Although not one of the four main cuisines of China, the food of the far west is sufficiently interesting to mention due to the result of several influences.

To the north and north-west the preferences of the local Muslim population, the Uyghurs, is responsible for the use of mutton, lamb and beef on menus and the almost total absence of pork products. Indeed there are many Muslim restaurants which offer entirely halal dining.

In these regions the food may be less showy and complex than on the coast, but the food is hearty and tasty, and large wheels of crusty bread called nang can be bought anywhere

Make sure you don't pass on that blood-red drink you'll find in bottles on the footpath sometimes. It's possibly freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, and as delicious as it is healthy. And while the apparatus used to extract the juice might resemble a medieval torture tool, it gets the results.

Aah breads! Like any culture the Chinese have a love affair with carbohydrates. Wheat in the north (think noodles and dumplings) rice in the south, and bread anywhere. They can be flat like pancakes as above.

Or they may be cooked in a tandoor like oven like this.

Ones with holes in them are popular as they stack well, can be transported on poles and cook quickly and evenly.

These are stone pancakes made near the restored village of Pinyao in Shanxi province, northern China, where the 14th-century Ming dynasty buildings have been painstakingly restored. The nearby Qiao Family Compound was the set of Raising the Red Lantern filmed in 1991.

Outside the compound gates dozens of vendors had set up their stands and charcoal braziers. The cooks were using a short rolling pin to roll out small pieces of dough into thin circles the size of a dinner plate. These were then draped over smoking hot stones in pans and then covered with more round hot black stones. read more....

The Wangfujiang Street night market in Beijing might make you shudder. These are fine, a variety of fruit dipped in toffee. Delicious!

But what about these? Scorpions, silkworm larvae, even snake – all for sale too, although most of them are securely threaded onto skewers ready for their appointment with the grill as soon as someone is brave enough to order them. Here, cautious Westerners are in the minority as everyone else is drooling at the offerings. 

The Chinese have  a riddle: "Were Adam and Eve Chinese?" they ask. "No, because if they had been, they would have eaten the snake first, and then the apple."

On offer, starfish, sea urchins and much more stretching off into the skewered horizon.

But of course a comforting bowl of dumplings is always good, as these ladies in Old Shanghai would confirm.

What is your favourite street food to eat in China?