Favorite Chinese Food?

[andrew]

Framitz that's an interesting fact so if milk and cheese aren't Chinese ingredients what did they eat to get calcium?

Dark green leafy vegetables, fortified soy milk, tofu, not much different than lactose intolerant or vegan people. Drinking milk past childhood isn't a worldwide practice. Most of the chinese food we get here in North America is Northern Chinese food, if you actually went to china much of the stuff you get here you'd probably have to search pretty hard for in china. Personally I'm a sucker for cantonese chow mein and deluxe egg foo young. Sezchuan crispy beef, shanghai noodles. Honey garlic breaded veal. I pretty much just get the same thing everytime. And this crispy squid with sea salt and something else I can't think of. I also love dim sum.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Every Chinese restaurant that I've ever been to has the same twelve things, and they always taste the same, like they all open the same gallon size cans and heat. Just like every Mexican restaurant has the same things. I've actually been boycotting these places for years now. And, after visiting Mexico, the food doesn't taste like what they try to pass off as Mexican here. It's way better there. Every time we get a new restaurant, it's always Mexican or Chinese, and it's disappointing. To get German food, Cuban, or Caribbean, I have to drive into downtown. Mexican and Chinese places don't last three years here. I wish someone would wake up and open a place that doesn't serve the same canned food as all of the rest of these places. It seems the only thing that affects the prices are the decorations, because the food is the same at each place.

 

[monty55]

Crispy fried whole fish, moo shu pork, and a good hot and sour soup.
Cosmic, what part of the country are you in? I have found in my travels that there are certain culinary things in life that are fact, 1) is there is no mexican food worth paying for, to speak of, north of the texas border, and 2) good chinese food can only be found in a large city, specifically the "China Town" part. And that's all I got to say about that

 

[mso489]

I like dim sum, where they bring around small portions of many different dishes and you choose off a cart. I've had exemplary dim sum in NY Chinatown, but also at a restaurant called Dim Sum in Morrisville, N.C. With Chinese, everything depends on the chef. Otherwise, the cuisine gets compromised. In NYC, people just follow the good chefs, not specific restaurants. My favorites include pork dumplings, shrimp dumplings, turnip cakes, and sticky rice and pork wrapped in palm leaves.
OMG, I'm repeating my own post. At least I'm consistent. Sorry.

 

[joshb83]

I'd definitely have to say dim sum in all its variations. See, now I was going to try to eat somewhat healthy tonight, but it looks like I'm heading out for Chinese, thanks a lot guys....update, well worth it, plus the vegetables and meat pretty much fulfill my 4 food groups

 

[voorhees]

I'm with cosmic, anytime we get a "Chinese" restaurants we get some version that is nothing authentic. My wife and I actually go Korean. I like Thai, but she doesn't. Korean makes us happy.

 

[ahpui]

I think the title needs to be "American Chinese food".

 

[buster]

My wife is American born Chinese, her family speaks Cantonese. Her not so much. The fried rice is made with bacon. We make won ton at home. Not like you see out to eat. Home made won ton actually has meat! Dim sum of all kinds, oxtail stew,tongue( beef or pork) tripe, seriously most people have no idea what chinese food is about unless you get an inside family made meal. But we live in the SF Bay Area so we get lots of authentic Chinese food as take out or dine in.

 

[fnord]

Interesting comment, Buster.
Here in the States we are very wasteful when it some to consuming our four legged animal friends. I've spent time in several countries where that practice would be blasphemous.
I've consumed too many dishes overseas, made exclusively from internal organs, that made me retch. Brains? Yack. Kidneys? Yack. Liver? Please, God. Assume me now. (I hated liver when I was a kid and there's nobody out there who can make me like it today.) Earthy, mineral tasting meals are not my favorites.
On the other hand, 8 inch strips of bovine intestine laid out on an Argentine asado is nirvana and those sweetbreads can drop a grown-ass man to his knees weeping.
But you have inspired me, pal. My favorite Mex joint in East Topeka - heavily Hispanic East Topeka - takes great pride in their "lengua" (that's tongue, gringos) tacos. I'm game.
Fnord

 

[ahpui]

Hi Fnord, if you get a chance to go to Hong Kong, Taiwan or just southern China, ask them for a pig liver or kidney dish. Might help you change your mind.

 

[jitterbugdude]

Sum yung girl! mmmm-mmmm.. my favorite!

