Chinese Takeaways/Restaurants

Grandeeod

I'm sure there have been many threads here about them, but I would like to focus on quality and recreating dishes in your own kitchen.

The Chinese takeaway/restaurant was my indulgence for many years when funds allowed for it. I was probably lucky in that the quality of it was pretty good up to 10 years ago, but since then it has gone to sh!t and thats a fact. Cheap/frozen meats, gloppy sauces, dodgey veg, reheats, etc. I've noticed over the years that prepacked frozen meats are being used and then over cooked or heated to the point of being tasteless or near disintegrated. Then there's the sauces. Holy ****! Almost jelly like. I realise that there are still takeaways and restaurants making an effort and still serving fairly decent stuff, but the cost cutting is very evident.

My own local takeaway which is also a restaurant, (I'm only here a year) can be fairly hit and miss. Curry good, but low on meat, while the meat is good quality. Stalwarts like skewered satay chicken are great. In general the sauces are good, but the meat content sometimes needs a search party. Generally meh!

I like to cook, so I decided to try make the usual Chinese dishes at home. A trip to an Asian supermarket and away I went. I can safely say that I am making chinese takeaway dishes at home, that are far superior to anything you could order. Right down to the infamous Spice Bag! With a little bit of research into how our Chinese/Malaysian/Vietnamese friends do things, it can be done a lot better in your own kitchen more often than not. I rarely order takeaways and if I'm eating out I tend to avoid Chinese restaurants. My last experience of a chinese takeaway was absolute muck. I was on the way home late one evening. Nothing planned at home and too late to make my local that I trust with a few dishes. So I stopped off in a joint in Carlow town. Order was simple. Skewered Satay Chicken. I got home, slapped it on a plate and the ****ing skewer actually broke as I tried to bite the chicken. This chicken was tougher that Rambo! Obviously reheated from frozen to the point of extinction.

Anyway, share your stories of crap chinese food or you attempts to reproduce it at home.

tomofson

Grandeeod wrote: »

I'm sure there have been many threads here about them, but I would like to focus on quality and recreating dishes in your own kitchen.

The Chinese takeaway/restaurant was my indulgence for many years when funds allowed for it. I was probably lucky in that the quality of it was pretty good up to 10 years ago, but since then it has gone to sh!t and thats a fact. Cheap/frozen meats, gloppy sauces, dodgey veg, reheats, etc. I've noticed over the years that prepacked frozen meats are being used and then over cooked or heated to the point of being tasteless or near disintegrated. Then there's the sauces. Holy ****! Almost jelly like. I realise that there are still takeaways and restaurants making an effort and still serving fairly decent stuff, but the cost cutting is very evident.

My own local takeaway which is also a restaurant, (I'm only here a year) can be fairly hit and miss. Curry good, but low on meat, while the meat is good quality. Stalwarts like skewered satay chicken are great. In general the sauces are good, but the meat content sometimes needs a search party. Generally meh!

I like to cook, so I decided to try make the usual Chinese dishes at home. A trip to an Asian supermarket and away I went. I can safely say that I am making chinese takeaway dishes at home, that are far superior to anything you could order. Right down to the infamous Spice Bag! With a little bit of research into how our Chinese/Malaysian/Vietnamese friends do things, it can be done a lot better in your own kitchen more often than not. I rarely order takeaways and if I'm eating out I tend to avoid Chinese restaurants. My last experience of a chinese takeaway was absolute muck. I was on the way home late one evening. Nothing planned at home and too late to make my local that I trust with a few dishes. So I stopped off in a joint in Carlow town. Order was simple. Skewered Satay Chicken. I got home, slapped it on a plate and the ****ing skewer actually broke as I tried to bite the chicken. This chicken was tougher that Rambo! Obviously reheated from frozen to the point of extinction.

Anyway, share your stories of crap chinese food or you attempts to reproduce it at home.

The new golden elephant in Dun Laoghaire, curry was watery and had no flavor. I haven't ever seen a Chinese go from good to bad in such a short space of time than when they changed owners.

Not to mention the five year old's taking orders and working in the kitchen

Rumpy Pumpy

Almost every Chinese takeaway without exception is getting the same food delivered by the same supplier. It's a matter of heating it up and serving it.

Grandeeod

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

Almost every Chinese takeaway without exception is getting the same food delivered by the same supplier. It's a matter of heating it up and serving it.

