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I grew up in a small town in Missouri in the 70s and 80s. I literally had never had any form of Chinese food until I was about 17, and I loved it. So a friend a
by jzb 3y ago
I grew up in a small town in Missouri in the 70s and 80s. I literally had never had any form of Chinese food until I was about 17, and I loved it. So a friend and I would go into "the city" on the regular for a Chinese buffet -- on average once a week during the summer.
I'm pretty sure the owner winced every time we pulled into the parking lot in my friend's heavily used Ford Escort. They had the best Crab Rangoon, and we would knock back between 3-5 heavily loaded plates, each. (Not only Crab Rangoon.) And then heaping bowls of self-serve ice cream.
The restaurant is long gone now -- it folded sometime after I moved out of state (so I don't think it was our feasting that did it) -- which is a shame. I can't put away food the way I did as a teen, and I wish I could go back and have a few much more reasonably sized meals to help restore balance. In my limited defense we always tipped heavily even though we were poor teenagers with part-time amusement park wages.
- CoastalCoder 3y ago> They had the best Crab Rangoon In late 1970's or early 1980's (I think), Super Stop & Shop's salad bar had a "seafood salad" with imitation crab meat. So I'm wondering if your "crab" Rangoon was real crab, or something much cheaper.
- 1123581321 3y agoCrab rangoon is almost always imitation. Sometimes just cream cheese. I happily eat a dozen of them when the neighborhood Laotian church does its fundraiser, no matter what’s in them. Perfect snack.
- stronglikedan 3y agoMost of the places around here use the canned crab meat, but very little of it usually.
- Beijinger 3y agoWell, most Sushi places use fake crab meat (kani). And to be honest, it is not what makes sushi good or bad. I had below average sushi with real crab meat. Just for the guys with allergies: It contains eggs and wheat.
- resolutebat 3y agoRandom side note: kani is the Japanese word for actual crab. Fake crab is kani-kamaboko ("crab fish sausage"), but the second word was lost in translation.
- SI_Rob 3y agothank you, I always wondered why the word used for that stuff was just its actual name in Japanese. I've never heard it referred to as kani-kamaboko, despite being quite familiar with kamaboko (i guess, just the generic term for that pink tinted rubbery roll of fish) itself. This makes a lot of sense. However, aren't some types of imitation crab not kamaboko at all but a kind of fish fillet processed with crab juice to give it that flavor? I actually dislike the taste of crab so I am not all that familiar with the options.
- kccqzy 3y agoThe quality of the seafood is absolutely what makes sushi good or bad. What else could make sushi good or bad? Rice is basically a solved problem with a rice cooker and vinegar. Soy sauce and wasabi are both cheap commodities.
- chipsrafferty 3y agoWell, maybe the fact that sushi refers to the rice, not the fish. Cucumber avocado sushi is sushi. A piece of salmon, even though often lumped in to the category, is not. I'd rather have good rice and average fish than bad rice and good fish.
- nerdbert 3y ago> I literally had never had any form of Chinese ... They had the best Crab Rangoon What the hell is that stuff? I lived most of my life in Asia, but went to a Chinese buffet on a visit to the USA. Crab Rangoon sounded exciting... but it was full of cream cheese or something? Absolutely shocking. I'm very confident that's not a Chinese (or Burmese) dish.
- elil17 3y agoChinese-American cuisine is it's own thing with dishes that reflect the ingredients available to Chinese immigrants in the 19th and 20th century and the demands of American consumers. It's typically a sweeter version of Guangdong food, with one or two Hunan or Sichuan dishes thrown in, and maybe some Japanese food as well. Then you've got uniquely Chinese-American food, like Egg Foo Young.
- JoeAltmaier 3y agoAround here (Midwest) we joke, it's not a complete Chinese Buffet unless it has mac-n-cheese.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoIn Shanghai, if you visit a Papa John's Pizza, you will have no trouble ordering black pepper beef chow mein. But I would hesitate to call that "pizza" just because of the name of the restaurant. I would not even call it "American food". That's not why it's on the menu.
- eru 3y agoMac-n-cheese is very popular in (at least) Singapore, and that includes amongst our ethnically-Chinese people. So it's Chinese enough by that standard.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoIn Shanghai, cheese is something of a novelty item, but milk is sold in every convenience store. I find this surprising given that more than 90% of Chinese are lactose intolerant. On the other hand, I have gotten the comment several times from a cashier while buying milk, "wow, I've never seen anyone buy that much milk at once!" How much milk do you need to buy to trigger that comment? One gallon. I drink that much in about two days. (This is several cartons; the largest carton you can buy is 1350 mL of milk.) So I conclude that Chinese people expect to be able to buy milk, but regardless of that expectation, they actually buy almost zero milk. The concept of lactose intolerance doesn't seem to be well known. I had someone react with horror when she asked what I was going to have for lunch and I said milk. She assured me that if I were to drink milk on an empty stomach, I would suffer from diarrhea. She was confused when I responded that that wouldn't happen to me because I'm white.
- whartung 3y agoOur colloquial term for the Chinese buffets was "All you can stand Chinese". I haven't been to one in years. A singular issue with Chinese food today is the seeming race to the bottom. They're all as commoditized and cheap as they possibly be, and it's a real shame. It's also, at least locally, seems to be getting sweeter and sweeter.
- dhehsvc 3y ago[flagged]