Chinese food then and now (Childhood La Choy vs Real stuff, lol)

[revvinkevin]

Egg Foo Young - Chinese? Not really.

 

 

The majority of the "Chinese food" you can order in many "Chinese" restaurants has been re-worked and watered down so much to please the American palete that there very little "Chinese" actually remains.   This is especially true when the nearest large community (population) of Chinese people is several hours away.

 

Egg foo young, Chop suey, Orange/lemon/pineapple chicken/pork/beef, Cashew chicken, and others for the most part, were all dishes created or highly modified for the American palate.

 

My ex is Chinese and being in the Los Angeles area, there are a large number if "real Chinese" restanrants within a 30 minute drive.   As we have been to them many times over the years, I much prefer them to any place not in a Chinese community.

 

 = = = = = = =

 

Yes I do remember the La Choy chow mein / chop suey in the can.  I assume we figured it was "Chinese" when growing up, but then we didn't know any better.

 

Kevin

 

[lordkenmore]

has been re-worked and watered down

I've heard people who visit China come back and comment that they found the cuisine there quite a bit different than their friendly neighborhood Chinese place.

I suppose I'm in the same position. I know which Chinese restaurants seemed the best, but beyond that...no idea.

 

[joe_in_philly]

I remember picking out the La Choy double can when I was a kid! I was so excited to try it, but I wasn't crazy about the taste. I was more intrigued by the double can concept. I agree with Kevin about the difference between American Chinese food and real Chinese food. In each county, the Chinese adapted their food to appeal to local tastes. I have enjoyed authentic Chinese food, but quickly learned to eat it first, and only ask what was in it after I finished. I end up eating Korean, Thai, Japanese, and even Korean Chinese food more often than American Chinese. I usually make Korean food once or twice a week since one of my best friends, who is Korean, has taught me how to make many different dishes. Other than often being high in sodium, Korean food has lots of vegetables and is pretty healthy.

My partner is Filipino, but grew up with servants, so he didn't learn to cook and doesn't know enough to teach me anything. I must admit that I am not very motivated to learn either. Filipino food is one of my least favorite Asian cuisines.

www.maangchi.com has a lot of good Korean recipes, and the no nonsense videos are easy to follow.

http://www.maangchi.com

 

[frigilux]

Allen-- Oh, man! That Kraft Spaghetti Dinner from a box sounds...awful. I'm sorry you were subjected to it. I, on the other hand, grew up with really wonderful Italian food. My mom (Italian) and dad (British) came over from Italy in 1946. While the Italian food was to die for, her initial attempts at things like beef stew were...let's be kind and call them very unsuccessful. She thought gravy was disgusting, so we rarely had that, either.

Kevin-- You had all those restaurants near you in rural Kentucky?! I grew up in a Minnesota town of 1,800 with a single greasy-spoon, mediocre cafe and a family-owned drive-in whose specialty was Broasted chicken, LOL! The nearest fast food/chain restaurant was 35 miles away.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Rural Kentucky

The "town" I live in was the county seat, and a college town, the only reason for the restaurants. Don't be too impressed, we didnt get a walmart until 1984, and it was a small one until 2 years ago, lol.

 

[xraytech]

I was practically a teenager before I had Chinese food. ComIng from a very small town with 2 eateries, one being a pizza shop with no delivery and a restaurant that is all about Broasted Chicken( not a bad thing as I love Broasted food).prior to my first Chinese buffet I thought that ramen noodles with beef flavoring packet was exotic. Still today there are very few things I'll eat, I like garlic chicken, chicken and broccoli, London, and egg rolls. I will not try anything that isn't chicken or anything without broccoli in it.
At home dad did t like stuff like that so it was meat and potatoes or pasta, we always had homemade spaghetti sauce, and lots of stew, meatloaf, and roasts, as well as Hungarian and other eastern European foods.

 

[arbilab]

Meat potatoes and pasta are my staples too. Brit heritage, couple centuries ago.

