Thoughts On China After The Fact

Taco · Post by **Taco** » January 6th, 2012, 2:42 pm

A former English teacher gives his thoughts on living and teaching in China.

Thoughts On China After The Fact
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXSY7JUN ... ature=plcp

Living Under Communism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnhvG848 ... ature=plcp

Everdred · Post by **Everdred** » June 21st, 2012, 7:06 am

Having lived in China for almost 3 years, I have to say that I agree with the guy 100%. The bottom line is: China is an intriguing and stimulating place to stay for a few years, but it's certainly not a place I'd want to be long term (5+ years).

JacarÃ© · Post by **JacarÃ©** » June 24th, 2012, 7:28 pm

I watched the first 2 minutes of that first video and had to stop it. All this guy was saying was complaining about him missing US food...lol I guess this guy was not meant to be living outside the US.

Jester · Post by **Jester** » June 24th, 2012, 10:43 pm

JacarÃ© wrote:I watched the first 2 minutes of that first video and had to stop it. All this guy was saying was complaining about him missing US food...lol I guess this guy was not meant to be living outside the US.

Yeah I did likewise.

Guy is worried that expats dont pay taxes + he misses American fast food = Idiot.

eurobrat · Post by **eurobrat** » June 24th, 2012, 11:56 pm

Everdred · Post by **Everdred** » June 27th, 2012, 7:41 am

Maybe the video was more interesting to me because I can relate to a lot of what he was saying.

Anyone that lives abroad long enough is eventually going to miss some of the food from their home country. That doesn't mean they aren't capable of living abroad. I think his point was, if you're ever wanting a "taste of home" by eating at a Western restaurant in China, it'll never be quite the same as you're used to back home. It'll almost always be somehow inferior (the same way a Chinese person probably feels whenever they eat Chinese food in the United States).

On the other hand, if you're the kind of person that doesn't like any food other than what comes from your home country, then maybe living abroad isn't exactly for you. Judging from several of his videos, I'm pretty sure this guy isn't one of those kind of people.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » June 27th, 2012, 6:02 pm

I had pretty good chicken at KFC in Singapore and A&W's in Malaysia. The quality at KFC here in Los Angeles has declined over the past 20 years. I prefer to go to Popey's or make my own.

zboy1 · Post by **zboy1** » June 27th, 2012, 6:23 pm

momopi wrote:I had pretty good chicken at KFC in Singapore and A&W's in Malaysia. The quality at KFC here in Los Angeles has declined over the past 20 years. I prefer to go to Popey's or make my own.

U.S./Western Fast food chains taste much better overseas than they do in the United States or Canada; for example, I had Dunkin Donuts in Korea a few times and noticed the coffee and donuts tasted much better over there! Pizza Hut in Asia is much more upscale than what you would expect in U.S. cities. And I had McDonald's in France once, and the food quality was miles ahead of what was offered in the States; they even had beer in the menu in the McDonald's in France.

Everdred · Post by **Everdred** » June 27th, 2012, 9:28 pm

zboy1 wrote:U.S./Western Fast food chains taste much better overseas than they do in the United States or Canada

At least when it comes to Asia, I would say pretty much all of the major fast food chains are inferior to their American counterparts. Usually the Asian menus are missing at least half of what's on the American menus.

I agree with you that Pizza Hut is much fancier in Asia than it is in the United States, but the taste is far worse. There's usually very limited options on the pizza's crust (such as stuffed crust, thick crust, thin crust, etc.), and the pizzas often taste sweet when they shouldn't. And let's not forget the whole Asian thing of putting ketchup on pizza. I also think Dairy Queen in Asia is far inferior to the American Dairy Queen.

Asian McDonald's are usually about 80% the same as the American ones, but the Asian KFCs are often lacking some of the best and classic side dishes from the American menu. For example, I almost never see macaroni and cheese, biscuits, or coleslaw on the menu. Usually it's all chicken legs, sandwiches, and rice dishes. I'm sorry, but I don't go to KFC for rice dishes, especially when I can get them for 1/3 of the KFC price on the street. However, the fried chicken is usually up to par.

