Chinese Food

[ReZourceman]

So. I know we have had fast food threads before and such...but this is a little bit different.

 

Please get involved with this thread and talk to me in depth about your favourite dishes...I'll touch more on this sentence later.

 

I'll start off with a story. Within the past couple of months I have become...kind of obsessed with Chinese food. For some reason. I do not know how or why.

 

It used to be that Indian was my favourite take away.

 

I don't know if this has changed. I think it has. Chinese is just epicness. Whether eating in the house from delivery, or at a restaurant. I have been to (very few) actual restaurants. Maybe two. One that I discussed the other day, that was very great fantastic.

 

The other is in Chesham, and is also absolutely fantastic, but...hmmm...its difficult to describe. In a different league I guess. They do an all you can eat , but its order as opposed to a buffet. The meals they do are just amazing. Spring rolls that are giant and (cut in half....slanted) incredibly juicy and very flavoursome and delicious, with soft vegetables in side. A far cry from the standard spring roll filled with stringy fail.

 

I have just tried searching Google for a similar looking epic spring roll but havn't found one that looks close. Rest assured, next time I am there I shall definitely take a photo. But for now, here is a generic picture of a spring roll that acts as an interlude to this post.

 

 

So these two great restaurants differed a lot. Both were delicious, and I will now leave the specific and sole comparison of them aside, and instead talk more broadly. The subject? Satay Sauce/Satay (Chicken).

 

The satay sauces and dishes (as a side dish, as opposed to a main dish which I've discovered differes a fair bit) are wildly different. I'm going to focus on the sauce and "Chicken Satay Skewers".

 

Noodle Nation, who have several locations around the UK - their satay sauce is very delicious. It is very opaque and matt, almost like watered down peanut butter in terms of visuals. Taste is very good. Not too spicy. Wet, and peanutty...but not tooo sweet. Its great. The satay chicken itself, on skewers is also good. I do rate it highly.

 

 

The satay sauce at (The International, which is the "another level" Chinese restaurant I referred to earlier) is fantastic. The sauce itself is reasonably similar to the Noodle Nation one in terms of visuals and that it is not as sweet as I've discovered seems to be the "norm" but the actual chicken on skewers is the element that raises this dish. It comes out sizzling. The chicken is almost intolerably juicy, and the delicious charring on the outside is salty and crispy. Immensely mouth watering, a fantastic dish.

 

The satay sauce from my local Chinese (Sun Sun Chinese in Aylesbury) is very good. More translucent than the other two I have mentioned, and definitely thicker and chunkier with nuts. It is also more coconutty and a lot sweeter. Its very delicious also and goes incredibly well with not just the skewers but a variety of accompaniments or rice...even the chow mein it works well with, the encompassing heat of the chow mein thinning the sauce when stirred into it.

 

The sauce from a local all you can eat Chinese (Top Wok in Princes Risborough) is very similar indeed.

 

 

So Satay Sauce or Satay Chicken skewers are pretty much a staple to any Chinese Feast or meal, IMHO.

 

Next up is a dish that I've found (in terms of flavour at least) to be near-identical wherever I have experienced it, but that flavour is always....just absolutely fantastic, and a flavour combination that I would consider as one of the best, due to the unusualness of one of the elements and its immense deliciousness when combined with its allies. I am of course talking about Crispy Duck with Hoisin Sauce, in pancakes.

 

Wafer fin and deliciously satisfyingly textured pancakes, crispy and soft duck with a powerful and punchy plum sauce that compliments the duck perfectly. They're absolutely delicious and the fun of making pancakes is great. However if at all you can eat restaurants, I usually just bypass the pancakes entirely, finding an entire plate of duck smothered in sauce a much easier way to get large quantities of duck into my body without faffing around with pancakes.

 

 

The only thing I've found that varies too much is quality of duck, and I certainly havn't found that it effects taste too much.

 

Next is a favourite dish of mine that tends to have some fairly different interpretations - Kung Po Chicken, oft referred to as "Sweet and Hot". It is a deep orange sauce that is hot and sweet, often using orange in the sauce. My favourite iteration of Kung Po Chicken is from a surprising source - the chain Noodle Nation that I mentioned earlier. The chicken is battered - deliciously I might add, it seems to have a large amount of tiny bubbles, which leads me to suspect they use soda in the batter, a technique I picked up from recent cooking shows. The sauce they use is rather thick and not too hot, very sweet, and just very delicious. Green Peppers and cashew nuts/onions join the meal in this iteration.

