Although Benxi is a small city, it boasts an impressive variety of delicious food. Dishes from all across the country are available here with authentic flavours, making it a paradise for food lovers. Busy commercial districts are always packed with eateries. Great restaurants cluster around Yongfeng Pedestrian Street and Dongming Pedestrian Street. The grilled lamb chops, Sichuan hot dishes, sour and spicy vermicelli, and spicy soup near Hualian Commercial Building are hugely popular among local young people. San Sisters Barbecue is a must-try for visitors, especially its seasoned soybean tendons. In addition, you should not miss the boiling fish, wild mushroom dishes, coiled pancakes, jade-like pancakes, and pork rib soup with Chinese cabbage and wood ear mushrooms around the city fire station.

The Changkuan pork trotter series is prepared with an ancestral secret recipe. Its main smoked products include pork trotters, pork tripe and pork knuckles. The trotters taste savoury and rich, tender enough for the meat to fall off the bones effortlessly.

The most distinctive features of Mongolian pancakes are ultra-thin translucent wrappers and soft texture. To achieve this effect, the dough must be thin and the filling finely minced. Fine filling prevents the wrapper from breaking while wrapping, and runny dough ensures the baked crust stays tender.

The Whole Sheep Feast is made with fresh sheep offal: heart, liver, lungs, intestines, kidneys, tongue, eyes, ears, tripe, trotters and sheep blood. Each ingredient is chopped up and cooked into a soup dish, served in sixteen small porcelain bowls that are never filled to the brim. Broth is refilled constantly so the dishes stay piping hot throughout the meal.

These freshwater crayfish live under stones in mountain streams and rivers across Benxi. They look like shrimp, with a crab-like body and a fish-shaped tail. They can be roasted or boiled whole. They can also be mashed to extract juice, which is then boiled to make tasty crayfish curd.

Bracken fern is one of Benxi’s most famous wild vegetables, growing widely in shaded mountain areas, foothills, meadows and farmlands. It can be served cold as a salad, stir-fried or pickled.

Also known as pan-fried pork slices, Golden Fried Pork is an ancient Manchu imperial dish made with premium fresh pork. Tenderloin slices are coated with egg yolk, then quickly stir-fried in hot oil. The finished dish is golden in colour, fragrant, crisp and tender on the palate.