I agree, but within reason. Generic sauces. Generic cooked/frozen meats. Add to Wok on high heat. Serve. But some are still trying...only badly.

jimmy blevins

They just can't get the spices right.

Ally Dick

My father in law is a butcher and he says that a lot of the Chinese takeaways he supplies are not too fussy about how old the chicken is

Junkyard Tom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmclgO6w0C0

heldel00

The owner of my local place told me that he's not even Chinese!
He's from Cambodia but if he put that on the signage outside no one would come in!

JupiterKid

I started a thread on Chinese takeaways/restaurants a while back and opined that most are poor. Many very very poor. Water injected rubbery chicken, gloppy tasteless sauces, dishes that are a mish mash of mediocre (at best) ingredients.

And many Chinese eateries have very dated, worn and tired decor. Meanness is evident everywhere.

I'd much prefer a good Indian any day. Good Chinese eateries can be great, but all too many are really poor.

Grandeeod

Ally Dick wrote: »

My father in law is a butcher and he says that a lot of the Chinese takeaways he supplies are not too fussy about how old the chicken is

If a butcher is supplying a Chinese takeaway and he admits that, I'd be worried about both!

Hazys

heldel00 wrote: »

The owner of my local place told me that he's not even Chinese!
He's from Cambodia but if he put that on the signage outside no one would come in!

Next you'll be telling me a spice bag is not traditional Chinese cuisine :rolleyes:

Samsgirl

Mr Sam and I got a chinese take away on Saturday and it's only today we feel anyway normal again. On Sunday we both felt 'hungover' despite neither of us drinking. The dehydration was unreal. We have come to the conclusion that we are MSG intollerant.

Grandeeod

Hazys wrote: »

Next you'll be telling me a spice bag is not traditional Chinese cuisine :rolleyes:

Yeah yeah yeah! Old joke!

The poster made a valid point. A lot of "Chinese" joints are run by people from the region around China.

Hazys

Grandeeod wrote: »

Yeah yeah yeah! Old joke!

The poster made a valid point. A lot of "Chinese" joints are run by people from the region around China.

The point i'm making is that the majority of Chinese Restaurants in Ireland are a bastardized revision of Chinese cuisine made to suit Irish tastes.

It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody that the guy running your Chinese isn't Chinese or is Chinese but not cooking real Chinese cuisine.

Grandeeod

Samsgirl wrote: »

Mr Sam and I got a chinese take away on Saturday and it's only today we feel anyway normal again. On Sunday we both felt 'hungover' despite neither of us drinking. The dehydration was unreal. We have come to the conclusion that we are MSG intollerant.

MSG is in so many foods you eat that blaming the Chinese takeaway is pure BS!

Grandeeod

Hazys wrote: »

The point i'm making is that the majority of Chinese Restaurants in Ireland are a bastardized revision of Chinese cuisine made to suit Irish tastes.

It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody that the guy running your Chinese isn't Chinese or is Chinese but not cooking real Chinese cuisine.

Chinese cuisine in Ireland and the UK has nothing to do with actual Chinese cuisine. Indian food is similar. The "European" version of Chinese cuisine was invented here or imported. Vietnamese people run a lot of Chinese joints in Ireland. Lots of Malaysians too. Cambodians dosen't surprise me either. But the quality, based on cost cutting applies to them all. There was a time when a Chinese takeaway took a lot longer to make than a Chipper job. The food processing industry has ruined all of it.

Cook at home!

The Backwards Man

In Donegal, we export all our crap builders and plasterers to far flung climes such as Dublin, London, New York and Singapore.

The Chinese do the same with cooks.

Hammer89

My main gripe with Chinese takeaways is that none of them do bottles for some reason. I like a bottle of something when I chow down, but every Chinese I've ever come across only does cans - like, every single one of them. I'm quite clumsy see and it wouldn't be unlike me to accidentally knock a can over. It's like eating with a loaded gun on my lap, with the barrel aimed at my testicles. There's just a degree of insecurity there which you don't get with bottles, which obviously has a lid.

RWCNT

I've noticed a few of the sit-in Chinese restaurants I used to love in Ireland took a steep drop in quality over the past few years also. The overall quality of Chinese takeaways I've had here in England is awful, worse than Ireland, although that could be rose tinted specs.

Eating a dish high in MSG makes me feel like I've smoked an ounce of the worst soapbar hash out so I stick to making my own Chinese-style dinners these days. Soy sauce + 5 spice + noodles, veg and meat scratches the itch fine.

