You have to appreciate Chinese fortune cookies! My recent fortune stated that I will have a successful food adventure. Isn’t that something! How should I interpret that?
Have you ever had a weird fortune from a Chinese fortune cookie? I would like this post to serve as a collection of weird Chinese Fortune cookies. Post any fortune that you feel is interesting and what you think about it. Maybe the Chinese fortune cookie does predict the future!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Chinese Food
Chinese Food Analysis
This post is about my current thoughts on Chinese food. I have been absent from this blog lately because I have other food blogs that I manage. In particular, my flagship blog is a pizza blog (please visit some time).
My thoughts on Chinese food were derived from an experience that I had yesterday. I had breakfast at a small diner owned and operated by Chinese people. The meal that I had was an American egg and cheese omelet with hash browns… oh…and a side order of 3 pancakes (I like my meals large). The food was average but this post isn’t a review of what I ate.
This post is actually about my thoughts while eating American food in a Chinese diner. The question that came to mind was about Chinese food. This question is an age old question that can be applied to countless other ethnic foods. Is a food considered Chinese food just because the chef who cooked the meal is Chinese? Of course, Chinese food is the food that originated from the ethnic culture of the Chinese. But really what I am questioning is other foods in addition to what we already know to be popularly considered Chinese food. Can a non traditional Chinese food be considered Chinese food if prepared by a Chinese chef?
This question may sound stupid (and it did to me at first) but the more that I thought about it the more that I could not find an answer. Let me elaborate.
A Chinese chef may have been trained to use the ingredients and styles of the ways of the Chinese. Thus, any food that he or she creates will have at minimum some connection to the tastes of Chinese food as we know it. So in my case yesterday I ate a breakfast platter that is traditionally known to be an American meal. How can you make an omelet taste like Chinese food? The chef who prepared this omelet did though. There were subtle hints of a Chinese chef through the works of the meal. For example, I am sure that MSG was used as I could taste it throughout. Or how about the cheese being put on top of the omelet instead of inside neatly tucked away like the traditionally American style?
The point that I am making is how far do we draw the line when we define an ethnic food. Better yet, what is American food? Most American dishes are in fact derivatives of other cultures. The hamburger, for example, actually was derived from Hamburg, Germany. But the Americans have become known for the meal because of their style of the way it is cooked and the marketing behind it. If you apply this same analogy to my omelet, why wouldn’t you be able to consider that a Chinese omelet. Yes it is normally considered an American platter but another ethic group has now influenced the norm by cooking this platter with their own culture’s style. Who knows – in 50 years the American pancake may be considered a Chinese dish.
Take pizza as another example. If you look at pizza history you will see that many cultures have helped to shape what we know of it today. But the Italians from Napoli were the last culture that has created the current pizza. But how come you will sometimes hear people call pizza American food? We all know it to be Italian. Because pizza has become a part of American culture it is starting to blend with the foods there. Many non-Italians in America are cooking pizza every day. This is contributing to this food taking on a different identity. This may eventually happen to other newer immigrating cultures that are recently getting massive attention from the American society. A perfect example is Vietnamese pho. In fifty years, this food will probably blend into the American diet along with hamburgers and pizza. If the masses like it then they will try to influence that ethnic food with their own style.
The analysis of Chinese food that I am presenting here today can be applied to many other cultures (it just so happened that I had to eat at a Chinese diner yesterday). For example, in America today, many of our chefs are from Mexican decent. If you were to go to an Italian restaurant and all of the chefs were Mexican, is that food really Italian food or is it Mexican food? Do you see where I am going with this? This is a highly debatable topic.
Please let me know what your thoughts are. Again the question is: Do you think any meal prepared by a Chinese chef is considered Chinese food even if it is not traditionally known as Chinese food?
This post is about my current thoughts on Chinese food. I have been absent from this blog lately because I have other food blogs that I manage. In particular, my flagship blog is a pizza blog (please visit some time).
