What does Chinese food in your country look like?

wasab · June 19, 2018

I live in the USA and over here, Chinese restaurants that dotted all across the country all have the same items. Chicken broccoli, roast pork fried rice, cheese wonton ect. I know they are unauthentic and are probably created to suit American tastes but I wonder if Chinese restaurants also serve the same things in other western country. What do Chinese restaurants served in countries like UK, Germanay, and Canada? Do they have things like fortune cookies? Do they have any unique items on the menu that are tailored to local tastes?

June 19, 2018

No fortune cookies and no MSG. Apparently the pork tastes pretty different too.

Sweet and Sour Pork is my number 1 though

No fortune cookies. Usually they also serve fish and chips (Used to be blue cod, and you can still get it, but mostly dogfish cause its super easy to catch).

wasab · June 19, 2018

3 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

No fortune cookies and no MSG. Apparently the pork tastes pretty different too.

Sweet and Sour Pork is my number 1 though

No fortune cookies. Usually they also serve fish and chips (Used to be blue cod, and you can still get it, but mostly dogfish cause its super easy to catch).

Oh, which country you live in? Sweet and sour pork sounds like something found in the UK

Edit: we have this dish in a typical Chinese restaurant here too.

June 19, 2018

5 minutes ago, wasab said:

Oh, which country you live in? Sweet and sour pork sounds like something found in the UK

Edit: we have this dish in a typical Chinese restaurant here too.

New Zealand. My favourite dishes are also Beef in Black Bean Sauce, Lemon Chicken. They are pretty everywhere as takeaways, and the restaurants are just expensive and just as good.

TetraSky · June 19, 2018

It look like garbage in a cup. #NotAFan

Drak3 · June 19, 2018

Like Chinese food.

wasab · June 19, 2018

1 hour ago, RorzNZ said:

New Zealand. My favourite dishes are also Beef in Black Bean Sauce, Lemon Chicken. They are pretty everywhere as takeaways, and the restaurants are just expensive and just as good.

What the heck. We have the same things here.

Maybe it is a western things. Anyone live 8n India? What does Chinese food look like over there?

killcomic · June 20, 2018

God there's so much in Australia. At least 3 restaurants in every suburb (or over 20 where I live).

There's yum cha, where you overdose in dumplings, Chinese seafood restaurants (salt and pepper crab is heaven), small take aways where gwelos get their dim sims and sweet and sour pork, small places with stuff like fried duck tongues, blood jelly with garlic and chives, salt and pepper calamari and hand made noodles.

You get everything from traditional to modern to westernised. There's just too much to show.

Crunchy Dragon · June 20, 2018

Every Chinese buffet I've been to in my country(also USA) always serves the same kind of stuff.

They might have like one or two dishes that are different, found in one place but not another place, but it's always very similar

Misanthrope · June 20, 2018

Lots more regional vegetables served here. But there's usually both types to be found: Mandarin Chinese is the far more common and cheap to be found but there's a few places that sell Cantonese.

Not sure if this are actual differences but it's something I've noticed here.

Most of the time you find sweet and sour and spicy chicken and I suspect Chinese people here have adapted their recipes to sell the spicy chicken far more since it is extremely popular here and because I've noticed they add things like jalapeño chiles to other dishes so I imagine they learned we like things way spicier and not as sweet as Americans which is by contrast very heavy on the honey.

EPENEX · June 20, 2018

Rice with chicken in a dozen different variations.

Gale · June 20, 2018

There are A LOT of Chinese immigrants here in Canada, so it's fairly common to find authentic Chinese restaurants in parts of British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta. Chinese buffets though, from my experience, are a joke.

wasab · June 20, 2018

1 hour ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Every Chinese buffet I've been to in my country(also USA) always serves the same kind of stuff.

They might have like one or two dishes that are different, found in one place but not another place, but it's always very similar

Those are typical food served by unauthentic Chinese restaurant whose history dates back to the first wave of chinese immigrants arriving during the gold rush and subsequently made mainstream by big franchise like the panda express.

