How do you like Chinese food?

[Claire]

I, too, like it all. I don't know people can compare Thai or Vietnamese food to Chinese, or one kind of Chinese to another. They are different and all great in their own ways.

[jkath]

I love chinese food, but can't go out for it anymore. All the places around here use Vegetable (soybean) oil & soy sauce, and I can't have soy :(

[linguini]

My favourite is Szechuan Chicken.

You can find a Szechuan Chicken recipe here.

[larry_stewart]

I gotta go with the vegetarian hot and sour soup this one restaurant makes . I just cant duplicate it. Ive got all the physical ingredients they use ( tree ears, bamboo shoots, lily buds, tofu.... but I just dont know what the liquid/ broth is. Ive bought and tried just about everything in the chinese market, and i just cant get it right. I guess thats what keeps me going back for more :)

[DramaQueen]

My favorite dish is Won Yung Gai. Sorry, couldn't resist that.

[urmaniac13]

From what I know, I like the spring rolls and fried rice, but I usually modify them to my liking adding some thai or indonesian touch.
I don't care for the typical seasoning pattern which is usually too heavy on monosodium glutamate and soy sauce. But who knows about the actual chinese food which are made locally. I know from my own experience the Italian cuisine is hugely modified and altered overseas, and I suspect the same thing with the chinese food.

[Constance]

I had a great dish at our local Chinese restaurant yesterday. It didn't really have a name...it was chicken and shrimp with lots of wonderful vegetables and fried rice.
How do they get the meat so tender? I could cut the chicken pieces with my fork!

[*amy*]

Originally Posted by Claire

I, too, like it all. I don't know people can compare Thai or Vietnamese food to Chinese, or one kind of Chinese to another. They are different and all great in their own ways.

I agree, Claire. Never having tasted authentic Chinese food/cooking, I can only go by what Chinese restaurants in the USA serve. I lean more toward Mandarin cuisine, as I like Moo Shoo (sp), dumplings, etc. Growing up in New York, the usual dishes in a Chinese restaurants were chow mein, chop suey, moo goo gai pan (sp), egg foo young, velvet chicken, cashew chicken, shrimp in lobster sauce, won ton soup, & Peking duck (as I recall). Most of the Chinese restaurants now, have dishes like beef & broccoli, orange chicken, fried rice, egg rolls etc. It's still all good.

[GB]

Originally Posted by Constance

How do they get the meat so tender? I could cut the chicken pieces with my fork!

They use a technique called velveting.

[TanyaK]

I love Chinese food but hate it when you order sweet and sour anything and just get loads of oily batter with so little filling inside you don't even know whether it's chicken or pork. There's very few authentic Chinese restaurants in Cape Town - there is one in the harbour though - a bit of a dive apparently - but the best Chinese food in town. Planning to go there next time it's my turn to take DH out for dinner (did I mention it's super cheap as well :-)))