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For Fans of Chinese Take-Out


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The chicken wings are ubiquitous in this part of Jersey, but the hot sauce comes on the side in those little plastic envelopes. You'd have to order the fried rice separately & do your own assembly to construct what Soba describes up top. Which would never have occurred to me as being even close to a good idea.

I sometimes order a bag of wings & the cold noodles w sesame sauce (spicy), tho I eat them separately. Makes a nice & cheap summertime meal.

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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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.

I eat steamed rice with savory dishes for the reasons Laksa mentioned, noodle dishes such as lo mein are eaten as a simple meal seperately from other dishes, fried rice MAYBE topped with one thing (not including the ingredients that are tossed into the rice) with a simple soup/broth but not with other dishes.

But Nullo is clearly a more is more diner. :biggrin: I mean that in the nicest possible way. :smile:

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

Plain steamed 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?

The latter

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

Usually fork and spoon user.

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

Everything

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?

Nope

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

Usually the same thing -- moo goo gai pan

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

We don't have very good Chinese food here, at least in this area. I try to order something safe that I know will be okay. If it's not delivery and I'm in an ethnic part of the city, it's a lot more fun to order and I'll order anything that looks interesting.

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

Not really

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

It was fried rice, or that's what they called it. The only vegetables in it were the frozen "mixed vegetables" they used to serve us in elementary school -- small cubes of carrot, peas and corn. Yes, corn! It was just too awful to eat.

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[...]

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!)[...]

Good point! I had forgotten about that. I do my best to avoid all bell peppers, and especially green ones. Do I hate the taste? Actually, no, but they are bad for my stomach. Hot peppers are OK for me, oddly enough.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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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.

I eat steamed rice with savory dishes for the reasons Laksa mentioned, noodle dishes such as lo mein are eaten as a simple meal seperately from other dishes, fried rice MAYBE topped with one thing (not including the ingredients that are tossed into the rice) with a simple soup/broth but not with other dishes.

But Nullo is clearly a more is more diner. :biggrin: I mean that in the nicest possible way. :smile:

I take no offense. I fully admit I am hooked on strong and contrasting flavors. Perhaps I will appreciate subtlety sometime later in my life, but as for now I much prefer the sledgehammer to the mouth approach. Perhaps that is why I have found it so easy to give up simple carbohydrates in my diet...

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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5. ...fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice...

I too only know this from the Chinese Takeout places here in Jersey in the towns with a heavily Hispanic population, where it is a very popular dish, although it never comes with the sauce on it. And as was mentioned upthread, you can have either a big heap of wings, or a half of a chicken. Most of the takeout places here have a special box that starts the menu with these dishes, as you can get them with steamed white rice, plain fried rice, pork fried rice, or French Fries.

What I always noticed about this when I used to go and take out food from these places was the great number of people ordering these dishes, and the gigantic plastic tubs of half-chickens or wings that they'd have at the ready to toss into the deep fryers in an almost constant rotation. After a while, those things have got to be frying in mostly chicken fat!

And I guess that would account for why those places always have the best tasting egg rolls?

Overheard at the Zabar’s prepared food counter in the 1970’s:

Woman (noticing a large bowl of cut fruit): “How much is the fruit salad?”

Counterman: “Three-ninety-eight a pound.”

Woman (incredulous, and loud): “THREE-NINETY EIGHT A POUND ????”

Counterman: “Who’s going to sit and cut fruit all day, lady… YOU?”

Newly updated: my online food photo extravaganza; cook-in/eat-out and photos from the 70's

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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....

I have been wondering about this piece of the discussion and I just have to ask. In my experience, Egg Foo Young is generally a greasy deep-fried fat-&-cholesterol bomb. How can that possibly be healthier than a couple teaspoons of cornstarch in a sauce?

I have no doubt that, taste-wise, it's the best choice at many a Chinese takeoutery, that's been my experience often enough & I've made that choice for that reason alone.

Granted, a lot of Chinese sauces are also loaded with fat, not to mention sodium. But can the Egg Foo Young really be healthier? I see the choice more as a matter of choosing one's poison.

Edited by ghostrider (log)

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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Thanks Soba. You made me order chinese food tonight!