Anyways, we're only talking about fast food restaurants here, and I almost never eat fast food in Asia. There's "faster," cheaper, and better tasting food on the streets. But let's not forget all of the other non-fast food Western restaurants. Nine times out of ten, they will also be worse than what you're used to back home.

xiongmao · Post by **xiongmao** » June 28th, 2012, 9:11 am

Pizza Hut in China does all kinds of awesomeness. The soup and potato salad are particular favourites of mine.

McDonalds is good in Guangzhou because the lunchtime special on meals is only 14RMB (about a third of the price it is back in the UK).

McDonalds in Shanghai was awful. In fact all food in Shanghai was awful. If you want good food in China, you need to go to Hubei, Sichuan or Guangdong.

Japan is awesome for fusion food, like the potato salad sandwich and the salad pizza (for ladies who lunch). I also liked their idea of serving sausages on their own.

Jester · Post by **Jester** » June 28th, 2012, 9:25 am

momopi wrote:I had pretty good chicken at KFC in Singapore and A&W's in Malaysia. The quality at KFC here in Los Angeles has declined over the past 20 years. I prefer to go to Popey's or make my own.

used to love kfc. no more. bought some several months back and couldn't finish - threw it out. i am guessing that the horrible things they do to the chickens leaves a spiritual taint.

really.

in china i would probably try it to see if i got good energy from it or not.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » June 28th, 2012, 10:24 am

This is just a personal opinion, the quality of fried chicken in China and Taiwan is inferior to Singapore and Malaysia.

I've eaten fried chicken across the US, and will say that the quality at places like KFC and Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in LA is inferior to say, Harold's Chicken Shack in Chicago, or even the fried chicken at Macy's food court on Magnificent Mile (the ex-Marshall Fields?).

There's a stereotype that fried chiclen is better in the South, but from experience, I think the quality varies greatly from place to place. Some are great, others are as bad as KFC in LA. The quality is less consistent than White Castle sliders.

Repatriate · Post by **Repatriate** » June 28th, 2012, 10:37 am

momopi wrote:This is just a personal opinion, the quality of fried chicken in China and Taiwan is inferior to Singapore and Malaysia.

I've eaten fried chicken across the US, and will say that the quality at places like KFC and Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in LA is inferior to say, Harold's Chicken Shack in Chicago, or even the fried chicken at Macy's food court on Magnificent Mile (the ex-Marshall Fields?).

There's a stereotype that fried chiclen is better in the South, but from experience, I think the quality varies greatly from place to place. Some are great, others are as bad as KFC in LA. The quality is less consistent than White Castle sliders.

o
It's really down to individual restaurant management rather than the quality of the poultry. Fried chicken is one of those things that tastes terrible if left out under a heat lamp too long. Plus a lot of restaurants over/under fry and a variety of things can go wrong.

There's no reason why chicken would taste worst in LA. CA has a lot of top notch agriculture and farms.

xiongmao · Post by **xiongmao** » June 28th, 2012, 12:50 pm

I've had several strange experiences in KFC in China...

In Wuhan, they had no chicken. So we have to order fish.

In Guangzhou I was about to eat my Zinger when they took it away and replaced it with another one. I can only speculate as to what could have happened had I ate that Zinger.

Chicken is generally not great in China. I sure like eel though.

royalism · Post by **royalism** » July 13th, 2012, 6:43 pm

momopi wrote:This is just a personal opinion, the quality of fried chicken in China and Taiwan is inferior to Singapore and Malaysia.

I've eaten fried chicken across the US, and will say that the quality at places like KFC and Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in LA is inferior to say, Harold's Chicken Shack in Chicago, or even the fried chicken at Macy's food court on Magnificent Mile (the ex-Marshall Fields?).

There's a stereotype that fried chiclen is better in the South, but from experience, I think the quality varies greatly from place to place. Some are great, others are as bad as KFC in LA. The quality is less consistent than White Castle sliders.

I miss eating the chicken from Malaysia. Its smaller, the breast meat is less white, but very juicy. Canadian chicken is quite "dry" and doesn't taste as good. I'm talking about the different breeds of chicken they use in malaysia vs canada.