My thoughts on Chinese food were derived from an experience that I had yesterday. I had breakfast at a small diner owned and operated by Chinese people. The meal that I had was an American egg and cheese omelet with hash browns… oh…and a side order of 3 pancakes (I like my meals large). The food was average but this post isn’t a review of what I ate.
This post is actually about my thoughts while eating American food in a Chinese diner. The question that came to mind was about Chinese food. This question is an age old question that can be applied to countless other ethnic foods. Is a food considered Chinese food just because the chef who cooked the meal is Chinese? Of course, Chinese food is the food that originated from the ethnic culture of the Chinese. But really what I am questioning is other foods in addition to what we already know to be popularly considered Chinese food. Can a non traditional Chinese food be considered Chinese food if prepared by a Chinese chef?
This question may sound stupid (and it did to me at first) but the more that I thought about it the more that I could not find an answer. Let me elaborate.
A Chinese chef may have been trained to use the ingredients and styles of the ways of the Chinese. Thus, any food that he or she creates will have at minimum some connection to the tastes of Chinese food as we know it. So in my case yesterday I ate a breakfast platter that is traditionally known to be an American meal. How can you make an omelet taste like Chinese food? The chef who prepared this omelet did though. There were subtle hints of a Chinese chef through the works of the meal. For example, I am sure that MSG was used as I could taste it throughout. Or how about the cheese being put on top of the omelet instead of inside neatly tucked away like the traditionally American style?
The point that I am making is how far do we draw the line when we define an ethnic food. Better yet, what is American food? Most American dishes are in fact derivatives of other cultures. The hamburger, for example, actually was derived from Hamburg, Germany. But the Americans have become known for the meal because of their style of the way it is cooked and the marketing behind it. If you apply this same analogy to my omelet, why wouldn’t you be able to consider that a Chinese omelet. Yes it is normally considered an American platter but another ethic group has now influenced the norm by cooking this platter with their own culture’s style. Who knows – in 50 years the American pancake may be considered a Chinese dish.
Take pizza as another example. If you look at pizza history you will see that many cultures have helped to shape what we know of it today. But the Italians from Napoli were the last culture that has created the current pizza. But how come you will sometimes hear people call pizza American food? We all know it to be Italian. Because pizza has become a part of American culture it is starting to blend with the foods there. Many non-Italians in America are cooking pizza every day. This is contributing to this food taking on a different identity. This may eventually happen to other newer immigrating cultures that are recently getting massive attention from the American society. A perfect example is Vietnamese pho. In fifty years, this food will probably blend into the American diet along with hamburgers and pizza. If the masses like it then they will try to influence that ethnic food with their own style.
The analysis of Chinese food that I am presenting here today can be applied to many other cultures (it just so happened that I had to eat at a Chinese diner yesterday). For example, in America today, many of our chefs are from Mexican decent. If you were to go to an Italian restaurant and all of the chefs were Mexican, is that food really Italian food or is it Mexican food? Do you see where I am going with this? This is a highly debatable topic.
Please let me know what your thoughts are. Again the question is: Do you think any meal prepared by a Chinese chef is considered Chinese food even if it is not traditionally known as Chinese food?
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Honey Chicken
Honey Chicken and the Economy
I ordered honey chicken tonight from a local Chinese takeout place. The food was very good and the price was cheap. In this economy, Chinese food might just be the best deal to save money on food.
The honey chicken that I ordered tonight was delicious for the price. When I say for the price I mean it literally. If you gave me the same meal and charged double the price than it wouldn’t taste as good. Yes, this is possible. Price does influence taste, unless the food is exceptionally good.
Anyway, the honey chicken that I ate tonight had its own style. Some Chinese food places cook honey chicken by slapping a honey glaze on the chicken’s crispy exterior. This honey chicken was chicken in a semi honey soup. That is, the honey sauce was semi diluted with a water base. The way it was done was acceptable. With so many styles to cooking this dish, I believe that there is no one right way to do it. This style was very tasty and worked even better when I put rice in its sauce. I then ate the rice with the honey chicken to achieve the optimal effect.
