I hate Chinese food.

Naikon

There, I said it. Maybe I am eating in the wrong places, or I am not eating traditional
Chinese food, but I try to avoid the stuff as much as possible.

When I got off work today, I ordered up a chicken with black bean sauce at the new local.
Not impressed at all tbh. The food was somewhat reminiscent of rubber.
The glutinous/slimey texture and the amount of food items infested with good ol MSG doesen't help it's credibility either.

Why is this crap so fecking popular? I am aware that it is a huge seller(especially among
pub goers), but I don't understand why. Tbh, I would much prefare a sandwich, a steak, or an Italian dish.
Most of the restaurants tend to be very generic to cater for people who want exotic food, but is not too exotic.

Do YOU have a preference for this food over other food, or am I just a silly madman?

challengemaster

Proper chinese food is lovely, the only problem is, you've got to go to china for it.

There's a few top notch places around tbh, but a lot of places are just ****ty take-aways.


Oh and drunk people would eat anything, thats why its popular

Creamy Goodness

yeh you're not eating traditional chinese food, which is devine.

although chicken/duck/beef with black bean is one of my favourites from the conventional irish chinese menu, perhaps you got a bad restaurant.

Alicat

Go Thai! It's much nicer, and lighter than Chinese but they have a lot of similar dishes.

I used to eat a fair bit of Chinese but I stick to Thai most of the time now.

Miss Fluff

I think a lot of them load their food with MSG. Apparently you can ask for it without.

Creamy Goodness

what's this MSG seen it mentioned on boards before?

KnifeWRENCH

No

I do like an occassional Chinese.
There's a dish called Penang Chicken (I think it's Cantonese) and it is absolutely gorgeous! *drools*
Having said that, Chinese food in general is not my favourite type of food (too many vegetables!)

If I was with friends/family and we were hungry, then chipper does fine.
Going for a Chinese is more suitable for special occassions.

EDIT: Having checked Wikipedia, it appears Penang is actually Malaysian. Still, Chinese restaurants do it and it's so yummy!!

Run_to_da_hills

No

I found a maggot in a chow mein at a chinese restaurant about five years ago. I brought the meal back to show your one and she offered me a replacement meal. I nearly spilled my guts out :eek:

leninbenjamin

No

Cremo wrote: »

what's this MSG seen it mentioned on boards before?

Monosodium glutamate. flavour enhancer that is bad for you.

and OP, you're obviously just going to sh*t restaurants.

Nailz

No

I like Chinese a good bit, but Indian FTW!!!

Naikon

Cremo wrote: »

what's this MSG seen it mentioned on boards before?

Basically, it's a form of salt which is used for flavor enhancing purposes, but I think
it just makes food taste like rubber. Pretty bad stuff tbh.

There are documented health risks, so it's not good to be eating this stuff really.
Chinese restaurants tend to abuse the stuff, but it's in stuff like Doritos, canned/pre packed foods etc.

Bob the Builder

Chinese food is lovely. used to eat it loads until I went to some dodgy take away, got food poisoned, and never ate any chinese since. Unless you can find a proper chinese outlet restaraunt, you'll only eat crap, and if you're as unlucky as me, get food poisoned.

Went to thai restaraunt in portugal last year. Got food poisoned there for 24hours from it(along with the family). Thats when I knew that it was time to stick to the irish food.

Abi

No

Naikon wrote: »

Do YOU have a preference for this food over other food, or am I just a silly madman?

Yes, get off the internet




Have you gone for the plainer stuff? Beef / Chicken curry with rice or chips?

I rarely go outside that, maybe sweet and sour or chinese chicken with garlic sauce. ( or whatever teh fuck you call it) ..

I always ask for breast of chicken curry, otherwise you get rubber-balls that taste vaguely of chicken..

Xavi6

No

Can't beat an oul cantonese duck with fried rice or a drunken trio with half a portion of chicken balls. Yum.

Dont be at yourself

No

MSG is 'bad for you' the same as salt or sugar are bad for you. It's also used in authentic chinese cooking in Asia to give it a 'moorish' or 'savory' taste, and is not some chemical additive cooked up in a lab for use in dodgy fast-food restaurants.