 

In most other versions I've tried (in fact, I think all...) the chicken has not been battered. There is almost always water chesnuts too. It can be very hot, but still a delicious meal. Sticky and sweet, and delicious.

 

 

(It also transpires ....after a Google image search that the Kung Po I am familiar with differs wildly from Googles. In my experience its always been incredibly vivid orange in colour).

 

Onto another orange and popular dish. Sweet and Sour chicken. It comes in many forms - Hong Kong style, in batter and sauce, or Chicken Balls which are cubes of chicken in fluffy batter with a crispy outer batter shell blog, with seperate sauce. These chicken balls offer customisation options, as you can equip them with (as an example) Satay Sauce for epicness.

 

Sweet and Sour chicken is definitely popular for a reason. Its got a delicious flavour and the texture and taste of battered chicken in the sticky sauce is a great combination. Onions and mostly green peppers usually accompany this dish, and the peppers at least are a welcome addition.

 

Again, this dish is not something that I've had huge variations among different outlets.

 

 

Chow Mein is the final dish I will talk about in this post, although there are some dishes that I am familiar with and enjoy immensley that I havn't covered, I have talked in length about my favourites. Chow Mein is a great "second main dish" or "share dish". From my local Chinese, it is immensely delicious, with an almost smoky, and rich Chinese barbequeish flavour and very sticky/reduced sauce that lightly coats the noodles.

 

Enjoyable in many versions, I tend to enjoy "pork" a lot - for one the texture is great and different to my typical other dishes, for two it tastes great, char sui pork has a great and simple flavour, and for three its one of the cheapest meat chow meins, so it often is ordered. With a selection of suitable vegetables inserted (onions and bean sprouts) its a great dish.

 

 

I've recently tried a vegetable iteration due to a very small price which was great. I am eager to see the plain bean sprout version.

 

-----------------

 

But I want to expand. I want to learn about different dishes. I have planned at least one new dish I intend to have from my local the next time we order, but please share your Chinese experience AND most importantly recommendations, and please do so in depth it would be fantastic to discuss this wonderful culture and phenomenon of food with you all.

 

Well done if you've read this all, I certainly appreciate my typing not having been a complete waste.

 

tldr; Chinese Food R ARTICHOKE.

[Raining_again]

 

tldr; Chinese Food R ARTICHOKE.

 

thread ruined.....

 

 

 

 

i like a nice curry/black bean or satay... not a huge fan of chinese cause a lot of it is really sweet...blargh

[Eenuh]

I like Chinese food, even though I always stick to the usual (afraid I won't like something else I'm getting haha).

 

Always go for Chicken Curry with Egg fried rice (some places have veggies in there too, mmm) and chow mein. And vegetarian spring rolls. Love those.

 

I've tried some other stuff before, like duck (forgot what sauce), fried pork balls, pork with some sauce... but I always just go back to my chicken curry. Sad, I know. =P

[ReZourceman]

What exactly is the chinese curry like?

[Raining_again]

its like a nicer version of curry sauce from the chippy, but with veggies and meat :p

[Eenuh]

I only ever have it at chinese places so I can't compare heh. But the curry can be a bit spicy or mild depending where you go. Chicken is usually nice and soft. And it has some veggies in it, usually carrot, onion and mushrooms I think. =)

[MoogleViper]

Chicken is usually nice and soft.

 

I'm pretty sure ReZ has had chicken before.

[Supergrunch]

Wow, you've put a lot of effort into that post...