I also ate hot and sour soup with the honey chicken. I ordered a quart of each. The hot and sour soup was cooked nice but had a little too much tofu. I don’t like when they prepare hot and sour soup with too much tofu. It hides the other ingredients’ taste.
There was a reason why I named this article honey chicken and the economy. Although I wanted to discuss my Chinese dinner tonight, I wanted to make a point. The point was that I believe that Chinese food is a great method to balance the budget in this economy.
My dinner tonight was less than $13. Could you believe this? This meal was good enough for at least three people. That’s about $4 a person. I ordered a quart of the honey chicken and a quart of hot and sour soup. The white rice came with the meal and the egg roll was free. All for $13. Living in expensive America right now, Chinese food has got to be the cheapest way to eat (or at least one of the cheapest foods). Don’t get me wrong...there are other foods comparable like pizza or Vietnamese food, for example. But Chinese food is probably more common in the average American city than Viet food and pizza is probably not as healthy.
So if you are looking for a way to eat healthy, eat cheap, and eat well, just think about what I ate tonight for the price and maybe you will reconsider your eating habits. The best part about tonight’s dinner is that I don’t have to clean up when it was all done.
Chinese Food Blog on honey chicken and the economy!
I ordered honey chicken tonight from a local Chinese takeout place. The food was very good and the price was cheap. In this economy, Chinese food might just be the best deal to save money on food.
The honey chicken that I ordered tonight was delicious for the price. When I say for the price I mean it literally. If you gave me the same meal and charged double the price than it wouldn’t taste as good. Yes, this is possible. Price does influence taste, unless the food is exceptionally good.
Anyway, the honey chicken that I ate tonight had its own style. Some Chinese food places cook honey chicken by slapping a honey glaze on the chicken’s crispy exterior. This honey chicken was chicken in a semi honey soup. That is, the honey sauce was semi diluted with a water base. The way it was done was acceptable. With so many styles to cooking this dish, I believe that there is no one right way to do it. This style was very tasty and worked even better when I put rice in its sauce. I then ate the rice with the honey chicken to achieve the optimal effect.
I also ate hot and sour soup with the honey chicken. I ordered a quart of each. The hot and sour soup was cooked nice but had a little too much tofu. I don’t like when they prepare hot and sour soup with too much tofu. It hides the other ingredients’ taste.
There was a reason why I named this article honey chicken and the economy. Although I wanted to discuss my Chinese dinner tonight, I wanted to make a point. The point was that I believe that Chinese food is a great method to balance the budget in this economy.
My dinner tonight was less than $13. Could you believe this? This meal was good enough for at least three people. That’s about $4 a person. I ordered a quart of the honey chicken and a quart of hot and sour soup. The white rice came with the meal and the egg roll was free. All for $13. Living in expensive America right now, Chinese food has got to be the cheapest way to eat (or at least one of the cheapest foods). Don’t get me wrong...there are other foods comparable like pizza or Vietnamese food, for example. But Chinese food is probably more common in the average American city than Viet food and pizza is probably not as healthy.
So if you are looking for a way to eat healthy, eat cheap, and eat well, just think about what I ate tonight for the price and maybe you will reconsider your eating habits. The best part about tonight’s dinner is that I don’t have to clean up when it was all done.
Chinese Food Blog on honey chicken and the economy!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Suggestion Box
Here you can list any comments, suggestions, or feedback of any sort to help improve the productivity of this Chinese food blog!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant
Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant
My first real post on this blog I will talk about my experience at the Chinese dim sum restaurant that I ate at for lunch today. The whole reason that I have this blog is to help learn more about Chinese food and document my findings. This is not a science blog though. The Chinese Food Blog is allowed to go off topic if necessary but for the most part I will be speaking about my experiences with Chinese food.
