Chinese food is quite tasty...

[Seeker]

Well...yeah, I like SouthEast Asian and Indian food as well. I'm just surprised to see that you hate Chinese food that much, considering that it's similar to other East/Northeast/Southeast Asian cuisines...

I don't think it tastes all that similar to Southeast Asian food, apart from Vietnamese food. Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian food is some of the best I've ever had, I like it almost as much as South Asian and Middle Eastern food.

Chinese also have this weird as f**k preference of drinking water (and beer) WARM! Even in hot weather they'll try to serve you warm (and even hot) water, I'm told this is something to do with their superstitions regarding cold drinks being bad for you. There are a lot of weird superstitions in China which I find strange for such a non-religious country. I suppose atheism is no guard against absurd superstitions.

A lot of Chinese also have disgusting table manners such as chomping very very loudly and putting their leftovers such as bones on the table outside of the plate, so you'll often see a table swamped with leftovers.

Food hygiene must be quite poor in a lot of restaurants, given the amount of people I know who've had poisoning and the amount of times they've had it.

Also, why do a lot of Chinese people have such bad breath? Is that because of their food? Or do they have some "different" bacteria living inside their mouths.

[Ghost]

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[kai1275]

Well...yeah, I like SouthEast Asian and Indian food as well. I'm just surprised to see that you hate Chinese food that much, considering that it's similar to other East/Northeast/Southeast Asian cuisines...

I don't think it tastes all that similar to Southeast Asian food, apart from Vietnamese food. Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian food is some of the best I've ever had, I like it almost as much as South Asian and Middle Eastern food.

Chinese also have this weird as f**k preference of drinking water (and beer) WARM! Even in hot weather they'll try to serve you warm (and even hot) water, I'm told this is something to do with their superstitions regarding cold drinks being bad for you. There are a lot of weird superstitions in China which I find strange for such a non-religious country. I suppose atheism is no guard against absurd superstitions.

A lot of Chinese also have disgusting table manners such as chomping very very loudly and putting their leftovers such as bones on the table outside of the plate, so you'll often see a table swamped with leftovers.

Food hygiene must be quite poor in a lot of restaurants, given the amount of people I know who've had poisoning and the amount of times they've had it.

Also, why do a lot of Chinese people have such bad breath? Is that because of their food? Or do they have some "different" bacteria living inside their mouths.

GREAT QUESTIONS!

1. Hot water aids digestion of food better. IE Hot tea drinking after a meal. Cold water does not "harm you" but it does not actually help digest food faster easier either. This is part of their 5000 years of wisdom that does have some merit to it.

2. Food Hygiene issues overall are all over China. You tend to see it less in the south because food there is hotter with peppers that tend to kill any bacteria's chances of killing your stomach. Also the Vitamin C boost highly enhances your own immune system to fight all kinds of infection potentials.

3. The reason why varies a little, but they are afraid of, or do not know how to floss and brush their teeth properly. When they do not floss well, all that pork starts rotting in between their teeth. Rotting pork in your mouth smells horrific. Like an instant punch in the face. Few people there relatively have teeth like Americans so they wont tell each other it smells awful. They also do not know how to properly scrape their tongue either. Some cannot use mouth wash properly either.

The crazy thing is that dental care in China is VERY f***ing CHEAP! They could solve their issues easy if they cared enough to do so. Overall it is getting better from what I have observed and heard, but that is going to take some time. Right now, only very young pop-ish people and business professionals care alot for great white teeth and breath.

[momopi]

Oh I forgot to say - not all Chinese people like Chinese food.
I failed to find anyone in China who actually liked zongzi (those rice parcel things they eat in the Dragon Boat festival).
At my local Chinese back in England, they've removed everything adventurous from the menu (the frogs legs were very good) and now it's really just stuff made from chicken breast. But oddly enough, the place isn't staffed by Chinese at all, they're all Thais.

Zongzi is somewhat popular in TW. The stuff that's often disliked but people buy anyway is moon cakes, which serves the role of the unpopular "fruit cake" that people buy but don't like to eat. I saw it for sale at Costco recently and it scared me. Many bad memories of moon cakes that were re-gifted and you have no idea how old it actually is.

If anyone here actually likes fruit cake, the New Camaldoli Hermitage at Big Sur in California sells a brandy dipped version that's nice and moist:
http://www.hermitagebigsur.com/Default.asp

[Repatriate]

If anyone here actually likes fruit cake, the New Camaldoli Hermitage at Big Sur in California sells a brandy dipped version that's nice and moist:
http://www.hermitagebigsur.com/Default.asp

Traditional fruit cake is actually supposed to be made with liquor. It's the cheap fruitcake which gives fruitcake a bad name. The manufactured stuff is truly awful because the ingredients are processed and compressed which gives it that brick like consistency and taste.

I've never had good moon cake though. My parents seem to like it but I have no idea why. It's high in cholesterol and tastes bland.

[drealm]

Is gutter oil a wide spread issue? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil

[zboy1]

Is gutter oil a wide spread issue? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil

Well, that is why I stay away from eating at street food stands, or small, around the corner, half-empty restaurants. You know a restaurant is good when you see a lot of people eating at the establishment. That's a sure sign the food is good in the restaurant.

Another tip is never to drink the water at a restaurant here in China, unless it's boiled or comes in tea form. Also, carry a traveling chopstick with you wherever you go. You never know how clean the chopsticks they use in the restaurants are here...

