depending on where you are in the world, i was wondering...?

Question

what do you make of the chinese food served in countries other than hong kong and china? what's it like in your area that you live in? i have to say that in london where i am originally from, some of it tastes really nice, but also some of it doesn't taste good either. i've been to hong kong twice and tried the food over there; alas i preferred the dishes being served over there, plus there is more variety and choice. its not just egg fried rice, sweet 'n' sour chicken, prawn crackers but also dishes like rice porridge to name for example. have you been to either hong kong or china or perhaps both and sampled the food over there? what do you think of them? what are your favourite chinese dishes?

btw, no silly comments

in hong kong and china they serve cats, dogs and other animals which i never eat because its gross and nasty! thanks for pointing that out

Answer 1

I love Cantonese food and nowhere in the world serves better Cantonese food than Hong Kong. In San Francisco, San Jose or any city/town with a large Chinese population in North America you will get reasonably-priced , delicious Cantonese food. I've heard that Vancouver is great for Cantonese food as in some parts of it, 1/3 of the population is Chinese (many originally from HK). The competition is so big it is cheaper eating out than cooking at home. However, I've never been there so can't verify this. Some Chinese restaurants in London (Chinatown and other parts of London) are okay but even in Chinatown, not everyone is good. Wang Kee serves good value Cantonese food and the quality is not bad either. It used to be notorious for rude service but now it has a younger generation of waiters who speak English and are a lot more friendly to their customers. I would rather eat there than go to a more expensive-looking restaurant where I might risk being let down by the quality of the food. I like most Cantonese food on the menu of restaurants in Hong Kong, except really exotic ones like snakes and turtles. Cantonese vegetarian dishes are varied and tasty. Dimsums are wonderful for morning or afternoon tea. I love to have dimsums followed by a plate of shredded pork fried noodles or beef stir-fried ho-fun (rice noodles). Cantonese roast meat is great --- ducks, geese, pork, spareribs ,,, they are all great but somehow Chinese restarants in the West don't seem to be very keen to offer these on their menu. Maybe it is not easy to find someone skilled enough to roast meat in a traditional Chinese bbq oven. Then there are the "lo-shui" dishes --- meat or eggs braised in a rich savoury sauce with spices. It's so much a part of the everyday takeaway food in Hong Kong but rarely found served in Cantonese restaurants in the West. I think Cantonese restaurants in the West are too conservative and they make too many assumptions of their Western's customers' taste (or the lack of it). I think people in the West, especially the younger, professional class, are developing sophisticated taste for food and the traditional English Chinese food just won't do anything for them. I encourage Chinese restaurants to be more daring and creative or they will start losing their customers to Thai or Japanese restaurants.

As for people saying Chinese restaurants serve dog meat, cat meat , rodent meat, I think it is a load of rubbish. It is just not logical --- do you think it is easy for them to source the meat? Even if they can find it, it would turn out to cost more than pork, beef or chicken. Also, think of the amount of boning the restaurant have to do on these tiny animals? Do you think they would want to spend so much time boning rodents to get their meat? Even if they save money on the meat, they would waste time on this labour-intensive job. It just doesn't make economical sense. Most people, even if they cut corners in other areas, would not do outrageous things like this to risk losing their licenses.

One last thing that must be clarified --- eating or selling dogs and cats IS illegal in Hong Kong. You might get game food in some restaurants but it will never be dogs and cats.

Answer 2

The tofu is great in Hong kong, yes more variety and perhaps more traditional dishes can be found there. Chicken feet is actually quite good. I enjoy chung fun and pork dumplings, I have recently become hooked on salted eggs which again are distinct in flavour. I love pigs foot and eggs in chinese sweet vinegar, I had it as a meal on its own with rice -suprise! I haven't had a chance for any nearby local chinese food in the past month, I think its also due to my liking for the traditional chinese dishes in Hong kong that I have discovered.

