I've hear people that were born in China and come to the US to try our Chinese restaurants say that they're very different compared to the food that's actually served in China.
Can someone explain the differences in our perception of Chinese food and what's actually over there?
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Anonymous2005-02-11 1:01
It's the same relationship between the food they serve in Mexican restaurants and the food that people actually make in Mexico.
Lots of recipes are changed to adapt to the vegetables available here. There is a vegetable called kai lan that is sometimes called "Chinese broccoli," which is hard to get in the US and much more expensive than broccoli here, so it's broccoli that's used in the recipes instead of kai lan. And so on.
Lots of the recipes are changed to suit American tastes, with extra meat and more fried stuff (Americans love meat and fried stuff, have you noticed?). The spices are often changed too, like the amount of hot pepper reduced considerably (because Americans tend to have less tolerance for spicy foods than Chinese people do), and spices substituted for what's inexpensive and available here. Saffron is really expensive so they might substitute paprika, and Szechwan pepper has been very hard to get in the US unless you buy it from a Chinese grocery store, so they might substitute cumin powder. And so on.
And some dishes were created in the US and have no history and little connection to China--remember, the Chinese-American community has been here for well over 100 years now. Things like chop suey and General Tso's Chicken aren't from China, they're from San Francisco.
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Anonymous2005-02-11 1:19
and fortune cookies! (~_')b
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WHERS THE BEEF2005-02-11 3:52
THEY HAVE NO FOOD IN CHINA THATS THE MAIN DIFFERENCE
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Anonymous2005-02-11 13:58
foods in china = OIL OIL AND MORE OIL
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Anonymous2005-02-12 6:10 (sage)
SAFFRON IS ENDANGERED
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Anonymous2005-02-12 13:19
I'm just mad about Saffron
Saffron's mad about me
I'm just mad about Saffron
She's just mad about me
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow...
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Anonymous2005-02-13 4:10 (sage)
Chop Suey and Chow Mein (with the deep fried noodles)... Mmmmmm.
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Anonymous2005-02-13 12:14 (sage)
I think >>2 summed it up very well: restaurant food is not real food, whatever the country you're in and whatever the restaurant is preparing. For example, japanese restaurant in France will only serve the usual fish or meat dishes, no okonomiyaki or anything which is not "famous" in people's mind.
>>10
Chop suey is a Chinese-American dish with its origins in the Chinese immigrant community in San Francisco circa 1890. It's a stir-fried vegetable dish, mostly cabbage (for lack of bok choy) and onions, bean sprouts if they are available, perhaps with sliced carrots and bell peppers added, and lightly spiced with garlic and ginger. It may be made with meat of some kind, or without. Normally it is served with rice.
It is one of the first dishes Americans think of when they think of Chinese food, despite the fact that it is not actually from China and most of the vegetables used are not widely cultivated there.
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Anonymous2005-02-16 3:52 (sage)
For "real" chop suey, you would generally use leftovers to create it.
When I think Chinese food, I've been brainwashed into thinking of "Mandarin Chinese" food, which is basically fast-food Chinese. Chicken fingers, beef teriyaki (lol teriyaki is not chinese, but whatever, americans think all orientals are the same anyway), boneless spareribs, pork flied lice, etc
Hilariously (sadly) enough, things like Boneless Spareribs are covered with what really amounts to Ah-So sauce, and Ah-So is a stereotypical saying that wartime Americans attributed to Japanese.
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Anonymous2005-02-22 20:11
>>14
The Japanese actually do say "ah so" on occasion, as well as "so desu-ka?"
I realize this. I've been a student of the language for six years now.
I'm just saying that it's ironic and sad that the Americans take fried foods, call them Chinese food, and coat them with a sauce that has a name derived from Japanese.
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Anonymous2005-03-01 19:05 (sage)
If you go to cities with a large Chinese community, you'll find real Chinese food. Another indicator of real Chinese food would be to look at the clientele. If you see Chinese people in the restaurant eating, then the place serves authentic Chinese. If you see non-Chinese, then it's an "American Chinese" food place.
In my city, though, "American Chinese" restaurants are dying out. People here want authentic (yet fast) Chinese food. So, a lot of noodle/BBQ places (char siu, siu ngap, wonton mein, hor fun, etc.) are popping up.
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Anonymous2005-03-02 10:24
>>17
What if it's a mixed crowd, with both Asians and non-Asians? (no, I don't walk up to them and say, "So, what kind of Orientals are y'all?" so I don't know whether they're Chinese or not)
There's a Chinese buffet place near me that has some decent food. The labels and menus are in both Chinese and English, and the restaurant seems to be staffed almost entirely by Chinese (or at least Asians), but the people you see eating there are a very diverse bunch of people.
