quote:

These days, though, I've stopped even trying to find a good place, and all the strip mall takeout places are, quite frankly, wretched, and that's being kind about it.

I have the same experience. When I lived in Boston there was good quality Chinese food. Granted it was really American style Chinese food, but the quality was great and there were some authentic dishes. I moved only an hour west and there is nothing but crap. One place near my work was a tiny strip mall place owned by a real Chinese chef and it was awesome. It just closed one day with no notice.

Nothing else around here comes close to good. Heck most of the strip mall places think they are Japanese and Chinese. Kung Pao, Tepanyaki, sushi and General's chicken. What the heck?

It's actually a bit of a bummer.

I have not had any "Chinese food" in the US that is close to the food in China except in appearance. That said I do not generally go to Fujian which is where all the restaurant people here seem to be from. Where I go they use seasonings that the restaurants here simply do not use. I've been to one place around here, with a Mandarin speaker, who ordered in Mandarin, and the food was definitely closer, but still not the same. Northern and South Western Chinese tend to look down on South Eastern China's "too sweet" food, which is all most Americans know, and more Americanized at that. Sichuan here is just the same stuff with crushed red pepper sprinkled on. Real Sichuan hot pot and food in general has a very unique taste due to the Sichuan peppers which you want to infuse into the food, but DO NOT eat the peppers themselves.

Since I travel a lot in Asia I always use chopsticks in Asian restaurants here to keep my practice up. The thin Korean stainless steel ones make my hand hurt and are the hardest to use. Japanese make ones with nice bigger grip ends and tapered food ends that come to a point, and they are the easiest to use. But the bamboo throwaways are fine too. There's nothing more "laowei" than being in China and being asked if you need a fork to eat. But Chinese eat whole shrimp in the shell, spit out the shell and only consume the meat. This is normal. Same with bones in chicken (every damn piece has a bone) and bones in fish. But I can't do that so well, so I have to peal shrimp grilled in the shell which makes it stick to the meat, and it's not easy to do that with chopsticks. But I only eat Chinese food in China for business meals, or when I'm with Chinese friends (most of whom like Chinafied Japanese food). Otherwise I'm having American or European food.

For takeout here, I often get the "meal" special and I'll eat that out of the plastic tray. Ordering a la cart comes in a mix of plastic trays or the old cartons and I always serve that on a plate or shallow bowl. At home I don't always use chopsticks. Sometimes if I feel like it. And no I've never eaten directly out of the carton with chopsticks like the TV stereotype.

Korean food here in general is much closer to Korean food in Korea, only things like the sequencing of the meal and the choice of noodles or rice with the hot red soup at the end of the meal are missing. Korean BBQ is pretty authentic everywhere I've tried it, except not quite as hot and not as much garlic and onion. When I was in Korea a lot all the Korean guys went to the men's room after lunch and brushed their teeth. I was like "you guys really care about oral hygiene and teeth care". They English speaker in the bunch said it is to prevent bad breath from all the garlic and hot sauce. Well, can't argue with that.

Japanese food here is hit or miss. A lot of American places have truly destroyed the cuisine of sushi, with endless silly named rolls without any raw fish, dunked in batter, deep fried, and covered with syrup. But you can find authentic stuff. I was never served a roll of any kind at any meal of consequence in Japan - sashimi and nagiri sushi only (fish laid over a lump of rice). Daily food in Japan is weird, and not like anything you would think it would be. Odd mix of Asian with western influence, but not quite either. At lunch there are lots of breaded and fried things with a part stuff sticking out but you still can't tell what's inside, so I usually have ramen or udon noodles.

Teppanyaki chefs are about precision - cut the steak into a bunch of perfectly sized 1" cubes and cook each to desired done-ness (medium rare or rare in Japan please) on all six sides. No stupid jokes or shrimp tails in the hat or saki squirting bottles. For $100 a head you get a surgeon not a clown.

Usually not because we order multiple dishes and plate what we want to eat. If I were solo and ordering one dish I might eat it straight from the container but I'd probably use a fork. I can see using provided chopsticks and eating straight form the container if I was being extremely lazy and not wanting to get and then clean a fork.

quote:

Originally posted by mr kablammo:
BadDogPSD is a actually subtley boasting about his sex

HA! I wish... I'm just glad I learned to cook.

I have on occasion eaten cold lo mein out of the box with chopsticks, because I was too lazy to plate and reheat, but def not the norm.

No.

I'm in china regularly. Korea, etc. Especially since corona, no food in china, most of the time. I'm not big on ethnic selections, so generally for me anything is a seafood fried rice...and I eat that with a spoon.