You should find some anthetic native cuisines in ethic Chinese areas like new York China towns. You won't find general tso chicken and the like in these places. What you get are hot pots and cuisines based on regions and provinces. Suzchen, Cantonese cuisine etc, and not something invented from scratch by the first wave Chinese immigrants because they couldn't find any native ingredients to cook their native food in the American supermarket.

wasab · June 20, 2018

1 hour ago, Misanthrope said:

Lots more regional vegetables served here. But there's usually both types to be found: Mandarin Chinese is the far more common and cheap to be found but there's a few places that sell Cantonese.

Not sure if this are actual differences but it's something I've noticed here.

Most of the time you find sweet and sour and spicy chicken and I suspect Chinese people here have adapted their recipes to sell the spicy chicken far more since it is extremely popular here and because I've noticed they add things like jalapeño chiles to other dishes so I imagine they learned we like things way spicier and not as sweet as Americans which is by contrast very heavy on the honey.

Which country you live in?

wasab · June 20, 2018

1 hour ago, killcomic said:

God there's so much in Australia. At least 3 restaurants in every suburb (or over 20 where I live).

There's yum cha, where you overdose in dumplings, Chinese seafood restaurants (salt and pepper crab is heaven), small take aways where gwelos get their dim sims and sweet and sour pork, small places with stuff like fried duck tongues, blood jelly with garlic and chives, salt and pepper calamari and hand made noodles.

You get everything from traditional to modern to westernised. There's just too much to show.

These sounds authentic. Looks very appealing and heathier than all the deep fried stuffs found in an American Chinese restaurant.

Misanthrope · June 20, 2018

1 hour ago, wasab said:

Which country you live in?

Location info under my avatar is accurate.

Spoiler

Also accurate: the title.

Froody129 · June 20, 2018

Pretty good

It's not real (I lived in china for a bit) but it's so full of addictive preservatives and stuff that it doesn't really matter

BlueChinchillaEatingDorito · June 20, 2018

2 hours ago, Gale said:

There are A LOT of Chinese immigrants here in Canada, so it's fairly common to find authentic Chinese restaurants in parts of British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta. Chinese buffets though, from my experience, are a joke.

Vancouver and neighbouring city Richmond has the best Chinese food in North America according to the NY Times.

http://www.richmond-news.com/news/richmond-s-chinese-food-called-the-best-in-north-america-1.23148456

Monkey Dust · June 20, 2018

10 hours ago, wasab said:

Oh, which country you live in? Sweet and sour pork sounds like something found in the UK

Edit: we have this dish in a typical Chinese restaurant here too.

I love sweet and sour pork. But there is two versions in the UK. The best, Hong Kong style with small pieces of pork and vegetables, or just giant battered pork balls and a pot of sweet and sour sauce, which is pretty rubbish. Duck in plum sauce too

I suspect none of it is very, or even vaguely, authentic. But having never visited China I can neither confirm nor deny this.

killcomic · June 20, 2018

5 hours ago, valdyrgramr said:

Well, I live in the US and have eaten cheap and expensive Chinese food. Cheapo places tend to all have the same recycled crap, especially the buffet ones. I've also been to the expensive authentic places in the Baltimore/DC/VA area, and that stuff is authentic outside of them catering to everyone and still having General Tso's. It's been about ten years since I splurged on Asian cuisine, but I've also made authentic stuff too like this entire thing called Dragon and Phoenix[no not that cheap thing where they give you half shrimp, half Tso's]. Fuck if I remember the entirety of that.

Huh, in Australia it tends to be the other way around. The cheap, small places is where the good traditional stuff is. They are usually packed and people go in an out at a hectic rate. It's the expensive restaurants that tend to be westernised.

Mind you, some will cook traditional stuff that's not on the menu if you ask.