For Fans of Chinese Take-Out

[SobaAddict70]

Burning things I've always wanted to know:

1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout?

6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things?

7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

8. Do you have a best takeout experience? Let's hear it.

9. Do you have a worst takeout experience? Let's hear that as well.

I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

Soba

[Marlene]

Burning things I've always wanted to know:

1.  Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

2.  Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree?  Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

3.  Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

4.  Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

5.  Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? 

6.  When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? 

7.  What's your favorite place and your least favorite place?

I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

Soba

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1. We always get 1 fried rice and 1 steamed rice

2. We tend to alternate rice and dish

3. Chopsticks normally

4. It depends on the dish. I tend to eat only the meat

5. Fried chicken wings no. Sweet and sour chicken balls, yes.

6 We always get the same thing with the exception of 1 new dish everytime which is usually a spicy something for my husband to try

7. We have two here we really like. Bronte Chinese Food and Halton Chinese Food.

[rooftop1000]

Non NY I actually live in a place where I cant get a pizza delivered but can get Chinese

As long as our order contains House Fried Rice I dont care what else we get...but usually the same stuff General Tso Chicken for me and my daughter Black Bean Chicken for my husband and some mix of....Ribs Pan Fried Dumplings Crab Rangoon or Shrimp Toast maybe Broccoli in Garlic sauce if I really just want the rice

pretty mundane american/chinese......

the place is Called TINGS in Bloomingdale NJ

T

ooops recently moved on to chopstick but they are a pain for fried rice

Edited March 3, 2005 by rooftop1000 (log)

[mizducky]

San Diego reporting here:

1. *If* I get rice, I'll go for either white or fried rice. But I usually get some kind of noodles instead.

2. When I do get rice, I put it in a bowl and top it with various of the other dishes. (I understand that's not the traditional way, but I like the sauce-soaked rice effect--see below.)

3. I use chopsticks until I'm down to the little bitty bits that I lack the patience and/or skill to grab, then wimp out and resort to a spoon. (Still, I love chopsticks, and own a bunch to use while eating Western as well as Eastern foods.)

4. I eat *everything*. (Okay, not the remains of the dried red chilies, if I can find them before they find me... but everything else that's meant to be edible.) If I did get rice and have some left over, I pour any leftover sauces on it and save it for late-night snacks. (As I said, I like that sauce-soaked rice...)

5. I usually don't bother with chicken wings at all. Nothing wrong with 'em, but just not what I want to expend tummy-space on when craving actual Chinese food.

6. If it's a new place with some interesting offerings, I'll experiment, but once I figure out my favorite dishes at any given place I tend to stick with them.

7. Current favorite place: the take-out deli at the local 99 Ranch Market (Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Kearny Mesa). Big extremely-busy steam-table/heat-lamp setup in a big pan-Asian supermarket--as an Anglo I'm in a distinct minority both at the take-out counter and the store as a whole, a fact that I love. Given that it is a steam-table operation, the food is pretty danged good. They have a broad selection, including such non-standards as a bitter melon dish (I'm a wimp who doesn't care for bitter melon, but I appreciate that they have it); szechuan eggplant made with Asian and not the big European eggplants; and an excellent mapo tofu which I get nearly every time I'm there.

Least favorite: any Chinese takeout associated with an American-style supermarket (Von's, Albertsons, etc.) -- sometimes a grease-and-salt overdose can be kinda fun, but the nigh-inevitable 3am heartburn is ... *not*.

[Andrew Fenton]

Well, Takeout Chinese is a compeletely different beast than restaurant Chinese. Really, it's another regional specialty, alongside Cantonese, Szechuan or what have you; that is, American Chinese. When I go out for Chinese food, it's usually to Chinatown, and I'm usually interested in trying something interesting and maybe new. Takeout Chinese, on the other hand, is all about familiarity and comfort: it's about the old favorites, and it's meant to be eaten in your pajamas or (best of all) standing up at 2 AM, leaning over the kitchen counter with a paper package of chow mein.

That said:

I like white rice- never brown or fried rice, alongside the food (except when it's late at night and I'm eating straight from the package);

chopsticks first time around, but leftovers are served with a fork;

I eat everything, and refuse to acknowledge the existence of chicken wings or pork fried rice;

and I tend to stick to the basic American-style faves: mu shu vegetables, pot stickers, shrimp dumplings, and so on. There's a place not far from me that will deliver a good duck noodle soup or soup dumplings, but I always feel like that's cheating.