(yes we got the regular stuff)

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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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....

I have been wondering about this piece of the discussion and I just have to ask. In my experience, Egg Foo Young is generally a greasy deep-fried fat-&-cholesterol bomb. How can that possibly be healthier than a couple teaspoons of cornstarch in a sauce?

I have no doubt that, taste-wise, it's the best choice at many a Chinese takeoutery, that's been my experience often enough & I've made that choice for that reason alone.

Granted, a lot of Chinese sauces are also loaded with fat, not to mention sodium. But can the Egg Foo Young really be healthier? I see the choice more as a matter of choosing one's poison.

Well, I think it depends on all what you look out for. I don't care a bit about Sodium, except on the couple days preceding weigh-in. My blood pressure is very good, so I am lucky enough to not have to worry. As for fat, it is a good thing on the weight-loss/health plan I am on (Atkins) so, I don't really worry about that either. Cornstarch, on the other hand, is just as evil as High-Fructose Corn Syrup.

I agree though, that it is just picking your poison. Chinese take-out (as with almost any fast-food) being high in fat, sodium, and carbs unfortunately seems not to fit into any weight-loss plan. Oh well, we can always just wait for the General Tso's diet.

I will say that the gravey that usually accompanies it, as tasty as it is, is usually unsuitable, containing loads of the afrementioned corn starch, so I have to make my own. I just don't have the patience/desire to figure out how to make my own perfect egg-foo young.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Ah. Gotcha. You're looking at it from a weight-control diet perspective & I'm from a cardiac-friendly diet (at least as I currently understand it).

I assumed you were ordering the Egg Foo Young w/o that gravy.

The General Tso's Diet - I like the sound of that! :smile:

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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  • 10 months later...

I'm an ABC if that's relevant...

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

White rice, or if specificied, jasmine 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?

I put some rice in a bowl. Then, for sanitary reasons, I use a serving spoon to scoop a bit of the entree into my bowl. Eat a few bites and repeat. If I'm positive all the food will be consumed in that meal and I'm eating alone or just with my family, I might take bites directly from the entree dish with my chopsticks.

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?

Some of everything.

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? :blink:

They have such dishes?!?!

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

Get something different everytime.

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

My favorite chinese takeout place was my parents'. :) Might be unfair tho since I was basically eating my mom's cooking when she had access to a restaurant grade gas stove and deep fryer, buckets and buckets of homemade chicken stock (made on chicken delivery day), made-from-scratch dumplings, etc...

As for my least favorite place, I've never tried a bad place more than once so I can't really rate them relative to one another.

I love the idea of chinese takeout, but I rarely find a place where I can stomach the food. So, on average I only have chinese takeout a few times a year. Right now I live in South Carolina and unfortunately not in one of the cities so I'm out of luck. The chinese restaurants range from mediocre to bad (I didn't even bother trying the one the local college kids told me was just "ok".) However, I've had good luck when I live in Boston and the metro DC area.

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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?  :blink:

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

Regular rice, always.

Dump the rice on the plate and top with the entree.

Chopsticks, 'cause it's fun!

We only order vegetarian stuff but won't eat the mushrooms (shudder)!

We try anything new that's vegetarian.

Favorite place is Diamond Restaurnt in Niantic CT. Friendly, with good veggie choices.

Best takeout would be Diamond Restuarant because they always have great food.

The worst was a restaurant in NY when a rat was stompted by our waiter. Really ruined the meal. This wasn't in NYC btw: just some place we went to eat on our way to Buffalo NY.

Melissa

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OK - I'll play, since this is one of my favorite subjects. (I'm not Chinese)

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

Rice and the larger the grain the 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 into the bowl, food on top, bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other. I do that at home or in the restaurant.

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

Chopsticks - preferably wooden ones, but NOT those individual wooden ones that come in paper packages.

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

Everything and every last grain of rice.

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?

Who eats that?

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

Sometimes, in a new place, I'll try a familiar tried and true dish to see how that restaurant does it, but usually I try something different. And if the restaurant has a separate Chinese menu, that is usually the one I order from.