I've been to LA Chinatown with a Chinese guy, and 9 years in Hawaii at a lot of Chinese restaurants where 1/3 the population is Chinese and more than half the customers were. The preparation was better than most mainland C'ese 'urants but the menu items were largely the same. In Oklahoma City, only one CR I knew of did it right. Only half the staff spoke English. But OKC has the best chickenfry in the world, Ann's.

According to some there is a substantial difference between Cal-Mex and Tex-Mex styles but having lived/eaten in both places I couldn't tell you what it is.

 

[jerrod6]

Growing up we had a Chinese take out place, so often had their food on a Friday night.  Was not familiar with the prepared Chinese foods in supermarkets.   Later on I found them but where I live we have Asian supermarkets so prefer to make the stuff from scratch as most of it doesn't take much to do.  I've been making homemade Miso soup and having it for lunch.

 

Now I prefer Vietnamese food over Chinese.  I have made spring rolls with fish sauce, stir fried rice noodles with tofu and ginger, and a few other dishes but usually choose to go a Vietnamese restaurant and get it done right. 

 

[joe_in_philly]

I agree, Jerrod. Recently I made beef Pho at home. I spent $30 on the ingredients and hours buying and preparing everything. In the end, it wasn't as flavorful as the place a 10 minute walk from my house, which costs about $8 a bowl. I won't be doing that again.

 

[whirlcool]

I think Cal-Mex is lighter than Tex-Mex. Tex-Mex is your more normal everyday kind of food(Fajitas, Flour Tortillas, refried beans)where Cali-Mex is more of a fresh fish, more avocado, etc. kind of food. Foods which are more freshly prepared rather than maybe canned.

 

[arbilab]

Mexican fish? With refried sprouts? B-u-u-u-a-a-h-h! I'm no elegant diner. I always get the same thing. Enchiladas. But if I detect canned salsa, I won't go back there and I don't think many Texans would. Unless we're talking buffet and I haven't been to one of those since the 70s.

 

[retromania]

Chinese Food

The first time I ate Chinese food was in 1974 in Athens, Georgia, the home of the Universite of Georgia at Athens. My unlce was a professor there and me and a buddy went on the bus to spend the weekend with him. He showed us all the sights including taking us to this old two-story white painted house that looked like it was falling down and a Chinese couple had the left parlor and right parlor set up for serving. No scenery, but my introduction to Chinese food. We had chow mein. It was delicious, but it was the experience more than anything. He was a great uncle - fun. The little southern town I am from had maybe two restaurants. One was a grease pit (good tho when you had to get a cheeseburger fix...) and the other one was a locally owned steak house. It was hard to get in. They were always packed. Now, all the way from I-85 at our exit where there used to be farm land and all the way into town (about ten miles) is nothing, but one franchise restaurant after another and most have the same indentical menu.....

 

[retromania]

Kevin,

We got our first Walmart in 1984 also. At the time we still had a thriving Kmart Plaza on Main Street and I didn't see the need to go in Walmart. It like your's was small. Now we have two "super" Walmarts. One on the south end and one on the north end. They are packed most of the time. They really were when they had the cheapest groceries in town, but now I have heard people at work saying Walmart is no longer any cheaper than some of our other grocery stores.

 

[davey7]

Oh yeah, I remember those noodles! My mom always had them around for snacking. She was also big on the hard shell tacos and shake and bake. But she was also into cous cous way before it was big.

 

[retromania]

Loved shake and bake. Still do!

 

[laundromat]

old advertisement

East meets west.La Choy makes Chinese food. Swing American! LaChoy makes oriental recepies to serve at home. Swing American! La Choy! (Clang of a gong)

 

[Ultramatic]

I remember those commercials very well...

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[davey7]

I used to hound my mom for those eggrolls! What was the other brand of eggroll? Jenny or Jenn something? And the pizza rolls too.

 

[Ultramatic]

Was it Jeno's?

<span style="font-size: medium;">But I don't remember them making egg rolls, they made Pizza Rolls.</span>
 
<span style="font-size: medium;">Here's a '60's commercial for their frozen pizza....even though it's pretty slick, sexy and funny, I was taken aback with the physical abuse. </span>
 
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