Edited March 3, 2005 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[Lone Star]

1.) steamed rice

2.) rice on plate and topped with entree. (leftovers cold and straight out of the carton for breakfast )

3.) fork and spoon

4.) Eat everything (watch out for the little peppers though)

5.) No - but I do understand that Chinese take out is to actual Chinese food as Tex-Mex is to Mexican cuisine.

6.) Same thing most of the time. We are a family of five and usually do the Chinese take-out about once a month. We usually order:

Hunan Beef

Pork Egg Foo Yung with oyster sauce

Kung Pao Chicken

Pork Fried Rice

Egg Rolls

7.) Our usual take out is "Wok Delite" - it has a drive through but the old lady that works at the window always looks like she wants to kill you so it is kind of scary. We order from Imperial Palace once in a great while as they deliver, but we don't like the food as much.

edited to add that I am in the Houston area.

Edited March 3, 2005 by Lone Star (log)

[Lone Star]

Darn it, now I am hungry for Chinese.

[petite tête de chou]

Burning things I've always wanted to know:

1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout?

6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things?

7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

8. Do you have a best takeout experience? Let's hear it.

9. Do you have a worst takeout experience? Let's hear that as well.

I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

Soba

1) The rice varies. I like them all. White, brown or fried.

2) The first option.

3) I always use chopsticks. God, I love using those things! I feel so civilized.

4) Many times the vegetables are overcooked so I don't eat them. Nor do I like big pieces of slimey onion. Nope. Not going down my gullet.

5) I've never had fried, Chinese chicken wings. But if I did, they better not be the Buffalo-style kind. There's a time and place for those.

6) If my local place offered a variety I would get something different every time! I love spicy, especially Chinese "spicy"- lots of flavors going on. But bbq pork is a tried and true friend.

7) My favorite place would have a fricking incredible selection of dishes. All kinds of "unusual" and "weird" offerings. My least favorite is what is now available to me. Very limited and "Americanized."

8) My best take-out experience was when I lived above a bar on Hawthorne Blvd. in Portland. Those folks delivered when I was just too schnocked to walk the five blocks. No charge for the delivery, either.

9) At first I would get my feathers ruffled when dealing the grouchy Chinese mothers who would take my orders...but I kinda groove on the whole experience now. I like the fact that it's usually a whole family involved in getting my food together.

[designchick88]

Burning things I've always wanted to know:

1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

I always have brown rice. Love brown rice. But we always have to get an additional container of white rice because my beloved hubby won't eat the brown. Fine! More brown rice for me.

2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

Rice goes in bowl, dish goes on top. I am one of those people who stirs the rice and the dish together because I like my rice to taste like the sauce. I do that with stir-fry at home too.

3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

Chopsticks

4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

I eat it all. I will even mix two completely different dishes together and then mix the rice in. I love it when what I'm eating tastes hot and sweet and sour and salty and whatever-else all at once.

5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout?

What restaurant offers that???

I have never had that but my answer is no, because if presented with that I would not eat it.

6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things?

The restaurant we order from has a couple of really excellent dishes and we tend to order those over and over.

7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

Favorite: Chow's Chinese Bistro. Not affiliated with PF Chang's in any way, although since our PF's opened up I fear Chow's is losing business to them, which is a shame. The food at Chow's is not "authentic" Chinese but we love it because the food quality is high and the spices suit our palate. The kung pao chicken and dragon sesame chicken are our favorites but I also like their Chinese chicken salad.

Least favorite: we've gone to a couple of places where no matter what you order, you get approximately the same dish. Also, we like spicy food in general, so if the "spicy" dishes don't have enough kick we won't go back to that place again. Also any place that uses a disproportionate amount of gristly and/or fatty chicken in their dishes.

8. Do you have a best takeout experience? Let's hear it.

Every time we order from Chow's the food is good and they never screw up our order. That's a good experience in my book.

9. Do you have a worst takeout experience? Let's hear that as well.

None that were memorable enough to stick out in my head now.

I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

[Daddy-A]

Vancouver, BC reporting

1. Like Marlene, one fried, one regular.

2. Plain rice on the plate, then everything else on the side, but within "mixing distance.

3. Chopsticks.

4. Gotta eat it all ... why would you order it if you weren't going to eat it?

5. See #8

6. Always Dinner For 2 - B

7. We always order from The Pepper House in Burnaby. (Locals can PM me for the number if desired). It's a little hole-in-the-wall in a strip mall, that has the obligatory formica/chrome tables for the one person a year who eats in the restaurant.