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

Favorite, at the moment, is China 46 and Hunan Cottage, in NJ. Both have outstanding non-run-of-the-mill food. Heavy on Shanghai and Sichuan. OOPS - This is a take-out thread. I usually eat AT those restaurants. I've had good take-our from Joy Luck Pavilion in West Orange NJ -- also from their Chinese menu.

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

No best one. They have all been good -- if I've been the one to make the choices. When someone else orders and gets all fried sweet/sour stuff, well------

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

There was one take-out / eat in place in Montclair NJ, years ago, that was terrible. Everything seemed to have the same dark gravy sauce and the service was terrible. This place lasted about 2 months. Everyone who mentioned it all had the same experience. The best thing about it was that it closed.

You should include the question --- "How do you judge a take-out menu"??

For me, the first thing I do is check out the soup listings. If it goes beyond Egg Drop / Wonton / Hot Sour and has something more interesting-- then I am interested. The same with the vegetable listings. If I see Chinese Broccoli rather than plain Broccoli, then I am interested. I always check to see if there is anything with Black Pepper Sauce, or something beyond the usual chop suey chow mein, or a litany of meats with the same litany of vegetables. Again the noodle listing is important. I like Lo Mein but I prefer something more intriguing. On the Special's list, I am happy when there is no Happy Family, but rather offers Regional specialties.

If I sound like a Chinese food snob -- I am guilty!

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

I usually steam rice at home and only order the other dishes. I consider fried rice to be a seperate other dish and order it occasionally when the craving hits.

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 a bowl and spoonfuls of gravy-wet stuff on top, and non-gravy-wet items on a seperate plate. Then alternate or build mouthfuls of stuff.

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

Either. I prefer fork and spoon if the rice is either wet or fried, as it then doesn't tend to stick together well enough to use chopsticks efficiently. (Or is it just me?)

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

If it's something like Peking spare ribs, where the various other bits and pieces in the container are just garnish, then I only eat the meat. Otherwise I eat everything. Except the dried chillies. Those I leave.

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?

Um. Not really. I don't tend to eat meat to that kind of level very often at all.

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

Most places have standard fare, but I'm always happy to try any other, different , house specialities.

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

My favourite place is in indefinite hiatus as the chef-owners decided to take a rest break after their lease expired, a year ago. They were a self-proclaimed vegetarian restaurant, which means that they didn't use any four-foot meats, but did offer poultry and seafood as well as the vegan Buddhist options. Their flavours were so clear and pristine, with none of the greasy heaviness that can sometimes crop up.

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

See above at number 7. Also, I got to be such a regular there that I'd ring to order and say how hungry we were, and for how many people, and they'd just put together something for us. Never a bad experience there. *sigh* I miss them.

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

When I was living in Bangkok in the mid 80's we decided to try eating at every restaurant along our lane/Soi. One of the little chinese restaurants rang us back a little after we placed our order to say they'd run out of rice and would deliver dinner when they'd cooked more. :shock: Also, they had such a heavy hand with the meat tenderiser that several pieces of meat were flat out unidentifiable ("Um, is that pork of chicken?" "No idea. It's brown though. And flat..")

Definitely not in NYC here. Posting from Western Australia. :raz:

Edited for annoying typos.

Edited by Ondine (log)

" ..Is simplicity the best

Or simply the easiest

The narrowest path

Is always the holiest.. "

--Depeche Mode - Judas

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I'm a little scared to post, since after reading the previous responses I am definetely in the minority with regard to question no. 5 about chicken wings, hot sauce and fried rice. I am from No. Jersey so maybe that explains it. I think that Chinese take out is a completely different experience than eating at a Chinese restaurant, and while I enjoy both, when I get takeout it is more of a comfort food experience, best enjoyed when the weather sucks and you can call up and have your food delivered to your door, from some little hole in the wall place. Chicken wings with pork fried rice is a staple and I have eaten it for years, there is just something about opening the styrofoam container and putting hot sauce on the chicken and eating it with a fork (although I don't really like the plastic kind they send in the bag) along with the pork fried rice. The only time I get white rice is when we order pepper steak. My new favorite at the moment is crab sticks, covered in hot sauce with pork fried rice. Yes, yes, I know - its not really crab - in fact I am not sure exactly what it is they have formed into long sticks and deep fried, but I love it and on a cold, rainy night after a long hard day at work, it makes me feel all better. In fact the weather today in Jersey is perfect for chinese takeout - I think I know what we're having for dinner.

