/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.19782794]

I have always thought American style Chinese food is the single.lost overrated cuisine on the planet. I've have tried so many dishes from so many Chinese restaurants here and considering half the dishes are literally deep fat friend meat drowned in caramelized sugar, I have never had anything that made me fall in love with Chinese cooking. I tend to love ethnic foods like Indian, Ethiopian, Japanese, Korean, etc, but Chinese have never been the same.
Obviously as soon as you bring this up anywhere people are instant to point out that this is "American Chinese food" and not "Chinese food" despite it literally being the only Chinese food 99% of these people saying this know.
So my question is, is "actual Chinese food" really that much better than Americanized dishes? Cause unless it's literally an entirely new cuisine than Chinese food is at most a C+ cuisine.

[Anonymous No.19782812]

i agree it's just a bunch of soy sauce, sugar, oil
that said I havent had it in years and that looks really good rn

[Anonymous No.19782813]

>>19782794
Yeah we get it, you hate general's chicken. Go ahead and be pissed about not having access to a real china town in your nearest major city.

[Anonymous No.19782828]

>>19782813
Go and shill a "real" dish then Wang, Chinatowns serve the same shitty food to the evil gweilos ordering.

[Anonymous No.19782843]

>>19782828
How's it like living in a flyover state?

[Anonymous No.19782852]

>>19782843
Probably better than living in Washington DC like I do honestly.
The Chinese restaurants in our Chinatown aren't particularly good.

[Anonymous No.19782871]

Diaspora cuisine cobbled together by bachelor's who learned to cook as they went vs imperial high culture cuisine

Yeah, there's really no comparison and that's coming from someone who enjoys both.

[Anonymous No.19782877]

I like mapo tofu but I don't think that's American-style. They have that everywhere.

[Anonymous No.19782885]

>>19782852
Have fun paying taxes without representation.

[Anonymous No.19782894]

>>19782794
More of a method than a dish, but hot pot is peak cuisine and I will die on this hill.

[Anonymous No.19782912]

>>19782885
You really just gotta have the last word don't you?

[Anonymous No.19782919]

>>19782794
A lot of actual chinese foods are popular and mainstream in Japanese cooking to the point where if you have Japanese food, you might accidentally be eating chinese food. Like Mapotofu or Gyoza.

[Anonymous No.19782921]

>>19782919
Gyoza, spring rolls, dumplings, etc are the exception here. They are always excellent no matter which cuisine makes them.

[Anonymous No.19783370]

>>19782794
overweight hands typed this post

[Anonymous No.19783386]

>>19782794
It isn't even Americanized. chinks stick to their roots hard. Doesn't matter that they cook it somewhere else.

[Anonymous No.19783389]

>>19782919
Don't forget ramen. Look up where it actually comes from.

[Anonymous No.19783399]

>>19783389
Everyone knows Ramen comes from China, that's probably the most well known thing about "Japanese Cuisine" Because Ramen is incredibly mainstream in the west due to instant noodles.

[Anonymous No.19783927]

>>19782794
good cooks in mainland china emigrate to the US. Food in china is surprisingly disappointing

[Anonymous No.19783942]

Isn’t “real Chinese cuisine” cats and dogs and shit? Not to mention bats and pangolins. We just made it edible. Yeah it’s pretty much just fried chicken/beef/pork nuggets with Chinese sauces and a side of rice, but that’s a good meal if you ask me.

[Anonymous No.19783948]

>>19783942
This, lots of chinese food would be unpalatable for westerners. Maybe if you go to Kanton or some coastal regions you can find some good shit.
I've been reading about the experiences of sailors and merchants visiting China before they opened up and all of them said the same thing.

[Anonymous No.19784836]

>>19782794
Try something like buddha jumps over the wall. The real shit is gourmet.

[Anonymous No.19784868]

>>19782843
>How's it like