8. No really bad experiences ... sometimes things are a little late. The woman who answers the phone at The Pepper House always asks me if I want to add "Pepper Rings" to the order. For 3 years she asked, so I finally gave in. When they arrived, it turned out I had misunderstood her thick Chinese accent ... they weren't "Rings", but "Wings."

A.

[touaregsand]

1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

Regular rice, occassionally brown rice.

2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

Bowl, I can't stand to eat rice from a plate. I alternate bites of rice and a dish, at the end sometimes spoon sauce on my rice and finish eating with a spoon. I like to keep my rice looking nice and clean throughout a meal, so I reserve this maneuver for the last few bites.

3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

Chopsticks, spoon for the previous maneuver I mentioned. Fork, wtf is THAT?

4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

I eat almost everything. Prefer the vegetables, since I'm what could be called mostly vegetarian.

5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout?

Blech! Er, no.

6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things?

I try different things.

7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

Least favorite is that Panda whatever chain crap. Most favorite changes usually something from K town or Chinatown. SGF is just too far for me.

8. Do you have a best takeout experience? Let's hear it.

It wasn't neccessarily the best food, but it was really welcomed in Texas. I had been eating umm... well I won't say 'cause I don't want some regional backlash.

It was greasy, but sooooo good compared to um...well ya know.

9. Do you have a worst takeout experience? Let's hear that as well.

Guam and Saipan are tied for this. Gross, the stuff was a sin against food. The kind of food you just wonder, what the hell was the cook thinking? Awful, greasy, burnt, salty, greasy, burnt, salty, greasy, burnt, salty...

I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

Okay, I'm in Los Angeles.

[Pan]

1.  Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

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Steamed white rice.

2.  Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree?  Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

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When I'm eating it by myself (which is at least 90+% of the time), I take some of the side dish with my chopsticks and use the rice container like the rice bowl in a restaurant (hold some of the side dish over the rice bowl some of the time and otherwise put some of the side dish in the rice and eat the side dish plus rice coated with the sauce from the side dish or whatever).

3.  Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

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Chopsticks most of the time, except that when I'm done eating the noodles and other stuff in a soup, I'll pick up the container and drink the remainder if I feel like (much as I'll do that with the soup bowl in a Chinese restaurant).

4.  Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

←

I eat anything that's good, and particularly enjoy diced ginger and stir fried scallion and garlic pieces. If there are some canned mushrooms or other canned things that have that "can water" taste, I may not eat them. Also, while I make a greater or lesser dent in the hot pepper supply in Sichuan- and Hunan-style dishes, I seldom eat them all. In dishes with only a few hot peppers, I may finish those, too.

5.  Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? 

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Nope. But you knew I didn't think so, didn't you?

6.  When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things?

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A little of both. I have some favorite dishes at the local Grand Sichuan that I order repeatedly, but I do make some effort to try other items.

7.  What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

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My favorite place for takeout is my favorite Chinese restaurant in New York (actually in Flushing), Spicy & Tasty, where I ate in tonight. I usually take out from that restaurant only when I can't eat everything I ordered to eat there, or if I'm taking stuff up to my folks'. They find some of the food there too spicy but like the restaurant a lot, anyway.

Congee Village is another good place for takeout, and I probably get more takeout from them than any other place except the local branch of Grand Sichuan.

I also sometimes stop by New York Noodletown when I'm in the mood for Beef Muscle Wonton Noodle Soup and Chinese Broccoli in Oyster Sauce.

My least favorite place? That would have to be someplace I haven't ordered from in a long time!

8.  Do you have a best takeout experience?  Let's hear it.

9.  Do you have a worst takeout experience?  Let's hear that as well.

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Well, I've had some scary delivery experiences (rusty nails in soup!), but I can't remember a terrible takeout experience other than the last x-number of times my mother took food out from Empire Szechuan on 97 St. and Broadway. Man was that stuff awful! Inedible, really.

I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

←

Oh well. Are you sorry I answered? [wry smile]

Edited March 4, 2005 by Pan (log)

[SuzySushi]

Burning things I've always wanted to know:

1.  Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

2.  Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree?  Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

3.  Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

4.  Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

5.  Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? 

6.  When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? 

7.  What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

8.  Do you have a best takeout experience?  Let's hear it.

9.  Do you have a worst takeout experience?  Let's hear that as well.

I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

Soba

←

Oooooh, this is fun!!!

I can't remember the last time I got Chinese take-out in Hawaii, so I'll do the answers for fast-food served on styrofoam, which is the same difference!

1- If getting a plate, I usually choose lo mein instead of rice. If ordering for more than one person, it's lo mein AND white rice.