 

Anyway, I have a few recommendations for you, although some of them might be hard to find in your local takeaway, but I there's nothing all that outlandish. In general, there are about three kinds (regions and dim sum etc. aside) of Chinese food you can get in England. The first is that of takeaways, which is pretty much inauthentic and specific to England (and America?), much like Indian takeaways. Which is not to say it's all bad - in particular, hoisin duck pancakes are pretty amazing, and I like loads of the sides like mini spring rolls, and prawn toast (although this can be a bit greasy). Lots of takeaways also have a Szechuan section, which I recommend looking into if you like spicy food - the classic red sauce beef szechuan is pretty good:

 

 

It tastes far nicer than it looks - have it piled on top of a bowl of really fluffy egg fried rice for best effect. And crispy chilli beef, although note that it's sweet, chewy, and not really meaty enough to be a main:

 

 

So what of the other two types of food? Well, they both come from the more authentic places, which generally means sit-in restaurants. In particular you get a load of these in Chinatowns, but they're elsewhere too. Now, sadly most of these places are under the misconception that Westerners will only like bland food, so the vast majority of the menu will be rather dull, along the lines of "rice/noodles plus weakly flavoured meat and possible sauce." This is pretty different to the standard takeaway fare, and is generally a lot worse as it's just so flavourless, and the meat is often somewhat gristly. That said, I do like the honey roast pork that lots of these places have on the English menu, although note that it often comes cold:

 

 

Accessing the much better food that these places have is somewhat tricky then, as it's usually on menus they don't give you. Sometimes you can get hold of an English translation, although you'll have to ask specially e.g. for the home-cooked menu or the Szechuan menu or something. This stuff is generally all great, although can be very spicy. And in some cases the only way you can get hold of the good stuff is by ordering in Chinese, which only really works if you have someone Chinese/Chinese-speaking with you. There is this book however, which is designed for this precise problem. In general I haven't tried a lot of this stuff for obvious reasons, but I want to investigate more.

 

One other area you could look into is dim sum, which is a kind of Chinese lunchtime food consisting of loads of different types of dumplings and similar things, my favourite being char si bao, which are big cloudy buns of pork and win:

 

 

These can be hell to get hold of in England though. Some Asian supermarkets sell them frozen, and you can steam them, but I've only seen them available fresh in Chinatowns. Loads of places in the London Chinatown have them, although Ikyuusan (a Japanese/Chinese/Korean restaurant on Gerrard street) is the only place that serves them all-day, with most places only doing dim sum at lunch.

 

Anyway, those are my suggestions...

Edited April 28, 2011 by Supergrunch

[ReZourceman]

Great and interesting post (thanks for that).

 

In regards to the question mark next to American, I've only had Chinese once in America. Our hotel was next to a Chinese Buffet when we went to Florida and I really wanted to go, but we just never got round to it.

 

When we went to Philly however we did order Chinese to the hotel room, and although I ordered similar things/same things to English stuff, it was all A) different and B) not nice tasting, at all. So bad in fact that I barely ate any...and this is me.....fast food loving man.

 

We ordered a chow mein, and what came was vegetables in a horrible, thick, brown gravy. I don't remember specifically what else we had, but it was all completely not what we ordered to the point of "Have they actually sent the right thing." Bad times.

 

Partly why I was so eager to see the buffet. Will definitely do it (next year) in Florida (if I'm alive. I have an inkling I'm going to die young, but thats a different issue altogether).

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Fuck you, ReX. Fuck you and all your food threads. You just had to up the ante and post a thread about my favourite type of fast food ever.

[ReZourceman]

ALL UR FRED R BELONG TO US.

 

R ARTICHOKE.

[Happenstance]

Do loves me some chinese food. Been a while since I went for a proper meal though, mostly just getting stuff from the takeaway. This thread has got me in the mood for one now though! Damn you ReZ!

[ReZourceman]

Fuck you, ReX. Fuck you and all your food threads. You just had to up the ante and post a thread about my favourite type of fast food ever.

 

I'm expecting an epic response in this case.

 

Do loves me some chinese food. Been a while since I went for a proper meal though, mostly just getting stuff from the takeaway. This thread has got me in the mood for one now though! Damn you ReZ!

 

We'll have one together eventually bud.

[Happenstance]

There used to be a really nice Chinese buffet in Oxford. Im suprised it ever got used though, its a pretty horrible place to look out from the outside. I thought it was derelict or something when I first saw it. I cant remember what convinced me and Goafer to finally try it but im glad we did. Plus it has egg in brown which is always nice to see.

 

There used to be a nice one in Milton Keynes as well but that got taken over by Red Hot Buffet who weve decided are just average at everything and thats not worth spending money on.