In many Asian countries, they have 5 tastes. On top of the established sweet, sour, salty and bitter, there is another. In Japanese, it is called umami - and MSG is to umami what NaCl (table salt) is to salty. Ignore the acronyms and scare-mongering, because MSG - like any other foodstuff - is perfectly healthy in moderation.

kowloon

A lot of what we get here is pretty awful stuff, insipid glutinous crap. There are good places though. Indian is generally of a higher standard as it hasn't been accepted yet as regular fast food in the same way as the chinese.
I've had some great food though, places with good sit down are usually better than the take aways.

Naikon

Abigayle wrote: »

Yes, get off the internet




Have you gone for the plainer stuff? Beef / Chicken curry with rice or chips?

I rarely go outside that, maybe sweet and sour or chinese chicken with garlic sauce. ( or whatever teh fuck you call it) ..

I always ask for breast of chicken curry, otherwise you get rubber-balls that taste vaguely of chicken..

Yeah, the plainer stuff is palatable in most cases, but it's far from real chinese
food. Isn't curry a traditional Indian dish?

JupiterKid

No

I too have grown sick somewhat of Chinese food. The problem is that whilst a good Chinese restaurant can serve up excellent quality food, there are so many crappy take aways, especially in and around Dublin that serve up water and hormone injected rubbery chicken and pork with lashings of MSG - the stuff they dish out is basically gunk and they get away with it because few bother to complain.

Also, Chinese restrauants and take aways are one of the biggest trensgressors of health and safety and hygiene regulations in this country - not good. I find Indian take aways to be of a noticably superior quality to Chinese.

JC 2K3

No

There are two types of chinese restaurants/take aways. Ones that buy in a load of vaious sauces - sweet and sour, curry etc. and give you that with rice and some (usually battered and deep fried) meat, and ones that genuinely have good chefs, make thier own sauces etc.

The former generally are really crap, but proper Chinese food can be extremely tasty.

challengemaster

If you ever get the chance, get proper Peking/Beijing duck. The way this is served in Beijing is, a full Peking duck is brought out to your table, and carved by a skillful chef infront of you. The duck is sliced into something like 147 wafer thin slices, and then the head is cut in two. It's served with steamed flour pancakes and scallions, in a lovely sweet noodle sauce.

More info on it here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_Duck

You'll never look at a chinese take away the same again

Abi

No

Naikon wrote: »

Isn't curry a traditional Indian dish?

Shut up man.. You've done enough damage as it is. Nobody is answering at the local chinese






:pac:

magick

No

I love chinese food but i think Japanese food is better


asian girls FTW

Jesus Wept

No

What has this got to do with asian chicks?! lol

kowloon

Sushi is becoming the new fashionable food for rich students apparently.

KnifeWRENCH

No

kowloon wrote: »

Sushi is becoming the new fashionable food for rich students apparently.

Sushi's Japanese I think.
But yeah, I've seen sushi stands around UCC. I've never actually seen anyone try it though!

kowloon

square_igloo wrote: »

Sushi's Japanese I think.
But yeah, I've seen sushi stands around UCC. I've never actually seen anyone try it though!

In TCD too, prefer the proper places, not the cheapest way to dine though.

KnifeWRENCH

No

I could never eat it - I don't even eat cooked fish.
I don't think Japanese food would appeal to me - a lot of it seems to be fish.
I've never had an Indian or a Thai - I'm not the most cultured individual I'm afraid!

Dont be at yourself

No

There's a lot more to Japanese food - and indeed Sushi - than raw fish.

Sushi itself just refers to a type of vinegared rice. On this rice can be anything from raw tuna, octopus and eel to potato salad, hamburger meat, hotdog or egg-mayonaise.

And while Japanese cuisine does feature a lot of fish, there are some amazing dishes based around pork, beef, chicken or vegetables too. My favourites are katsudon - a deep-fried breaded pork cutlet cooked in an egg & onion sauce, served on a bowl of rice - and okonomiyaki - a pancake of sorts made out of cabbage, noodles, bacon and eggs. Yum!

Healio

challengemaster wrote: »

Oh and drunk people would eat anything, thats why its popular

Thats a +1 right there.

Add to that, most Irish drinkers late night snacks consist of Chinese/hot-dog/Abrakebra, divide them into GDA's and you roughly get 1 every 10 years as your allowance :pac:

Xavi6

No

square_igloo wrote: »

I could never eat it - I don't even eat cooked fish.
I don't think Japanese food would appeal to me - a lot of it seems to be fish.
I've never had an Indian or a Thai - I'm not the most cultured individual I'm afraid!