2- The styrofoam containers are divided into three compartments, and I leave the food that way. When I used to get take-out in NYC, I'd place the rice on one side of my plate and the other foods on the other, so that I could mix the edges of the rice with some of the sauce, but the rice wasn't doused in sauce.

3- Chopsticks, always. Except for soup.

4- Usually eat everything except for chiles, but if there are a lot of gloppy onions, I'll leave them over.

5- No.

6- Both. There are favorites I *have to* have (like Hot & Sour soup at one particular place, or Cold Noodles with Sesame in NYC -- no one's heard of that dish here), but otherwise I choose "what looks good."

7- No one here does Chinese take-out like NYC, so my favorites are the chains that are most NY-like: Panda Express, and Patti's Chinese Kitchen (a local chain).

8- Best take-out experience was a little place around the corner from where I used to live in NYC. The food was good, they always had menu specials, and their Hot & Sour soup was soul-warming "comfort food."

9- Worst experience was supermarket take-out at a chain I shall not name. The main dish was overcooked! which is a no-no in Chinese food; the lo mein was undercooked - like chewing pieces of string; and the egg roll was cold inside (it must've not defrosted enough in cooking). Yech!

[tejon]

1.  Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

2.  Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree?  Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

3.  Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

4.  Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

5.  Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? 

6.  When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? 

7.  What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

8.  Do you have a best takeout experience?  Let's hear it.

9.  Do you have a worst takeout experience?  Let's hear that as well.

1. We usually get regular rice.

2. We alternate bites of rice and dish, though a bit of sauce dribbled onto the rice is always welcome.

3. Chopsticks, always.

4. Everything - leaning towards more vegetables than meat.

5. No.

6. That varies - sometimes we go for dishes we know and love, other times whatever looks most interesting.

7. Our favorite local place just burned down, unfortunately. It was a small restaurant in a corner business center and I think succumbed to a kitchen fire. Not the best Chinese food I've ever had, but very good quality, fresh, and a good selection of dishes. Least favorite is another local restaurant that is highly advertised on cable. The food isn't horrible, but it's around steam table quality. Service isn't very good, and the prices aren't the best, either.

8. The first night we moved to this city, the kitchen wasn't fully unpacked and we were both hungry. Pulled out the yellow pages, plucked a name that made me giggle, drove over and ordered several dishes. They were done lightning fast, perhaps because we were the only customers there at the time. Pretty good meal, however.

9. Worst take out experience was in Clifton Heights, PA. Horrible, horrible food, took forever, and packed with a plastic spork. Need I say more?

[slyaspie]

1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

Regular steamed rice, also fried rice sometimes, cuz I really get a craving for the eggs in it...they always taste sooo good.

2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

I put the rice in my plate, spread it out out bit and put different entrees on different sections of it. Like several others, I like my rice nice and juicy with the different sauces.

3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

Chopsticks.

4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

I eat both vegetables and meat and especially seafood. I always take out the onions unless they're green onions, and I do have to admit that sometimes I don't like eating the bok choy and will tell them to substitute another veggie in something like vegetable chow mein or lo mein. This of course does not meen that I don't like greens, in fact, I'm crazy for them.

5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout?

Proper Chinese takeout for me is sort of a mix and match thing to whatever one's liking is, and believe me I've seen some weird things in my day, especially after many of my friends and I have partaken in some lovely aromatic herb...which occasion I believe is what Chinese takeout was ultimately invented for...

But, to answer your question directly, I personally do not find that combo appealing.

6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things?

Largely the same things, but sometimes different. I really like getting the barbecue pork chow mein (real comfort food), beef and asparagus, cashew or almond chicken, sizzling prawns, sizzling rice soup, mushrooms and green beans in sauce, veggie chicken and vegetables, spring rolls, pot stickers, sauteed pea sprouts with garlic sauce (I've only found the pea sprouts at this one place and I love them so much I've taken to asking for them in tons of other stuff such as the barbecue chow mein). I've listed a lot of dishes, but I don't order them all at once! But these are the ones I tend to rotate between.

7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

I'm in Berkeley, CA (as per your request for outside of NYC) and there are tons of Chinese restaurants here (but not as many as Thai ...and goddamn it I do wish THEY delivered). But I have two places I regularly order from: Mandarin Garden because their veggie chicken is awesome, they're really good in general, and they always deliver an extra dish you haven't ordered (usually whatever they have around that's extra, meaning a veggie dish such as green beens in garlic sauce. A couple of times I've gotten two extra dishes one green beans, the other spicy eggplant. These free extras are significant because they always send a loaded carton full of each. I remember the first time I ordered from there and it happened I thought it was a mistake, but by the second time I realized it was intentional. However, you only get the free food if you ask for delivery. If you actually go there to pick it up you get nothing but what you ordered...is that weird or what? They also send you free desert which is several balls of fried dough encasing either a piece of apple or banana. The outside is candy-like and I believe they have been soaked in some sort of sweet clear syrup. You also get this only if you call for delivery, also if you actually eat in at the restaurant. Is that cool or what?