[ReZourceman]

There used to be a really nice Chinese buffet in Oxford. Im suprised it ever got used though, its a pretty horrible place to look out from the outside. I thought it was derelict or something when I first saw it. I cant remember what convinced me and Goafer to finally try it but im glad we did. Plus it has egg in brown which is always nice to see.

 

There used to be a nice one in Milton Keynes as well but that got taken over by Red Hot Buffet who weve decided are just average at everything and thats not worth spending money on.

 

Ah I think I went to that one.

 

Oh no....I remember, no we went there and they were full up.

 

Went to the one that (used to be) just around the corner from that one, the...was it called LJs All you can eat buffet, the one that did all types of food. That was pretty spectacular.

[EddieColeslaw]

So what of the other two types of food? Well, they both come from the more authentic places, which generally means sit-in restaurants. In particular you get a load of these in Chinatowns, but they're elsewhere too. Now, sadly most of these places are under the misconception that Westerners will only like bland food, so the vast majority of the menu will be rather dull, along the lines of "rice/noodles plus weakly flavoured meat and possible sauce." This is pretty different to the standard takeaway fare, and is generally a lot worse as it's just so flavourless, and the meat is often somewhat gristly.

 

You've got it backwards. Authentic Chinese food is not chock full of MSG, salt and artificial colours. All of that is added to please Western palates, who do not like bland food (as you said) Also, Chinese people love gristly meat! It gives the meat character; while Westerners like chicken breast meat, we eat chicken feet, soft bones, and neck. (Well, I don't, because I don't eat meat.) Maybe the places you mentioned are just bad though, because no food should be flavourless. Not as flavourful as takeaway fare, maybe, but not completely devoid of flavour.

 

We ordered a chow mein, and what came was vegetables in a horrible, thick, brown gravy. I don't remember specifically what else we had, but it was all completely not what we ordered to the point of "Have they actually sent the right thing." Bad times.

 

Sounds like zha jiang mian (noodles in black soybean paste). Was it mislabelled as ordinary chow mein?

[Supergrunch]

You've got it backwards. Authentic Chinese food is not chock full of MSG, salt and artificial colours. All of that is added to please Western palates, who do not like bland food (as you said) Also, Chinese people love gristly meat! It gives the meat character; while Westerners like chicken breast meat, we eat chicken feet, soft bones, and neck. (Well, I don't, because I don't eat meat.) Maybe the places you mentioned are just bad though, because no food should be flavourless. Not as flavourful as takeaway fare, maybe, but not completely devoid of flavour.

Yes, I'm aware that authentic food doesn't have all the artificial stuff in it, but even at the authentic places, there's a massive distinction between the English menu and the Chinese menu, with the first being a lot more bland (or at least, less spicy). It's not additives that makes the "proper" Chinese food more flavourful but spices (especially chilli!) and to some extent ingredients. This is why I made a three way distinction between "fake" takeaway stuff (full of additives), authentic stuff (spicy etc.), and what authentic places offer Westerners (food that's devoid of either). You get the same at Thai restaurants, although a lot less so - every time I've asked a Thai person what to eat at one, they always suggest beef in oyster sauce, which is usually the most boring and least Thai-like thing on the menu. I've heard about this distinction between English and Chinese menus from several different people, mostly Westerners who speak Chinese. You're right about the meat though, there's definitely a difference there. Then again, gristle seems a lot more palatable when it's well-flavoured...

Edited April 28, 2011 by Supergrunch

[Paj!]

I do enjoy chinese food. We go to the Rendez-Vous (resturant, but we go to the lunchtime buffet like 97% of the time) in Edinburgh a lot. It's getting more and more expensive though, to the point of not feeling worth the money. But anyway.

 

I use to be much pickier food-wise than I am now (and I'm still a fussy eater really - but now I'll try anything, just likely not love it :/ ) and so hardly had anything that was even vaguely chinese. But now I just get a bit of anything that looks interesting.

 

Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls (sans sauce) will always be my no.1 love in life. And Crispy Greens/Seaweed - NOWHERE does it better than Rendez-Vous. Take your pasticy seaweed from your local takeaway and shove it up yo ass bitch, this stuff is amazing.

 

Duck pancakes are yes.

 

And I generally just gets random bits of whatever meaty thing looks nice/is on offer. I've yet to truly dive into the more vegetably options though. I don't think i've ever had a spring roll. I'm not sure what's even in them.