If you're wondering, I am just a big, dopey-lookin' white guy who likes their Mongolian beef, especially with some chili paste on top, and their broccoli-and-chicken.
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Schwarma2005-03-04 13:34
>>18
Take a look into the kitchen and it'll probably be mostly hispanic people cooking the food. That's some authentic chinese cooking there. Look for a restaurant that says cantonese food and it won't be that greasy slop you get in the cartons.
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Anonymous2005-03-09 10:58
I used to frequent chinese places a lot, and I noticed that asians eating at the places ate mostly vegetables, and a shit ton of rice. And the times i'd see the staff eating, a lot of times it'd be fish(nothing on the menu) and more shits tons of rice.
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Anonymous2005-03-12 7:49
>>20
well the dishes you get at a chinese restaurant are called 'song' which basically means accompany. the dishes are there to go with the rice.
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Anonymous2005-03-12 9:54
I like rice. Rice is nice. And I am as white as rice myself, so there.
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Anonymous2005-04-17 10:59
Well, if you just want good food called Chinese and don't care about authenticity, then the more mexicans who eat there, the better the food would be. As a matter of fact, if you go to any "ethnic" restaraunt and you see a shitload of mexicans, then you can be damn sure it tastes good.
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Anonymous2005-04-17 22:40
This one girl I used to know said she didn't want to eat at a certain Chinese restaurant because, "The food tastes like it was made by white people..."
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Anonymous2005-04-21 13:57
most american chinese buffets and restaurants are owned by koreans
yea i know, but i never see an asian person go anywhere near the primarily meat plates, just ones with mostly vegetables, and they tend to pick around any meat in those.
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Anonymous2005-05-22 2:13
This is actually true. The food in China is different in different parts of China, like Hunan, Mandarin, and Cantonese. Our stuff is basically the bastard fastfood baby of Chinese cuisine.
>> "The food tastes like it was made by white people..."
You know why that is? White people believe in hygiene. The difference in the taste can be put down to the drastically lower levels of salmonella than what you're used to.
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mizukami2005-07-06 5:16
>>3
Yes, because we all know the ancient art of fortune cookies began in the temples located on the distant hills of...San Francisco??
>>28
well, not really. like rest of china, quality's gone to hell, and 90th percentile food, like everthing else that's 90th percentile, gets screwed up by periodic revolutions, unlike japs, who have enough sense to preserve traditions, which is both virtue and vice.
Chicken feet actually tastes pretty good, the point is that the feet are supposed to have fatty skin, which transfers the taste pretty well.
hay christy mcjesus, ar eyou jewish by any chance? I had a jewish teacher who married a chink.
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Anonymous2005-09-13 17:53
i think "Real Chinese food" is a misnomer. A better name would be "Traditional Chinese food," as Chinese food changes all over the world -- Even in China! As in the US, Korea also has Korean Chinese food where immigrants brought with them there own style but adapted as necessary (ie. Jja Jjang Myun, Mapo tofu, etc.). Food is food and it doesn't like to be labeled; only eaten by me~
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Anonymous2005-11-03 4:53
"Real" chinese food usually has loads of vegetables and not as much meat. My friends who were raised in China and later moved here are always complaining about the meat, and whenever they go to Chinese restaurants they start stammering, "what's a dish with lots of vegetables?"
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Anonymous2005-11-04 12:19
As above posters said it has been adapted to better suit it us here in the US. Its just a personal improvement designed for our tastebuds. Personally, I can't stand the fast Chinese food. I cook szechuan recipes here at home (real szechuan)and I think they are absolutely wonderful.
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Anonymous2005-11-09 13:37
All things adopted by america's mainstream are changed a lot from their original format. We cant handle things that are werd or different even though we blilndly follow the ideals of proggressive socialism.
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Anonymous2005-11-09 18:27
>>2
It's the same here, but it may be because most of the population here is (are?) Mexican immigrants... I knew this guy from Europe and he said the Chinese food tastes different from back in France
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Anonymous2005-11-10 15:09
>>37
Its not that we can't handle it, its that we don't like it. Alot foods originated in a region that lacked resources (meat, spices, some kinds of vegetables). Its not a bad thing that once they've been moved to a different region local flavors are incorperated.
lemme guess, you only eat authentic ancient recipes because anything else wouldn't be trendy
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Anonymous2005-11-14 20:27
>>41
No, Americanized Chinese food is just way too bland for my tastes. Restaurants have to dumb cuisine down for the stupid old lady who wants to order the dish that has "hot" and "spicy" written all over it.