The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 6 letter word BAMBOO SHOOTS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
B
A
M
B
O
O
S
H
O
O
T
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Chinese food" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case chinese food = bamboo shoots.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.