The other place I like to get takeout from is Sun Hong Kong. This place is extremely popular in Berkeley because it is open until 2am, as late night places here are extremely scarce. They only deliver until about ten pm, but it's no problem for us to run over there late at night and get it as actual real takeout when the hankerings strike. THis is also where I get the coveted pea sprouts.

There is one other place where I've gotten takeout/delivery from and I'm only mentioning it because of the name: King Dong Let's just say that its food does not match its name.

8. Do you have a best takeout experience? Let's hear it.

See above's rave about the Mandarin Garden. Someone mentioned the yuckiness of supermarket chinese takeout, and I do concur with that assessment, but I have a soft spot in my heart for it because growing up that's what my dad would get for takeout ever few months, and if you lived in my household, that was a very special and exciting dinner indeed because my parents were of the type that believed that it was a huge waste of money to eat out. I'm serious when I say that it was to the point where we never even got to go out for pizza, let alone any sort of real restaurant. A couple times a year we got to have McDonald's, and there was the takeout chinese about every three months. In retrospect, I know that we were lucky because my mother cooked everything from scratch made with fruits and vegetables grown in my parents' sizable and varied garden and orchard, but the isolation of only one type of cuisine (Greek), has made me crazy about eating out and adventurous in both my choices and my cooking.

9. Do you have a worst takeout experience? Let's hear that as well.

King Dong's kinda yucky food.

[NulloModo]

Burning things I've always wanted to know:

1.  Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

Never ever plain steamed white rice, that has to be the most flavorless and pointless substance on earth. I used to always get pork fried rice to mix with the dishes, that was tasty enough, now I do no rice.

2.  Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree?  Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

Then - would eat half the fried rice straight, mix the other half with the dish. Now - Just eat the dish and forget the rice.

3.  Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

I occasionally play with chopsticks, but they are so awkward to use compared to a fork that I end up going to a fork every time. Hey, I 'm in the privacy of my own home, I will eat with my own utensiles.

4.  Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

If it comes in a dish, I'm eating it.

5.  Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? 

If it is on the menu, it counts IMO. Unless perhaps it is under a header like 'Kids Menu' or 'American Favorites'.

6.  When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? 

I have certain favorites. My old standby's were the Pork Spareribs (the flourescent red ones), steamed and fried dumplings, hot and sour soup, crab rangoons, shrimp toast, egg rolls, and well, pretty much anything from the appetizer section. As far as actual dishes went I liked Mongolian Beef, General Tso's Chicken, Sesame Chicken, and Sweet and Sour dishes. My problem with the supposedly 'hot and spicey' and schezuan dishes is that they were never actually hot nor spicey. I would always request the place make them as blisteringly painful as they could, and they rarely evolved beyond medium-mild.

Now, I find eating Chinese exceedingly difficult, for though giving up the rice is easy enough, all of the sauces that top what would otherwise be perfectly healthy dishes are loaded with cornstarch, and I have yet to find a chinese place where the counter guy speaks english well enough that I feel a request for the dish to be made without the starch would be honored and not just ignored. So, for now I settle on Egg-Foo Young, which is safe enough, or get my chinese fix from the Mongolian BBQ station at the Chinese Buffets in the area, where you pick exactly what goes into your dish.

7.  What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

There is a local place called 'Chopsticks' that has been in town forever, so they must have some steady clientel, though it sure as hell isn't me after the couple times I have tried it. Blech, the most bland chinese food I've ever had.

Favorite: Schezuan Hot Wok, also in Newark/Bear, DE. What makes it great? Well, the dishes have good flavor, they still can't actually seem to make anything hot, but at least the other flavors are there. The prices are great, and the best part is the service is super fast. Delivery would usually be made within 15 minutes of placing the order, you can't beat that. Plus, they take credit card orders over the phone, some chinese delivery places won't, and I will not patronize anyplace like that on principle.

Edited March 4, 2005 by NulloModo (log)

[jilli42]

Burning things I've always wanted to know:

1.  Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

2.  Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree?  Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

3.  Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

4.  Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

5.  Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? 