Answer 3

China is a very big country and Chinese food is not confined to the cuisine you get in Cantonese restaurants overseas. There is a tendency for restaurants serving foreign food outside their native country to adapt it to what they think the locals want. Even in Hong Kong, the best way to get real Chinese food is to peek through the window. If Chinese are eating there, then it's probably OK.
These days you'll find restaurants serving various kinds of Chinese cuisine, for example Szechuan which is spicy. Northern China has more noodle dishes than rice dishes. I like all Chinese food. My favourite is probably barbecued spare ribs, a good second would be sizzling beef, both Cantonese.

Answer 4

I have been to HK, Thailand and Singapore and had the local food in all 3.

I have mostly no idea what I ate because I tried to go where the locals went and did point and gesture ordering from picture menus.

I love seafood and made a point of trying whatever was going. I have to say the one place I know what I ate was a restaurant in Singapore where I had the chef's choice - seafood congee with deep-fried soft-shell crabs - it was wonderful. The whole idea of a savoury rice porridge was very strange to me but I decided I really liked it.

For the lady? (sorry if it should be gentleman) from India, if you like spicy foods, then try any dish from Zechuan province (the spelling alters a lot when its written in English) they use lots of chili and spices.

From talking to Chinese cooks over the years, I have learned that they adapt their recipes to the country they are in - most Europeans expect meat as the main ingredient of a dish whereas traditional Chinese food more often uses it as a flavouring with the majority of the ingredients being vegetables or starch (rice/noodles)

I have eaten Chinese food in Australia, NZ, Canada and the UK and it varies a lot in all these - even from town to town. I think I like the UK Chinese food the least, as the idea of curry and Chinese food just doesn't work for me, but perhaps its just the area I am living in at present (West Midlands).

Answer 5

The worst chinese food I have eaten has been in France and Japan. It tasted too french and too Japanese.

Any good chinese restaurant full of chinese people in a big china town (New York, Sydney, London) is as good as anything i have eaten in Hong Kong, malaysia etc.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

I love beef w/ brocolli, vegi rolls, spicy chicken dishes, several things. My kids eat sweet and sour chicken. Some restaurants in KY taste good but there is rumors that they use cat as the meat. I prefer to cook the dishes myself at home now. Seriously a few years ago in Lex,KY the health department found cat skulls in a fridge at a local chinese place. Been skeptical about eating at those places ever since!
Never traveled outside the USA, live in London, KY

Answer 8

Depending on where you go in the world, foods that are common to a specific region are going to taste mildly to extremely different when the influence of the part of the world you are in is incorporated into a dish.
Example in the USA if you are in Texas of California and you have Mexican food it will be similar to that you eat in Mexico with subtle differences.
Go to a Northern state Like Minnesota and the taste will be altered to suit the general tastes of that region therefore greatly altered.

Answer 9

LOL, I don't think there are any other ethnic groups in the world that can match the chinese when it comes to "food".
The chinese have the most expensive, extensive and down right sinful cuisine bar none. Just the common daily varieties scares many foreigners, like black duck eggs, chicken feet, congee with pig inards, rice noodles with tripe, frogs, eels and sea cucumbers etc, etc. Let's not even get into the other "game" varieties.
Most chinese food outside of Hong Kong, China or Taiwan are modified for the local tastes. This is true even for neighboring regions like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Chop Sue and fortune cookies does not exists in HK or China. Within Chinese cuisine itself, it's further divided into 5 main regions of styles and many other minority specialties. When it comes to "food", the chinese has a saying "民以食爲天". Which literally means "to ordinary people, good food is as essential as the sky" it can be as simple as a bowl of congee with fish, a strip of fried bread and a glass of soya milk. But if someone is treating me to the good stuff, I wouldn't mind brasied abalone, shark's fin and bird nest soup either.
Bon appetite !

Answer 10

Some of the Chinese food round here is delicious and i love chicken and mushroom. I wish i knew how they cook it as it is the only gravy my 2and 1/2 will eat. I live in Ayrshire Scotland.
I would love to try genuine Chinese as I bet it is unbelievably good!
Why would someone try to catch cats when they could go to a wholesalers and buy fresh meat. Do you have any idea how many cats it would take to make a dish. It is nasty racist urban myth i had hope had died it's death. Think about it logically!