So today I went to a Chinese dim sum restaurant. For any of you who don’t know what dim sum is let me give you my American explanation. Dim sum is a type of Chinese restaurant that serves various displays of Chinese food in a cart that they bring to your table. The Chinese dim sum has a large variety of food that you can choose from. This is different than the traditional style that allows you to order off of the Chinese menu. With Dim sum there is no Chinese menu. You will select whatever food that is already prepared and provided as a selection. From my experiences, there are usually no more than 50 different types of Chinese food samples to choose from.
Dim sum food is also different then the food from the Chinese menu in that they usually only serve certain types of Chinese food that would be considered Chinese food appetizers. What I mean is that you won’t usually find a bird’s nest soup or a Chinese pizza at a dim sum. These restaurants have a certain standard of their samples and it usually is this way all across the industry. Most of the dim sums that I have been to usually serve the same Chinese food appetizers on their cart. I am sure that there are probably restaurants that are out there that serve almost anything that is Chinese but I have yet to be at one of them. Not to be mistaken is the fact that if you don’t like something served at the dim sum then you can order off of the menu and get something else to eat. But dim sum itself is usually limited.
So where does dim sum come from? Dim sum is translated as “touch the heart” and is a Chinese tradition of eating a group of light meals usually in the day time. Dim sum Chinese food is served with tea (which has its roots in the Chinese tradition of Yum Cha or to drink tea). Both tea and dim sum light food are equally important in the dim sum tradition.
Some of the main dishes that are served with Chinese dim sum include gow, bau, rice noodle rolls, turnip cake, taro cake, water chestnut cake, tofu skin roll, spring roll, squid, taro dumpling, sou, congee, lotus leaf rice, spare rib, meatballs, and sticky rice. Obviously this list is not all inclusive because there are plenty more options and variations served. Throughout this blog I am sure that we will be discussing most of these.
Anyway my experience today at the dim sum was very interesting. I love going to a restaurant when the workers don’t show and the place is slammed busy. The Chinese dim sum restaurant that I went to today I had found out the hard way that many of the employees had taken off today because the owner was working them too hard. This left only about 2 or 3 employees to about 100 people. This situation demonstrates when a dim sum can fall apart. You see, the dim sum idea works best when there is a proper amount of employees to customer ratio. In that scenario, you have food being rolled over to your table at all times with a large selection to choose from. When you have an understaffing like in my situation today than the customer is forced to take what food the dim sum tray rolls over to them. Since you already know that you may not get anyone else to bring another display over to your table for awhile, this results in your table taking too many appetizers that you may not like or cannot eat. Finally when the servers bring around the dim sum tray again about a half hour later with options that look better, you are already full and unfortunately cannot eat what you really want.
I apologize because my first blog I did want to talk about a good Chinese food experience but this is the real world. Unfortunately, when you go out to eat you will not always have your dream dining experience. If you are reading this blog because you want to hear all good things then you may as well stop reading. I don’t know if you read my other blogs but I tend to give the truth when I speak about food. If I don’t like something then I will spell it out. I did not enjoy my dim sum experience today. Usually I do but it pisses me off when the owners of a restaurant don’t know how to manage their employees well. This results in many dissatisfied customers. My negative dim sum experience today was probably shared by many other customers at that Chinese restaurant. Well, as my readers I wouldn’t worry too much because dim sum in general is usually a good time with good food. I’m sure I may have a better experience next time. Well, stay tuned for my adventures in Chinese food.
Thank you for joining the Chinese Food Blog and I hope that you have enjoyed our discussion of the Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant.
My first real post on this blog I will talk about my experience at the Chinese dim sum restaurant that I ate at for lunch today. The whole reason that I have this blog is to help learn more about Chinese food and document my findings. This is not a science blog though. The Chinese Food Blog is allowed to go off topic if necessary but for the most part I will be speaking about my experiences with Chinese food.
