Few people realize that there is a wide range of Chinese food and that the difference between Northern Chinese cuisine and Southern Chinese cuisine is quite drastic. Authentic Chinese food does not necessarily fit the palettes of all Chinese. The meals and flavors are based on the weather, local produce, and heavily on tradition. For instance, the spicy foods from the Sezchuan region is actually a result of their harsh cold winters where they used the spicy foods to help warm them up. In other instances, the heat from the spice led people to eat more of the abundant rice rather than the scarce meat dishes, while in others the acidity of the spice and salts helped to kill of pathogens and cure meats for longer shelf life. As an over-generalizing rule of thumb, dishes from the north are usually richer in color and flavor and food from the south are lighter and a bit more bland (reminder: very general).
In fact, China is so large that there is also a difference between the very far north (with lots of Korean influences and vice versa) and that of just northern Chinese cuisine. My mom adds a lot of dough based dishes to our family--dumplings, bao-zi (buns with meat inside), large pancakes, buns, breads, noodles, etc. Having grown up with her amazing cooking/baking/artistic culinary abilities, I often crave foods in the general domain. The problem is they are always the hardest to make and no store truly can provide you with "home cooking"
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