6.  When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? 

7.  What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

8.  Do you have a best takeout experience?  Let's hear it.

9.  Do you have a worst takeout experience?  Let's hear that as well.

I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

Soba

1. Normally have regular, but will occasionally have brown. Fried rice is always ordered because the kids love it.

2. I put my rice in a bowl or plate & top with the entree.

3. Chopsticks

4. I usually eat everything, except mushrooms & water chestnuts if they aren't crisp.

5. NO. NO. NO !

6. Always order at least one new dish, along with favorites. How else will I discover a new favorite ? 

7. Favorite place...I have 2. Peking Gourmet: family owned, willing to let me try traditional chinese dishes, without giving me the "you no like" speech. Also they will make food SPICY upon request.  Beijing Restaurant: food is always good and they give you free pork fried rice with every order over $20.  (A quart of rice)

Least favorite Lennys/Wennys...a pair of restaurants specializing in gloppy, nasty very americanized chinese and subs. Tip off right there. The office ordered from here when they first opened and let me just say YUCK ! I had crackers and an orange for lunch that day. 

8. Best takeout experience is every time I order from Peking. They know me by name & have my order ready quickly.

9. Worst takeout experience was many years ago. Placed on order went to pick it up. Got there realized I had left my free whatever coupon at home. No problem, I will just use one from this menu that they have on the counter (for people to take). And the lady at the counter tells me I cannot use the coupon because I didn't have it when I came in. I explained that I accidentally left it at home. No go. Ok fine then I won't take the free whatever. No you have to pay for the "free" item now......

And I am in Maryland.

Edited March 4, 2005 by jilli42 (log)

[Arey]

1. Regular white rice. I don't really care for brown rice.

2.Rice on a plate meat on top on the left side of the plate., vegetables on the right side of the plate. It's compulsive. When eating, meat on the left side of the plate, green vegetable, bottom right, non green vegetable top right.

3. I've tried using chopsticks, and if only ate with them and didn't using a knife and fork, I would probably weight my ideal weight or less.

4. Everything.

5. This must be a North Jersey thing. I'm down at the other end of the state.

6 - 8 Yesterday I ordered stuffed bitter melon, but instead got a combo of white rice, sweet and sour chicken and tofu with mustard greens. and Won Ton soup.For munching on the way home, I bought a package of fried dried squid. I've never tried the dried squib, but it was very good., Had it been cheese flavored and left orange stains on my fingers it would have been better.

I don't know the name of my favorite takeout place, but it's in North Jersey. About 40 miles west on the Black Horse pike from where I am, is a small oriental grocery run by a Fillipino lady. On tuesdays she goes to New York to visit her sister. She returns to So Jersey on Thursday bringing back stock for the store and all sorts of take out stuff. Won Ton soup, stuffed fried bean curd skin, stuffed bittermelon, stuffed eggplant, fresh vegetables, and various combo take out dinners. Also a large amount of various tiny fried dried fish which I find intriguing to look at, but couldn't be paid to eat. But, no bitter melon yesterday, so instead I bought the sweet and sour chicken. The squid was from Casa Victoria in Newark, as are most of the fried dried seafood snacks. The proprietor of the shop also brings back many Fillipino specialities such as goat stew, empanadas, lumpia and various pastries and buns.

I've been going to the place for years, since I used to pass it whenever I visited my mother. It's funky but nice and has the ambience of those little Mom and Pop stores that have mostly disappeared. I'm trying again for stuffed bittermelon next week, and with a little luck will even get a scallion pancake.

9. Ordered chicken with peanuts from the local takeout after the new owner booted the buffet and put in a sushi bar in its place and upgraded the menu. In addition to the chicken and peanuts, I nuked some leftover stirfried vegetables I'd cooked and frozen, and nuked a stuffed tofu skin roll from the oriental grocery store that I'd frozen. After dinner, I was siting in the living room having a cup of tea, When with no warning at all, I felt I was about to be ill. So I dumped the cat from my lap, went into the bathroom, dumped my dinner and went back and finished my tea. No pre-barfing warning to speak of and no post-barfing discomfort. I chose to blame it on the takeout from the local restaurant.

[ghostrider]

Does Jersey count?

1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

Regular. When I want brown rice, which is usually twice a week, I cook my own. It's better.

2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

Rice in bowl, entree on top.

3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

Chopsticks.

4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

I eat everything. SO won't eat cabbage or onions.

5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout?

No.

6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things?

I've tried everything at my local Chinese parlor & settled on the few things that they do tolerably well. I've had to cut out 75% of those things that they do tolerably well since I went on a low-sodium (= no soy sauce) diet.