[Eenuh]

I do enjoy chinese food. We go to the Rendez-Vous (resturant, but we go to the lunchtime buffet like 97% of the time) in Edinburgh a lot. It's getting more and more expensive though, to the point of not feeling worth the money. But anyway.

 

I use to be much pickier food-wise than I am now (and I'm still a fussy eater really - but now I'll try anything, just likely not love it :/ ) and so hardly had anything that was even vaguely chinese. But now I just get a bit of anything that looks interesting.

 

Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls (sans sauce) will always be my no.1 love in life. And Crispy Greens/Seaweed - NOWHERE does it better than Rendez-Vous. Take your pasticy seaweed from your local takeaway and shove it up yo ass bitch, this stuff is amazing.

 

Duck pancakes are yes.

 

And I generally just gets random bits of whatever meaty thing looks nice/is on offer. I've yet to truly dive into the more vegetably options though. I don't think i've ever had a spring roll. I'm not sure what's even in them.

 

Spring rolls are the best things everrrrrr. There's meat ones (chicken usually I think) and there's veggie ones. Both great. Add sweet and sour sauce and it's the best thing you can have. At least to me. =P

[EddieColeslaw]

Yes, I'm aware that authentic food doesn't have all the artificial stuff in it, but even at the authentic places, there's a massive distinction between the English menu and the Chinese menu, with the first being a lot more bland (or at least, less spicy). It's not additives that makes the "proper" Chinese food more flavourful but spices (especially chilli!) and to some extent ingredients. This is why I made a three way distinction between "fake" takeaway stuff (full of additives), authentic stuff (spicy etc.), and what authentic places offer Westerners (food that's devoid of either). You get the same at Thai restaurants, although a lot less so - every time I've asked a Thai person what to eat at one, they always suggest beef in oyster sauce, which is usually the most boring and least Thai-like thing on the menu. I've heard about this distinction between English and Chinese menus from several different people, mostly Westerners who speak Chinese. You're right about the meat though, there's definitely a difference there. Then again, gristle seems a lot more palatable when it's well-flavoured...

 

Do you like spicy food? If so, go for Szechuan style food! The Szechuan region is famous for strong, spicy flavours. I think Indian and Thai foods are more known for strong flavours and spices though, so maybe Chinese food isn't for you?

 

I'm surprised at the Thai person's recommendation though, especially since oyster sauce originated from China...I would have expected them to recommend something like pad thai or khao man kai? idk...

 

Has anyone (who lives in London) ever been to HK Diner in Chinatown? I think they've got a good balance between Western-influenced and authentic Hong Kong style.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I'm expecting an epic response in this case.

 

You've just read it. I just love the typical Chinese takeaway/buffet you get at Chinese fast food places. I have no pretensions about it, nor do I have anywhere near the same level of fascination with food in general as you have. I just love to eat the darn stuff. :p

 

So yeah, that's about as epic a reply from me as you're gonna get in this thread.

[Will]

Best thing I've discovered in America so far:

 

 

Basically McDonalds for Chinese food. I absolutely love it. Also authentic Chinese food is pretty rubbish imo. I've had a lot of it and I'd much rather eat the inferior westernized stuff to be honest.

[Pancake]

I usually just bypass the pancakes entirely

 

OH DO YOU NOW!

 

 

 

 

I'm surprisingly picky about Chinese food. I am NOT a picky eater generally, i'm a greedy fat pig that will eat far beyond hunger satisfaction. But i have an aversion to any form of thick noodles you see, because they remind me of worms, and it makes me sick. I can have fine noodles, but not thick chow mein style ones. I don't think chow mein tastes very nice anyway, so i don't feel i'm missing out.

 

I love Singapore noodles! Those are much more to my taste. I think the pork compliments the noodles very well, as long as they put enough in (pork, that is).

 

But nothing can beat chicken balls (no sauce!), and duck panckes (also no sauce, but everything else). I guess i have a problem with the sauces in Chinese food, i find there is often just too much sauce and it smothers the food, and/or, it just doesn't taste that nice (mainly in the chow mein dishes). But this has made me want to experiment more!

 

*looks out Chinese takeaway menu*

[Shorty]

This thread should probably called "The Western Idea of Chinese Food"

[Caris]

House special Ku-Bo is where it's at.