American Chinese food?

11 responses so far ↓

• 1 Ecks T // Jun 21, 2008

  Chop suey is American Chinese.

• 2 Distractable Savant // Jun 21, 2008

  First of all, teriyaki sauce is japanese…not chinese.

  Most American Chinese restaurants serve "Americanized" food. In fact, if the restaurant has chinese writting on the outside, it likely says "Western food" or "American food" or something similar rather than "Chinese Food". This is to let Chinese people know what type of food they serve.

  I once worked as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. The restaurant would close between lunch and dinner for about 2 hours, and the family who owned it would all sit down for a meal. All the workers were invited to eat with them. It was interesting to see what the familiy ate versus what they served the customers…and I got to try a lot of things that weren't on the "Americanized" menu. The most unusual thing was duck feet. It was cooked in some type of greyish sauce. It tasted good, but was a lot of work to get very little meat/skin off of those feet!

  Oxtail, Bitter Melon Soup, Steamed Tripe on rice…all very different.

• 3 jd // Jun 21, 2008

  yes americanised chinese food isnt really chinese food. we dont have fortune cookies in asia. its just some gimmick for the westerners. and teriyaki is japanese, not chinese

• 4 Dfirefox // Jun 21, 2008

  I've been craving and eating it the past 2 weeks. Hot and Sour Soup,Won Ton Soups,egg rolls,vegetables,sweet and sour sauces..man that stuff is addicting.

• 5 The Infamous Vinnie G // Jun 21, 2008

  Yeah I know - I've talked to the people who work at the Chinese take out spot downstairs from my apartment (and I've seen the food that they eat when they get a meal break) It's way different than the food they serve.

  And American Chinese food can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood - I live in a Latino and Black neighborhood and when I get Chinese food in a White neighborhood it's totally different than what they serve up here.

• 6 CBBS // Jun 21, 2008

  chinese food has different types. like other counrty had healthy food n sum bad ones too

• 7 Flabbergasted // Jun 21, 2008

  south american chinese food is soo good. i guess they add more sauce to the fried rice and for some reason they make fried chicken which is ten times better than the colonel's

• 8 tazo157 // Jun 21, 2008

  It's simple, take a look around the restaurant. If you don't see a lot of asians and it's not loud and busy then it's not the real deal. Also ask if there's a "Chinese" menu. Sometimes they have two types of menus.

  Don't be offended if they don't give you chopsticks. They know you might not have grown up with them.

  Now I've told you the secrets. I have to go hide for a while. There gonna be looking for me soon. Please don't forget me…

  Take it from me, a real asian…

• 9 doctorhector // Jun 21, 2008

  American Chinese don´t use cats!!!! (I think!)

• 10 kiera70 // Jun 21, 2008

  A lot of what you find in the shopping malls and local chinese food restaurants are not authentic chinese dishes. If you are looking for authentic chinese cuisine, follow the chinese people in your community. Where they eat you will find really good authentic cuisine.
  Oh, and chopsticks are not an excuse to be a messy eater. If you don't know how to use them, don't try in a restaurant filled with asian people. Save yourself the embarassment and accept the fork gracefully.

• 11 drjkfu // Jun 21, 2008

  American Chinese food is based mainly on Cantonese food (one region in China), with a lot more deep frying to suit the American pallet. I'm not a deep fried food fan, so eating Chinese food in China was much better for me. There are about as many dishes in China as there are in Europe and the differences between cuisines (Sichuan vs. Shanghai vs. Cantonese) is about as stark as between Italian and German.