How do you like Chinese food?

[elaine l]

I love Chinese food and plan to go to PF Chang's for my birthday dinner. I know it's a chain but I do like their food. Yum.

[ThomasCooks]

I have enjoyed Dim Sum style served meals in two Chinese restaurants located South of the Loop in Chicago in Chinatown: Three Happiness and Phoenix. Both are good.

The food is delivered on small carts and you choose the small plates that you want to sample. Think Chinese tapas, and you go and enjoy a range of special foods that you may never attempt at home: chicken feet for example. Dumplings and shrimp toasts or rolls are top notch.

The Szechwan House on Michigan Ave at Ohio closed. Across the street and under the 625 Michigan Ave., building is Hunan Cafe , it was good a few years ago. I don't get there now.

[cookee]

which asian food do you guys think is the best in asia? ( no voting on your own :))

[Bilby]

I have never been to any of the Asian countries so this is my preference based on how the Asian cuisines are served where I lived. Some are authentic and some,... well maybe not so. Japanese first preference, then Thai, Malaysian hawker cuisine, Korean, Chinese dim sum.

[GB]

Originally Posted by cookee

which asian food do you guys think is the best in asia? ( no voting on your own :))

Just recently we have had a few authentic Chinese places open and they both have quickly become my favorite restaurants. You will not find things like chicken fingers or General Tso's Chicken (not that those are not great dishes, just not authentic). I would have to pick authentic Chinese as my favorite Asian food right now, even though Sushi is my favorite overall food. I have not had much more than sushi from Japanese cuisine and don't really know what is authentic past that. I love Korean and Thai and Indian and Vietnamese. I don't think I could pick a second place choice because they are all so good, but so different.

[Jeekinz]

Originally Posted by CharlieD

I like my Chineese food a lot. Pretty much much anything.

Of course, the question is do we really know what real chineese food is? I know russian food that you can get in some restaraunts are really not russian or hae very little in cominbg with the real thing. I'm afraid it is the same with Chinees e food too.

Exactly. I'm expanding my horizons with Chinese and Japanese food. Usually I have to Google a dish to see if I'd enjoy it. However, I find Chinese to be a tad greasy to eat alot. Like what Charlie stated, do the retaurants cater to the American palate or no?

[GB]

Jeekinz and Charlie, around here most Chinese places are Americanized Chinese. You will find nothing authentic on the menu at all. However recently there has been a trend to open authentic places. There are two about 30 minutes from me (in my parents town). Each restaurant specializes in food from a particular region in China (one is based on the Chongqing region and I am not sure about the other) so their menus are very different from each other. They both do have a very small selection of Americanized Chinese items, but if you look around you will not see anyone ordering them. Also when you look around you will find that most, if not all, the people as Asian. Both of these restaurants were started by people who came here from China and were disappointed that they could not get the food they were used to at home here. I am so happy they did because the food at both places is simply amazing.

[Chopstix]

I've been to a few Chinese restaurants in the U.S. One was in San Francisco's Chinatown where I thought the food was great. Some of the dishes were pretty authentic. Another one was at Half-Moon Bay (in California) which was not good at all. The few Chinese restaurants I tried in New York's Chinatown were pretty good too. But the Chinese food at the food courts (L.A., Philly) I tried were baaaad.

I guess one can deduce that outside Chinatown, Chinese food will most likely be not so good.

[B'sgirl]

That reminds me, I had the BEST food the other day at a place called the Indian Oven. (Does Indian count as Asian?). They had this homemade cheese that was probably the best cheese I had ever tasted. It was served with a spinach sauce over rice. We also had a bbq chicken dish with a homemade yogurt sauce (it was similar to sour cream) and of course it all had authentic Indian spices. They served these wheel-shaped chips with a garlic/lime/mint sauce that was really good, and also naan bread. It may be my new favorite place!

[crono760]

Way back in the beginning of this post, MSG was criticized. I'd like to counter that: MSG occurs naturally in things like soy sauce, and "free glutimates" also occur naturally in other foods. MSG is a flavour enhancer that some credit with providing "umami". It's nothing to be ashamed of, but you DO have to know how to use it properly :-P

Also, I was never a fan of Japanese food. I'm partial to the chinese and vietnamese food we find in Chinatown.

Mike