7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

Favorite place is the closest, because it's the closest. They're principally a takeout business tho they have a small separate diining room which attracts a few customers. It's not particularly better or worse than any other Chinese place in town, it's just close. The people who run it are very nice & friendly, & they take my requests for no salt seriously. If that last sentence weren't true, I'd go further afield.

8. Do you have a best takeout experience? Let's hear it.

9. Do you have a worst takeout experience? Let's hear that as well.

All my best takeout experiences are behind me, I fear, since we moved out of NYC 14 years ago. Now it's just convenience & sustenance.

[jgarner53]

1.  Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

White rice only

2.  Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree?  Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

Rice goes onto the plate, with all the other bits placed around it. Like most everyone here, I like to mix the sauce into the rice as I get to the end of the dishes. Leftovers, however, are different - dish goes on top of rice

3.  Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

Chopsticks usually, with a fork or spoon on hand to get the last bits of rice

4.  Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

I don't eat the peppers (not even the bell peppers -- green bell peppers are nasty!)

5.  Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? 

Is that even a dish? I've never seen it on a Chinese menu

6.  When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? 

There are standards that we have to get: fried won tons (unfilled, just the wrappers deep fried with the red-orange sweet and sour sauce for dipping), hot & sour soup, and usually a mu shu. The other favorites rotate depending on what we feel like: spicy beef with orange peel, spicy eggplant, dry sauteed string beans. We mark up our takeout menu with rankings of things we've tried so we don't order something bad twice.

7.  What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

Our favorite place is Emmy's, which is almost always crowded with Chinese families. Their delivery is quick (well, they are about 3 blocks away), the food is always tasty, and they're pretty reasonably priced. Interestingly enough, another Chinese place, Excellent Joe's, opened up right next door to Emmy's, is hardly ever busy, and their food isn't nearly as good (not as excellent as the name might imply).

8.  Do you have a best takeout experience?  Let's hear it.

I can't think of one that's outstandingly bad.

9.  Do you have a worst takeout experience?  Let's hear that as well.

Same goes for this question as for #8.

[Jaymes]

1.  Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice?

2.  Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree?  Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish?

3.  Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user?

4.  Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat?

5.  Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? 

6.  When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? 

7.  What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them?

8.  Do you have a best takeout experience?  Let's hear it.

9.  Do you have a worst takeout experience?  Let's hear that as well.

1. Plain white steamed rice with dishes. I love fried rice, but as a separate meal, usually lunch, usually made by me from leftovers of the plain white steamed rice that I got with last evening's takeout meal. I hate having the flavor and texture of fried rice intrude upon whatever is the dish I'm eating. Particularly annoying with mild and delicately flavored seafood dishes.

2. Depends upon how many dishes I've ordered. If there are only one or two, then rice in bowl with little bits of dish over. If there are many dishes, then rice in middle of plate with dishes arranged around.

3. Depends upon mood and how hungry I am. If I'm not that hungry, have only ordered one or two dishes, I use chopsticks. Otherwise, fork.

4. Eat everything, except for the aforementioned red peppers.

5. I am really and truly puzzled by that question. I don't recall seeing such a dish and from the other answers in this thread, it appears that nobody else can recall it either. Is it common where you are? What made you think of it?

6. Depends upon who all is ordering with me. We usually each select our favorite standbys, trying to coordinate....one spicy, one sweet, one garlic, one chicken, one beef, etc. And we usually do try to incorporate a new dish each time.

7. I'm in Springfield, Missouri, where they are all awfully proud of something called "Springfield Style Cashew Chicken." There are probably fifty (or more - they seem to be everywhere, at least one on every corner) small takeout places that specialize in just that. Been here a year now, and haven't tried any of them because they just don't look appealing. Favorite place is large and commercial with an all-you-can-eat buffet, but they have a separate menu that caters to the local Chinese community. Once you know that, you can eschew the sweet & sour pork, etc., and get wonderful dumplings and paper chicken and other dishes.

8&9. No real best comes to mind; no real worst. Some better than others of course, but nothing really stands out as being worthy of mention.

[Laksa]

1. At my local takeout, the combination plate usually comes with fried rice. The bbq pork in the fried rice often tastes like last week's leftovers, which makes eating their fried rice a very unpleasant experience. For that reason, I rarely order their combination plates.