So today I went to a Chinese dim sum restaurant. For any of you who don’t know what dim sum is let me give you my American explanation. Dim sum is a type of Chinese restaurant that serves various displays of Chinese food in a cart that they bring to your table. The Chinese dim sum has a large variety of food that you can choose from. This is different than the traditional style that allows you to order off of the Chinese menu. With Dim sum there is no Chinese menu. You will select whatever food that is already prepared and provided as a selection. From my experiences, there are usually no more than 50 different types of Chinese food samples to choose from.
Dim sum food is also different then the food from the Chinese menu in that they usually only serve certain types of Chinese food that would be considered Chinese food appetizers. What I mean is that you won’t usually find a bird’s nest soup or a Chinese pizza at a dim sum. These restaurants have a certain standard of their samples and it usually is this way all across the industry. Most of the dim sums that I have been to usually serve the same Chinese food appetizers on their cart. I am sure that there are probably restaurants that are out there that serve almost anything that is Chinese but I have yet to be at one of them. Not to be mistaken is the fact that if you don’t like something served at the dim sum then you can order off of the menu and get something else to eat. But dim sum itself is usually limited.
So where does dim sum come from? Dim sum is translated as “touch the heart” and is a Chinese tradition of eating a group of light meals usually in the day time. Dim sum Chinese food is served with tea (which has its roots in the Chinese tradition of Yum Cha or to drink tea). Both tea and dim sum light food are equally important in the dim sum tradition.
Some of the main dishes that are served with Chinese dim sum include gow, bau, rice noodle rolls, turnip cake, taro cake, water chestnut cake, tofu skin roll, spring roll, squid, taro dumpling, sou, congee, lotus leaf rice, spare rib, meatballs, and sticky rice. Obviously this list is not all inclusive because there are plenty more options and variations served. Throughout this blog I am sure that we will be discussing most of these.
Anyway my experience today at the dim sum was very interesting. I love going to a restaurant when the workers don’t show and the place is slammed busy. The Chinese dim sum restaurant that I went to today I had found out the hard way that many of the employees had taken off today because the owner was working them too hard. This left only about 2 or 3 employees to about 100 people. This situation demonstrates when a dim sum can fall apart. You see, the dim sum idea works best when there is a proper amount of employees to customer ratio. In that scenario, you have food being rolled over to your table at all times with a large selection to choose from. When you have an understaffing like in my situation today than the customer is forced to take what food the dim sum tray rolls over to them. Since you already know that you may not get anyone else to bring another display over to your table for awhile, this results in your table taking too many appetizers that you may not like or cannot eat. Finally when the servers bring around the dim sum tray again about a half hour later with options that look better, you are already full and unfortunately cannot eat what you really want.
I apologize because my first blog I did want to talk about a good Chinese food experience but this is the real world. Unfortunately, when you go out to eat you will not always have your dream dining experience. If you are reading this blog because you want to hear all good things then you may as well stop reading. I don’t know if you read my other blogs but I tend to give the truth when I speak about food. If I don’t like something then I will spell it out. I did not enjoy my dim sum experience today. Usually I do but it pisses me off when the owners of a restaurant don’t know how to manage their employees well. This results in many dissatisfied customers. My negative dim sum experience today was probably shared by many other customers at that Chinese restaurant. Well, as my readers I wouldn’t worry too much because dim sum in general is usually a good time with good food. I’m sure I may have a better experience next time. Well, stay tuned for my adventures in Chinese food.
Thank you for joining the Chinese Food Blog and I hope that you have enjoyed our discussion of the Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Chinese Food Blog
Chinese Food Blog
This blog, as the name implies, is a Chinese Food Blog about Chinese Food. I will try to provide an analysis here of various Chinese food topics. Any experiences, thoughts, ideas, facts, and information about Chinese food will be discussed here. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let us know. Chinese Food Blog welcomes all!
This blog, as the name implies, is a Chinese Food Blog about Chinese Food. I will try to provide an analysis here of various Chinese food topics. Any experiences, thoughts, ideas, facts, and information about Chinese food will be discussed here. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let us know. Chinese Food Blog welcomes all!
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