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Some small mom-and-pop Chinese takeout places in the outer boroughs have a really cool deep fried chicken set up with pork fried rice. In fact, you know the takeout place is a keeper if they have "deep fried hacked chicken" as opposed to the usual chicken wings/pork chop/fried shrimp/crab stick offerings that you find at these places. There's one place near Gravesend, Brooklyn that has fried maduros; probably not the only one of its kind but it stuck in my memory for some reason.

Ok, so it's not where any eGulleteer would be caught dead in, but then again I'm not like most people you find on this site. :wink:

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

The place we order from the most often doesn't offer brown, so I get white. Never fried rice, though that's what my son and husband order. If the place offers brown rice, I get that, though. One reason is, because my favorite leftover breakfast is fried leftover rice. I chop the leftover veggies/meats and fry the rice, with it, and some seasonings, maybe some leftover soup broth, and butter, for breakfast.

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 alternate bites. I'll pick up a bit of rice with my chopsticks, and lay it on a piece of vegetable, then collect the whole works, and eat it that way. Sometimes, I just like the rice plain, or with a little soy sauce (one of my all time favorite comfort foods, rice and soy sauce), sometimes I like eating the entree alone. I keep 'em seperate. Though, I do like when the sauce seeps under the rice, that's a third whole flavor, there.

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

Chopsticks mostly, spoon, for when the rice gets too saucy to pick up.

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

I deliberately order things without mushrooms, or ask to have them left out. If there's a ton of onions in the dish, I'll pick at a few, but leave most of them behind. Otherwise, I'll eat everything.

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. That has it's place, but not when I crave Chinese.

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

I have a good amount of classics that I stick to. I like mei fun, cashew ____, spare ribs, boneless ribs, sauteed string beans with ground pork, and a few others. I hate egg rolls. I always get the same appetizers, of fried wontons, and a quart of wonton soup. New places prompt me to try new things, or sometimes I just feel like having something different.

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

My favorite place is this joint called Great Wall, because they deliver in like...15 minutes, and the food is always scorching hot. It's like they have woks in their hatchbacks. The food is marginally good, and they don't screw up orders. They're good, not outstanding. Unfortunately, good Asian takeout is scarce around here.

There are a LOT of nasty places, I don't have a worst-of, I guess. But we've tried and rejected dozens.

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

None that are outstanding. The place we order from has good, reliable food. That's about as good as it gets in the takeout dept.

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

Yeah, this is an easy one. Our last place was a Maylaysian/Chinese place, that delivered. You could order off either menu. Decent food, lots of interesting flavors. I'd often get roti canai, or this bizarre (but tasty) Maylay version of Pad Thai. Once, I went off the beaten track, and ordered something called "Spicy Beef Curry Stew" Mmm, sounds good right? It sure smelled good. The sauce was flavorful, a rich brown curry... 2 or three carrots, a few onions, some other veggies. Till I saw this rubbery square looking thing. I pulled it out with my chopstick. It flopped. I licked it. It had a cartlidgey texture. I set it aside. I looked for the beef. I found another rubbery square, this time with a shred of beef stuck to it. Weird... Some of the squares were rolled into tight spirals. Some of them had weird connective tissue, and webbing stuck to them. The WHOLE meal, not one modicum of actual beef, but lots of this weird shit. My very daring husband took a bite. He gagged, spit it out, and said it tasted like wet rawhide. He gave one to the dog, who minutes later, barfed it under my computer chair.

We called the place, and asked "wtf?" in more words. They confirmed, that yes, it was skin. We said "$15.95 for a quart of beef SKIN?!" The woman on the phone assured us that this was the normal dish. I'm sure SURE to this day, we were the butt of some grotesque practical joke, and I'm convinced that she put the phone down, and ran into the kitchen, cackling with delight.