Sashimi with chopsticks, and if I'm eating somewhere that has chopsticks, I use them. I don't do much chinese takeout, and if I do it's pseudo stuff, fast food, panda express. Chopsticks and a spoon or fork.

If I do get takeout, I do eat it out of the container, because usually I have no plates, and usually I'm the only one eating it.

Sometimes I eat the leftover bits that way the next day.

Or the occasional times in a new house, or hotel, etc, and there's no plates or some such.

But no, usually I use a plate/bowl of my own with chopsticks.

We haven't had any Chinese take out or dine in, since this mess started.

That said, we always use hashi (Japanese chopsticks) and do not eat out of the containers.

Did know that the little white boxes can be reconfigured into plates, which is a very cool design feature.

We use hashi oki (chopstick holders) all the time.

As for the fork vs. chopstick thing, as chopsticks are great for noodles, they are also great for pasta!

Haters gonna hate.



Oh, have mentioned before that i have been known to eat pizza with a knife and fork

I have always thought the same thing. The only thing that comes in the box when I do take out is rice. The main meal is in styrofoam and you have to mix it if you want. Always thought it was silly when I saw that on TV. I guess I would understand if it was reversed and you didn’t want to eat rice.

Hate has nothing to with anything.

I can see the chopsticks if you are tied somehow to the culture but, short of that, a fork is much more efficient. I love Chinese food and our local establishment always sends food home in the folding box. They serve so much food we have leftovers for days.

In my truck in the console where pens go I keep a set of teak chop sticks. I'll eat right out of the container with my sticks.

That's genius!

Teak is an awesome wood, too.

*****

As for forks being more efficient, there's a bunch of folks who would prolly disagree

I have several packs of chopsticks in my desk as I work in Chambodia. My coworkers are always bringing me some awesome Asian cuisine to gorge on.

I better not touch an egg roll with my fingers or cut it up and use a fork.

If I get takeout in the little paper boxes, I will transfer to a plate to eat. However, the little box will unfold into a plate.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
Kind of.
The local Chinese restaurant no longer uses the old fashion looking boxes.
The restaurant we go to uses plastic trays with lids and I eat out of that with chopsticks.

had some last night

our go to uses the plastic black containers with a clear lid for the 'wet' items, and rice etc is still in the traditional boxes


wife and I get an entree (one 'tray' and a small box of brown rice), and a side of fried rice

both rice come in the traditional boxed


we mix and match on plates and use a fork

I use a fork because I'm here in America and we generally use forks here.

Perhaps some here have grown up with chopsticks and it makes more sense to use those for them, but I often wonder why some regular old Americans use Asian utensils while eating Asian foods here in America.

If chopsticks are the best utensil to use, then why not use them for the rest of your meals? You use chopsticks at the Italian restaurant? At Taco Bell? And if the chopstick is the proper tool only for Asian food, do you have multiple sets? The Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Koreans all use different styles for their food. You wouldn't want to use the same utensils for your General Tso's Chicken as you would your Kimchi.

I don't get it. If eating rice with sticks is your thing, more power to you.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
If chopsticks are the best utensil to use, then why not use them for the rest of your meals?

Who says I don't? I mean, I don't use them for everything. I'm not going to cut up a steak with chopsticks and a knife, or try to fish ice cream out of a bowl with chopsticks. But I do use them for more than just Asian food, at least at home. However, I don't pack them with me to restaurants, and Italian/American/Mexican/etc. restaurants don't provide chopsticks, for some reason...

quote:

I don't get it. If eating rice with sticks is your thing, more power to you.

Unless it's sticky rice, I generally don't eat it with sticks. (Get it? Stick-y. Seriously, though... Rice that clumps together is actually not hard to eat with chopsticks.)

There are a number of foods that are just as -or more- convenient to eat with chopsticks than with a fork. Namely anything that consists of bite-sized chunks of food, from meat to veggies to fruit to snack foods to pasta.

This is especially true for Asian hot pot/ramen/soup/stew-style dishes, where you have large chunks of meat and veggies in a bowl of broth, often with noodles. It's much easier to eat the individual items contained within using chopsticks that to fish them out with a spoon or fork. The chopsticks have a smaller surface area, and therefore you don't drag as much of the broth out on the fork/spoon to drip on the way to your mouth.

But I'll concede that forks are a bit more widely versatile than chopsticks, so if I had to choose between just one or just the other, it'd be forks. Luckily, you don't have to choose, and can have the option to use either one as the situation dictates.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

if the chopstick is the proper tool only for Asian food, do you have multiple sets?

You definitely need multiple sets if you keep a kosher kitchen.

I sometimes use chop sticks as a means to slow down my eating. I’m Italian so left to my own I would gorge myself nearly every meal. Chopsticks are Colonel Tao’s way of saying “slow down fat ass”.