Does your town have real Chinese food YET?

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Pablo

Pablo

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Oct 28, 2002
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Everson WA - Pacific NW USA
We went to a new REAL Chinese run restaurant last night. The food was great. Superb real Chinese stuff - not the fake Cantonese glop that 99.9% of Americans call "Chinese food". The name is "Spicy Talk" what the heck kind of name is that - their establishment their name!!

We had some traditional hand made noodles and salt and pepper shrimp and barely cooked Chinese broccoli and soup and stuff, dad guy got to order one dish no one else would eat.

Anyway my "wild mountain spicy pepper lamb" (something like shan la yang) was pretty dang spicy, I mean flaming goat scrotum hot and I like HOT stuff (I DID ask for it spicy)......I almost forgot.....I'm dying here, chair has burn marks. Exit strategy was not planned at all. The exit port is not comfortable at all.

Anyway - these places are sprouting up around Microsoft. The real food I ate in Sichuan and other places in China. Good to have them!!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/spicy-talk-bistro-redmond
 
We have one place that has real Chinese food from Sichuan on the menu. It comprises about 15% of what they offer. There is another place that has a "secret" menu with real Chinese items and you have to ask for it.

I still remember the day I had real Chinese food. It was an eye opening experience.
 
I dunno. Based on what some of my work pals say who've spent lots-o time in China, there's not a whole lot of "real" Chinese food I'd want to eat.
37.gif
I do like the fake stuff though.

Joel
 
I wouldnt know what real Chinese food tastes like, I have never been to China, I rate them on how soon I have to reach a toliet afterwards on how good the food is.
 
Pablo, I plead ignorance; what is the difference between real Chinese cuisine and the fake Cantonese glop?

We have several Chinese restaurants in my area that are run by Chinese people. I would like to know if the food they serve should be considered real or fake Chinese cuisine.

Thanks,
WW
 
Pabs,

Tell me when you gonna cross the border and I'll have you try out some Northern cuisine (Shanghai "siau-long bau", etc.),or southern delicacies such as dim sum, etc.

Or whatever you like.

Q.
 
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Pablo, I plead ignorance; what is the difference between real Chinese cuisine and the fake Cantonese glop?

We have several Chinese restaurants in my area that are run by Chinese people. I would like to know if the food they serve should be considered real or fake Chinese cuisine.

Thanks,
WW


The first way to tell is to actually talk to the owner or principle. I'm a relatively shy guy, but when it comes to chow, I like to meet the people who are feeding me. Just ask them if the cook can make something like they really do in China....hahahhahaha he will either oblige, lie or say they can't do it. (some further combo
lol.gif
)

A bit hard to describe over the internets. It's not much battered. It's not clear red sweet sauce. It's not much sauce at all, really - depending on the region. It's mild or spicy (remember the chili pepper is a new world food). It's fresh cooked, fast. Maybe study how the first Chinese came to America and the food habits they brought to the west coast. Here's a bunch of links:

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Chinese_cuisine
vs.
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/American_Chinese_cuisine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cuisine
http://hubpages.com/hub/Authentic-Chinese-Food

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Szechuan_cuisine
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Hunan_cuisine
 
I frequent a couple different Chinese restaurants in Chinatown in Chicago. I always go with a couple Chinese friends of mine, one speaks Cantonese and one speaks Mandrin, so we are cover in the language department. They order in Chinese and don't even ask me what I want. They like to surprise me with new and different cuisine than what I'm used to getting at the carry-out Chinese restaurants in the burbs. I'll tell you that it's much different and much better than what I'm used to. If you have a Chinatown close to you, then go try it!

Wayne
 
@Wayne,

Unless you know specifically what you going for when you walk into the restaurant, otherwise 8 out of 10 you'll ended up getting westernised chinese food here in Chinatown.

Besides: most of the authentic ethnic foods are not in Chinatown these days in our area, just so that you know.

Q.
 
Some restaurants have made the local news ("Behind the Kitchen Door" news segment) for having penned up cats in the kitchen and others for preparing chicken on the floor. So yes, I think we have real Chinese food. I'll stick to P.F. Changs and skip the rest.
 
We used to have a really good Chinese in town (there were 9 Chinese and 9 pubs on Main Street when I moved here, a town of 10,000 people).

Went there one day to take a a workmate out for dinner, and he was born and raised in China, and spoke a number of dialects.

Asked Stanley (the Chinese bloke who owned the show) if he could talk to the chef. They talked as if they were long lost brothers.

Then this stuff started coming out of the kitchen, and it was amazing, no sugary, slimey gloop, but really tasty and healthy looking food.

Alas that restaurant is gone. He was silly enough to close for 6 months while he built a new super Szechauan House...and lost 90% of his customers to the competition.
 
Real Chinese food is cooked and served only in restaurants with majority of customers are Chinese, and look for some specials written only in Chinese. If you see mostly American, black and white, in a Chinese restaurant it is water down to American taste, which is mostly bland. The same for other ethnics restaurants such as Indian or Vietnamese or Thai.
 
I don't know if we have a "real" Chinese restaurant.

We have many real Vietnamese restaurants. There is usually a few guys gambling in the back and the nuoc mam was dark and powerful... not anything at all like the stuff at the shiny, flashy, trendy Pho bistros.
 
There's a reason that Chinese food get "Americanized" when it reaches this shore: to adapt local taste. The same reason American food "go Chinese" when it reached China.

I'd imagine most American wouldn't like to eat stinky tofu or jelly fish as appetizers, or having the head of a chicken still staring at them on a plate.
 
Chinese restaurants are mostly the only places I eat out at. They're all closer to whole foods than other restaurants. The best place I ever got Chinese food at was the Moon Villa at 15 Edinboro St., Boston, MA, in Chinatown.

I usually eat proteins for breakfast and then complex carbs like rice and veggies at lunch and supper. That way I can combine proteins with low starch veggies or eat rice with veggies (and no proteins) in order to maximize protein absorption.

I had a nice vegan lunch called Vegetables Delight at a nice little local place called the Magic Wok a few days ago. It tasted good. I hadn't eaten out in 2 months or so. There are friendly Asian people that work there. It may not be Chinatown but it's quite good. It'd be better if they used more garlic, IMHO.

Here's a photo I took of it :

ChFoodpse7.jpg
 
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