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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?  :blink:

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

8. The first time I had Chinese food was the most memorable. Me, my girlfriends and some friends had just returned from three days hiking in the mountains of eastern KY. We were exhausted and starving because we had survived on little more than granola bars, beer and acid for the entire trip. The town we lived in was very small, but had one Chinese restaurant. We had passed the place every day, but never stopped in. So, on the way back from the mountains, we stopped in and ordered all kinds of stuff, egg rolls, fried rice, lo meins. . . We ordered it for takeout, but the food was brought out on plates, so we ate there. Every bite was like manna from heaven.

Though we looked like a bunch of wild-eyed raggamuffins, the family that operated the place treated us like old friends. Towards the end of the meal, an elderly woman of at least 80 years, who I later came to know as "Momma Dang," came out and sat next to us. She was the eldest of the Dang family, that operated the restaurant. She sat there with us for a good while just smiling, laughing when we laughed, occasionally speaking to us in Chinese (she spoke no English), just radiating this pure maternal goodness. She was so sweet and so friendly. I wanted to give her a big hug. But instead I just smiled, rubbed my belly in what I thought might be the universal "damn, that was good" gesture, and left a fat tip. We went back many times after that.

I'm sure that was one of the most satisfying meals any of us ever had, or will have, even though we ate out takeout at the restaurant.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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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?

Well maybe "covered" is not quite the right word.

Sometimes what happens is that people will come into a take-out place, order the fried chicken wings (or hacked chicken, or whatever), ask for either hot sauce or ketchup or both and then proceed to douse stuff with the sauce.

There was one place when I was living in Brooklyn where they gave you in addition to hot sauce/ketchup, little itty-bitty containers full of hot Chinese mustard and chili oil. (Not combined, just separate.)

That was a winner, come to think of it.

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1. Both, but I lean toward white rice. I'm very picky about rice--I think it can make or break Chinese food.

2. Sometimes I eat straight from the containers (I'm a student). But if I decide on a plate, I leave the rice and entree separate, though the sauce is free to roam into the rice. If the rice is good quality, I won't do much more mixing. Occasionally I'll add a tiny bit of soy sauce (not the horrid tuff that comes with Chinese takeout) to the rice, though I know this isn't habitual in Asia.

3. Chopsticks.

4. I eat everything, even the peppers.

5. No. But I do like plain ol' fried rice.

6. Always different things.

7. Can't say I have a favorite experience

8. Or a least favorite one

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?  :blink:

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

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Ondine, what are Peking Spare Ribs? Are they laquered like Peking Duck, or are they cooked some other way?

Aha! Another example of regional differences! It's a fairly standard dish down these parts. :smile:

The bits of bone-in pork chop are tenderised (lightly, hopefully) and battered or crumbed, and deep fried. Then they're heated or sauteed in a sweet-sour plum sauce with a touch of chilli. I think.

How would you lacquer spare ribs? Don't you need to have skin on the meat to lacquer it?

" ..Is simplicity the best

Or simply the easiest

The narrowest path

Is always the holiest.. "

--Depeche Mode - Judas

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Ondine, what are Peking Spare Ribs? Are they laquered like Peking Duck, or are they cooked some other way?

Aha! Another example of regional differences! It's a fairly standard dish down these parts. :smile:

The bits of bone-in pork chop are tenderised (lightly, hopefully) and battered or crumbed, and deep fried. Then they're heated or sauteed in a sweet-sour plum sauce with a touch of chilli. I think.

How would you lacquer spare ribs? Don't you need to have skin on the meat to lacquer it?

Dunno. You could marinate them with five-spice powder or something.

Edited by Pan (log)

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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

a bite or 2 as an afterthought... usually white

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?

no topee

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

i can dig on the stix...

but use a fork and knife when needed.

i don't like to pick up a big piece of orange beef for example,

and gnaw a bite off...

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

some veggies, i skip broccoli,

but mainly dig on the protien

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?

chinese take out is chinese take out.

proper is best left for formal banquets.

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

mix it up

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

favotite place here in VA, is a place called 'the fortune'

i like the dim sum carted meal

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

the first time i had peking duck at

the peking gourmet here in VA

it was SILLY.

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

roaches. 'nuff said.

Nonsense, I have not yet begun to defile myself.

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