 

[phred]

Why do they serve it at Chinese restaurants?

When your family has emigrated (or been forced to emigrate, or bribed to emigrate, or tricked into emigrating under false pretenses, all of which happened to Chinese people recruited for the U.S. labor market in the late 1800's, as opposed to those who emigrated to join the California Gold Rush), your labor options in the new country are often very limited. Food service is one major area of opportunity, which is why ethnic restaurants are a mainstay of any given immigrant section of any given town. Adapting one's home cuisine for local palates allows one to get some money back out of the surrounding community, as adventuresome eaters 'discover' this new cuisine.
The Chinese, in particular, had some incentives to go into food service - the Union Pacific Railway, which recruited heavily in the Chinese immigrant community, paid their Chinese workers the same as their white counterparts, but provided food for the white laborers. The Chinese had to provide their own...
And a number of dishes were invented during this era, as certain traditional Chinese ingredients were in short supply. Chow Mein was developed as a way to dump leftovers. Fortune Cookies were developed in San Francisco (and by a Japanese restaurant, to boot). Crab Rangoons have already been mentioned, and a lot of other traditional dishes were adapted for local conditions and tastes. There are still Chinese restaurants in Denver, for example, that have a published menu for the general public, and a menu in Chinese for Chinese customers, offering stuff that's much less popular with Americans (100 year eggs, for example).
In short - it's marketing. You sell what sells, even if it's not actually "Chinese". Same reason you find Buffalo Wings in Seattle, or fish and chips at any bar that pretends to be Irish/English/Scottish... it's what people expect to find.
As for my personal favorite, it's gotta be Har Gau (shrimp dumplings).

 

[tombraider]

I never associated curry with Chinese food, but a place around the corner from my office in NJ does really good things with it. My new favorite is Curried Beef with Onion w/side of Fried Rice.

 

[buster]

Fjord, yea tongue tacos are awesome. Crispy fried tripe tacos are amazing! Glad some one mentioned chicken feet. Those are tasty.
I won big points the first time I met my wife's grandmother. We went out to eat and a tripe dish was passed around. I said, " Oh tripe!" And took a big scoop. She use to make me pickled pigs feet. She told me it is a tradition for women to eat it for 30 days after giving birth. After that most women don't want to eat it ever again. LOL but men like it because it goes good with beer. She also made boiled peanuts with star anis in the water. She even made home made sung a kind of jerky you put on top of jook or congee which is rice soup. She would also pickle every thing! She would cook the mustard greens and pickle the stems. Nothing went to waste.
http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2012/03/pork-floss-its-whats-for-dinner/

 

[plateauguy]

Egg foo yung, or almond chicken.

 

[wyfbane]

Hum Bao.

Duck that's hangin in the window chopped bones and all into about 8 pieces. I eat it with sticky rice.

Dim Sum in a GOOD restaurant like Vancouver BC or Seattle.

The sesame seed covered bean paste desserts.
But my favorite Chinese food isn't Chinese nor American Chinese... It's Korean Chinese. I was in Seoul and ate at a Korean Chinese food place. I had JaJangMyeon. Black Bean paste with pork over noodles. Looks like axle grease, tastes like heaven.
NOT a huge fan of duck feet.
Also, in my experience awesome Mexican food often bypasses Texas altoghther and is in small family restaurants all along the paths of migrant workers. Tripe, tongue, and goat tacos are to die for.
Tex-Mex in Texas is it's own cuisine and is magical in it's own right.

 

[drwatson]

What no general tso lovers.... love me general tso chicken...
True story: Wife and I went to a little very nice resturant/buffett. They had a dish called chicken on a stick. The only thing was the chicken had 4 little legs???? 8O
And yes I did eat eat, was yummy too!

 

[av8scuba]

drwatson...was your restaurant possibly by a nuclear plant?
I have to agree on the General Tso Chicken, although it is an Americanized dish. I love it!
My daughter had a college roommate who was from China. When she asked her for several recipes, her roommate had no idea of what she was talking about. So when they went to a "chinese" restaurant, the roommate said, "This is not Chinese. I've never heard or seen this before. We have nothing like this back home."
But like a certain brand of pipe or tabacco, if you enjoy it, partake! We all have our own tastes and expectations. ::

 

[cpjeffrey11]

Baozi, of most any variety.

 

[maxpeters]

kung pao chicken. or kung pao beef, or pork. All spicy and good.