soaking in…what? Vinegar? Soy sauce? With crushed garlic. Zesty and nice on the side.

口水鸡 - kou shui ji - that’s right, saliva chicken. Another chainsaw chicken dish. No, the chef didn’t spit in it. The name means it’s supposed to make your mouth water. And how!

烧烤 - shao kao - Barbeque. Surprised this didn’t pop up already. How can you be a foreigner in China and not have the shaokao experience? Make sure to wash it down with plenty of booze to kill the germs.

Anyone else come to China looking for chop suey? I wasted a lot of breath asking around. “Chop suey? Chop suey? Anyone? Ok then… chow mein? How about hoi sin sauce? No? Ok ok. I’m not crazy. Stop mumbling about me in your local dialect.”

I eventually figured out that “chow mein” is “chao mian” (fried noodles ((duh!))). Of which there are infinite styles. None remotely resembling what I used to eat back home. “Hoi sin sauce” is “Hai xian jiang” and pretty easy to find.

After some internet scouring (god bless the internet!) I found something:

“Chop suey is an American-Chinese dish which literally means mixed pieces.”

Notice: Americanized Chinese food.

“Simplified Chinese: 杂碎”
“Hanyu Pinyin: zá suì”

I showed this to my friend and she said that here they use weird, ugly meat (pig ears, chicken hearts, etc) to make it. Well, one word: disappointing. I guess I have to fly back home just to get some of the Chinese food I miss.

At the 兰州拉面 Lánzhōu lāmiàn restaurants, my favorites are:

1) 凉面 liángmiàn (cold noodles) I usually like to have tomatoes and beef on top.

2) 新疆面 Xīnjiāng miàn (Xinjiang noodles) Pretty basic noodles, not served in a soup and different thickness than the cold noodles.

But for the record, my favorite dishes in China are the 盖浇饭 gàijiāofàn variety (dishes served with rice).