And yes, so far, I'm really loving the food: The Dumplings are excellent, both in the soup form and the standalone variety; I especially like eating the Breakfast dumplings in the morning; another favorite of mine is the fried rice here: at one restaurant I visited, they spiced up the rice for me. I also like the spicy pork dishes and steamed vegetables here...

[drealm]

Street food is half the fun. I like the informality of it. So this is really disappointing.

[kai1275]

Is gutter oil a wide spread issue? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil

Well, that is why I stay away from eating at street food stands, or small, around the corner, half-empty restaurants. You know a restaurant is good when you see a lot of people eating at the establishment. That's a sure sign the food is good in the restaurant.

Another tip is never to drink the water at a restaurant here in China, unless it's boiled or comes in tea form. Also, carry a traveling chopstick with you wherever you go. You never know how clean the chopsticks they use in the restaurants are here...

And yes, so far, I'm really loving the food: The Dumplings are excellent, both in the soup form and the standalone variety; I especially like eating the Breakfast dumplings in the morning; another favorite of mine is the fried rice here: at one restaurant I visited, they spiced up the rice for me. I also like the spicy pork dishes and steamed vegetables here...

Zboy1 I know you normally do not write up things, but you might want to do a quick/short write up/FAQ on how to eat in China. The way you explain how to do this is naturally better than the way I would describe it. You could also take pictures of dead giveaways and clues on what a good restaurant looks like inside or the amount of people inside during lunch time, etc. Take pics of your meals too. The simple ones and bigger ones. If you want I could help you do it if you can supply photos since you are over there. I would if I could but I have no idea when I will be going back to China. Could be a year or more.

I know you are busy but please give it some serious thought. I think it could help alot of guys here especially any non-Asian guys.

[kai1275]

If anyone here actually likes fruit cake, the New Camaldoli Hermitage at Big Sur in California sells a brandy dipped version that's nice and moist:
http://www.hermitagebigsur.com/Default.asp

Traditional fruit cake is actually supposed to be made with liquor. It's the cheap fruitcake which gives fruitcake a bad name. The manufactured stuff is truly awful because the ingredients are processed and compressed which gives it that brick like consistency and taste.

I've never had good moon cake though. My parents seem to like it but I have no idea why. It's high in cholesterol and tastes bland.

I used to hate getting regifted ones. Sometimes though they were fresh and okay. Most of them taste bland. I tend to like the meat ones though and not the regular ones. My wife HATES mooncakes with a passion! So I guess I won't be eating any this year.

[zboy1]

A really underrated Chinese cuisine is Chinese Muslim food from the Xinjiang region. There's many small restaurants specializing in food fromm that part-of-the-word, and it's amazing! I would suggest people really try it out, the next time they're in China.

[zboy1]

Believe or not, prior to this week, I had never, ever eaten at a Sichuan restaurant before.

So, I'm on this date with this chick, and she asks me if I want to go eat at a Sichuan restaurant near her home. Okay, I said. Well, even for a Korean (we LOVE spicy food), I thought I was going to choke a couple of times on my food, because of how spicy the food was...

Nonetheless, the food was amazing. I think it's my new favorite Chinese cuisine--right up there with Dim Sum and Cantonese food. I had spicy beef, hotpot and spicy fried chicken covered in black peppers. Also, had some kind of vegetable dish--but overall, it was great. I felt embarrassed because Koreans are supposed to have iron stomachs--and I felt like a wimp in comparison, LOL.

[zboy1]

Okay, the girl I was dating said she's been to the U.S. before...and she says the Chinese food in America is greasy, overly sweet, and tastes like garbage. I guess most Chinese people on the mainland would consider American Chinese food as some kind of insult or mockery of their cuisine?

[celery2010]

Is gutter oil a wide spread issue? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil

Well, that is why I stay away from eating at street food stands, or small, around the corner, half-empty restaurants. You know a restaurant is good when you see a lot of people eating at the establishment. That's a sure sign the food is good in the restaurant.

Another tip is never to drink the water at a restaurant here in China, unless it's boiled or comes in tea form. Also, carry a traveling chopstick with you wherever you go. You never know how clean the chopsticks they use in the restaurants are here...

And yes, so far, I'm really loving the food: The Dumplings are excellent, both in the soup form and the standalone variety; I especially like eating the Breakfast dumplings in the morning; another favorite of mine is the fried rice here: at one restaurant I visited, they spiced up the rice for me. I also like the spicy pork dishes and steamed vegetables here...

This is a good general rule to follow-- almost anywhere in the world. Goto restaurants that have customers. That means higher turnover of food, and food that someone thinks highly of (usually).

For me honestly, the food in Mainland China is very hot and miss, sometimes it is very good, sometimes it was awful. Mainland China is quite poor so an effort is made to fill you up-- by using oil sometimes.

Food in Taiwan, generally speaking was usually of high quality, trustable and pretty good. There was a much wider variety of food in Mainland though, of course.

[xiongmao]

Hubei food is awesome. But it's hard to find in China because the stuff my first Chinese g'f mom cooked for me I have never found in a restaurant, except for the sliced potato thing. And hers was way better than anything I've had in a restaurant.

Also I had some beyond incredible food while on a tour of the 3 Gorges Dam. But I never found that food anywhere else.

Chinese food in Thailand is so-so. But Japanese food in Thailand is better than I had in Japan. Strange but true!