Samsgirl

Grandeeod wrote: »

MSG is in so many foods you eat that blaming the Chinese takeaway is pure BS!

Have to disagree with you on that one Im afraid.

Grandeeod

Samsgirl wrote: »

Have to disagree with you on that one Im afraid.

MSG occurs naturally in a lot of foods right down to the humble tomatoe. There has never been any definitive proof provided that MSG is dangerous to the general population. It has only been accepted that "maybe" some people are allergic to large doses of it. What is used in one single chinese dish is not a large dose of it. I believe the whole MSG/Chinese takeaway thing is a myth. The real reasons for feeling crap after a Chinese is most likely linked to poor quality ingredients.

Grandeeod

Grandeeod wrote: »

I'm sure there have been many threads here about them, but I would like to focus on quality and recreating dishes in your own kitchen.

You should consider setting up a thread on it in the cookery forum. There is a cookery club thread over there on re-creating Indian Restaurant Quality Dishes in the home that has been insanely popular. Even more popular than the Caramel Squares thread Perhaps one on quality reproduction of Chinese Restaurant Dishes in the home would be just as useful.

I - like you - much prefer doing it myself than going for a take away. But I love cooking and consider take out very rarely - and going to restaurants as a rare event for specific celebrations.

There are a few restaurants that do not do take away that I think high quality enough to attend once or twice a year - but that would be about it.

harry Bailey esq

Samsgirl wrote: »

We have come to the conclusion that we are MSG intollerant.

MSG is no more unhealthy as say,paprika or table salt so i dont buy into that anti msg crusade.The op is correct though,the quality in most chinese take aways has taken a serious slide.Hoi wun in finglas still serves up decent grub consistantly.If you want more authentic chinese there is a string of restaraunts on parnell st.Thats were the chinese community themselves eat out.

finglashoop

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

MSG is no more unhealthy as say,paprika or table salt so i dont buy into that anti msg crusade.The op is correct though,the quality in most chinese take aways has taken a serious slide.Hoi wun in finglas still serves up decent grub consistantly.If you want more authentic chinese there is a string of restaraunts on parnell st.Thats were the chinese community themselves eat out.

+1 on hoi wun.

Winterlong

I worked in China for 6 weeks some time back. Ate in restaurants every day. But none served westernish food . Some of what I was served was fecking gross. Fish that was still squirming on the plate for example. And seeing some of the roadside stalls that the locals ate from...jesus.

I have not eaten any Chinese food since. Stomach turns at the thought of it.

whiskeyman

Winterlong wrote: »

I worked in China for 6 weeks some time back. Ate in restaurants every day. But none served westernish food . Some of what I was served was fecking gross. Fish that was still squirming on the plate for example. And seeing some of the roadside stalls that the locals ate from...jesus.

I have not eaten any Chinese food since. Stomach turns at the thought of it.

In fairness, Chinese food isn't really the same as food from a Chinese here.

I can't image the locals chowing down on a foil tray of chips, curry sauce, fried rice and chicken balls...

Treepole

whiskeyman wrote: »

In fairness, Chinese food isn't really the same as food from a Chinese here.

I can't image the locals chowing down on a foil tray of chips, curry sauce, fried rice and chicken balls...

They'd have no problem eating chicken balls..........

Rhyme

I wonder if, in China, Chinese Food is just called 'food'.

Calibos

The greatest threat to endangered species in the worlds oceans and on land is 'Real Chinese Food' and 'Real Chinese Medicine'

SEPT 23 1989

why would you eat that slop when you could have an indian

ChubbyHubby

There's always a lot of misinformation in these threads. Let me point some stuff out:
* china is a big place with many styles of chinese food
* old chinese takeaways/restaurants here serves food from the canton region...so it's cantanese food...because most people who open takeaways back in the day were from hong kong
* chinese food in "china" would most definitely be different to takeaway food here...different regional foods
* chinese food in most restaurants found in parnel street are a mix of mainland chinese so also different to older takeaways
* most takeaways don't make their own sauce... kung po, satay etc are all available from wholesalers...you can find what takeaway uses in asian markets
* most "chefs" in takeaways and even restaurants here are not trained chefs....just cooks thought on the job on how to make stuff
* msg is not bad for you unless they over do it and you eat a lot of regular takeaway meals....same as salt and sugar etc
* there are more than one reason why meat are tough...freezing doesn't make them tough....over cooking does