Only a bit of it is fish. For example, have you ever had chicken teriyaki on a roll from Spar? Cause that's Japanese.

Rb

No

Like a chinese take away alright. Not really a fan of thai food though, their curries are awful .

pclancy

Go to China and get real chinese food. Gung Bao Jading, Dapanji and Donut balls will blow your mind! Plus its REALLY cheap. 2-3 euro for a nice restaurant meal. Beer=10-90c

Jesus Wept

No

mmm donuts

MagicMarker

Well, Chinese food in New York is pretty much the best food i've EVER had!! So, i'm guessing Chinese food in China, would be pretty awesome!

Red Hand

I don't eat it anymore. The smell is enough to put me off.

Black Swan

No

I know this sounds silly, but it seems to taste better if I eat Chinese food with chop sticks.

galwayrush

http://www.supertouchart.com/2008/05/20/chinaroadtrippingthe-street-cuisine-of-b...

Some classic dishes there, esp the Kebabs at the bottom of the page.

hunter164

Had a drunken three in one last night.......not a great idea at all.

Sherifu

No

I couldn't eat a whole one.

TeletextPear

No

hunter164 wrote: »

Had a drunken three in one last night.......not a great idea at all.

i used to do that a lot in college a few years ago, terrible but so amazing when you're wasted.

op if ya want decent chinese food, go to parnell street's chinatown area - unless, of course, you dont live in dublin - in which case id say go for indian instead

hunter164

No this was horrible.
Best drunken food is a kebab! Good old Abrakebabra.

TeletextPear

No

agreed, i think im the only person i know who appreciates how amazing abra cheese fries are when yer drunk

elmolesto

No

Good chinese food is yummy.

road_high

They invariably taste the same, no matter where in the country you get a "chinese". Gooey sauces loaded with monosodium glutenate.

Toto Wolfcastle

No

I worked in a Chinese restaurant and I love Chinese food. Well, the Irish version, I've never been to China! We used to annoy one of the lads from Hong Kong by asking if Sweet and Sour Chicken Cantonese style was just called Sweet and Sour Chicken in Hong Kong.

A lot of people go on about MSG being so bad for you and tasting awful blah blah blah without actually knowing anything about it. People will buy into hype about anything. Having said that, I was very rarely asked for no MSG, even though we did that no problem. (Except in the curry, that wasn't possible.)

The best Chinese I had was in New York. Close to authentic. But as long as you're under no illusions that the majority of Chinese restaurants are no where near being authentic, then Chinese food in Ireland (in some places) can be pretty good.

Daftendirekt

No

When it's good, it's really good. I like a sit down meal in a good restaurant, but Chinese takeaways suck.

Dave!

No

Probably cos you're a RACIST!!!!!!!!!!!

You probs don't like African-American food either :rolleyes:

You make me sick.

Thirdfox

No

Eat Chinese food everyday (not hard when you're Chinese)... Normal dinner consists of 4 vegetable/meat dishes and one soup served with rice - very delicious!

I find Irish food to be interesting though - everything on the one plate quite often (and all those different sauces)... never know what's on the menu when ordering in an Irish restaurant though (my Irish friends always find it hilarious that I don't know what common dishes are )

Burko

No

Fair nuff OP, some types of Chinese food really are slimey, and they really shower it with MSG sometimes. That goes for almost everywhere in Ireland, and even a fair amount of places in China.

I love it though, and the slimey stuff is only a small part of the equation when it comes to Chinese food.
There is a great variety, I think most people in Ireland would appriciate XinJiang food if they had it.

Stephen

Having been to China I can safely say I hate real Chinese food just as much as the stuff you get in Chinese restaurants here :pac:

Kold

No

I love Chinese food but I've been raised on the good stuff, Mum would always take us to proper Chinese restaurants in China Town or there was a lovely one down by Swiss Cottage. You know... where proper Chinese people would eat ^_^

I doubt I'd had a stodgey local until I moved to Cork and we couldn't find a decent one (The Wilton Willow and that one by Victoria Cross are pretty decent though). I must admit, I don't mind the odd stodgey take away (it's like a tastier McDonalds). But there's nothing wrong with you for not liking it. My Mum is Vietnamese and I really dislike most Vietnamese cuisine, also Indian and Thai... I can't take spice at all, I view it as some sort of masochism.