Their regular dishes come with plain steamed rice, which is preferable. At another takeout I patronize, their steamed rice resembles hard rubber pellets. No amount of soaking in the gravy/juices will improve their character. Nowadays, I throw them out and cook my own Thai jasmine rice instead. I am willing to go through the trouble of cooking my own rice even when ordering takeout because, ironically, they have a selection of dishes that are far superior to other takeout places.

Needless to say, noodle dishes are eaten without rice.

2. Rice in a bowl, dish remains in the takeout container. Rice bowl in left hand, chopsticks in the right. In an almost continuous motion, move a piece of meat with the chopsticks onto the mound of rice in the bowl, lift bowl to the open mouth, and scoop with the chopsticks the piece of meat together with an appropriate amount of rice for the size of the piece of meat into the mouth and chew.

I eat the vegetable pieces without rice.

3. Soup spoon for soups. Chopsticks for everything else.

4. Everything. Even if it tastes bad. Waste not, want not. (Except for rubber-pellet rice)

5. Chinese-style fried chicken wings can be very good -- no batter, and fried until the skin is crispy. Hold the sauce, please. Yangzhou fried rice, with some good bbq pork, eggs, maybe a little salted fish, can be excellent. Done well, that would be a great takeout meal.

6. Used to try a different dish every time, until we figured that all stir-fried meat with vegetable dishes taste pretty much the same. And all battered and deep fried dish, served with some gloppy sauce taste the same. So why bother ordering anything different? So now the choice comes down to stir-fry or deep-fry? But the Mrs must have her hot and sour soup every time -- it doesn't matter if the takeout place really suck at making hot and sour soup -- she must have it.

7. Don't really have a favorite place. The place with inedible rice does a kick-ass peking duck. Another place does a pretty decent shrimp hor fun, but the quality is inconsistent. The stir-fried/deep-fried dishes are equally mediocre from one takeout place to another. In the end, it comes down to convenience. Which direction am I coming from, and which takeout place is on the way home?

8&9. Best takeout experience was a stir-fried beef hor fun cooked, I guess, when the kitchen probably wasn't too busy, and when the chef could take proper care. I could taste the 'wok hei' in the dish, the slightly burnt taste in the hor fun of a really, really hot wok. All the flavors were in balance, the seasoning was at the correct level, and the bean sprouts were still crunchy and not overcooked.

The worst takeout experience was the same dish from the same takeout, possibly prepared by a different chef, or a really busy guy. Completely vapid and flavorless. It might as well have been boiled for all I know. What a let down after a great experience some weeks earlier.

[TongoRad]

Re: #5) Chicken Wings

5. I am really and truly puzzled by that question. I don't recall seeing such a dish and from the other answers in this thread, it appears that nobody else can recall it either. Is it common where you are? What made you think of it?

I think that's an exclusively NYC thing. We didn't have it on LI when I grew up, and I haven't seen it in New Jersey, but....I lived on the stuff when I was in college (early 1980's, Brooklyn). They would fill up one of those 5"x8" aluminum containers with fried rice and you could either get a bunch of fried wings or a half of a fried chicken on top of it- all for around 3 bucks. The appeal was that it was a filling meal for very little money. Even now I think you can get it for under 5 bucks. And no, I never considered it 'proper Chinese takeout', even then.

[Laksa]

Never ever plain steamed white rice, that has to be the most flavorless and pointless substance on earth.

←

Plain steamed rice isn't meant to be eaten by itself. The plainness of steamed rice is meant to counterbalance the strong flavor of the meat or vegetable dish. It's also the principal source of carbohydrates in a (Southern) Chinese meal.

[Jaymes]

Re: #5) Chicken Wings

5. I am really and truly puzzled by that question. I don't recall seeing such a dish and from the other answers in this thread, it appears that nobody else can recall it either. Is it common where you are? What made you think of it?

I think that's an exclusively NYC thing. We didn't have it on LI when I grew up, and I haven't seen it in New Jersey, but....I lived on the stuff when I was in college (early 1980's, Brooklyn). They would fill up one of those 5"x8" aluminum containers with fried rice and you could either get a bunch of fried wings or a half of a fried chicken on top of it- all for around 3 bucks. The appeal was that it was a filling meal for very little money. Even now I think you can get it for under 5 bucks. And no, I never considered it 'proper Chinese takeout', even then.

The fried chicken wings thing I totally get. And do get. Along with fried rice.

What threw me was considering fried chicken wings 'covered in sauce.' Can't even imagine how one would go about eating that. Wouldn't they be messy to pick up? Too bony to be worth the trouble to manage with chopsticks? Spitting out bones? I don't know....that just doesn't sound like anything I've seen. Am I missing something?