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good4kicks
LoopKicker
Joined: Jan 20, 2004
Posts: 955
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
Feb 27, 2005 - 04:18 PM |
 
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| Post subject: The Best Cuisine |
Eating should be a pleasure. However, in China it is often a stressful time when one is wondering what their host is going to force them to eat next, especially outside large cities. Snake, donkey dick, dog, etc, I have eaten them all. There is always a feeling of apprehension when awaiting a meal that does not exist when one goes to eat a non-Chinese cuisine.
We all eat Chinese food living here as expats but, at least in my case, often because choice is limited. Which leads me to wonder what expats here would really prefer to eat assuming equal prices and availability.
I have listed some of the most popular cuisines in this poll. Please take the time to vote and comment on this topic. |
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frenchlover1999
Shanghai Royalty
Joined: Sep 18, 2004
Posts: 8730
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Feb 27, 2005 - 04:26 PM |
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You must be so unhappy in China |
_________________
That was no shark. That was my personal submarine. But enough of this polite conversation. What is the purpose of your visit? |
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frenchlover1999
Shanghai Royalty
Joined: Sep 18, 2004
Posts: 8730
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Feb 27, 2005 - 04:28 PM |
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I voted 'Italian' to your poll. I could eat pizza or pasta everyday. But dumplings and noodles would be fine too. |
_________________
That was no shark. That was my personal submarine. But enough of this polite conversation. What is the purpose of your visit? |
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bleucheese
Veejay
Joined: Aug 01, 2003
Posts: 1980
Location: this side of the tracks
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Feb 27, 2005 - 05:46 PM |
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Id opt for a supplement drink or better yet, a pill taken three times a day with water.
The same cuisine everyday is a fate worse than death. Trips me out to meet Italians who ONLY eat Italian (or could eat it everyday), Japanese who do the same, Chinese, French, etc. My old roommate from college could survive (and be happy) on tuna fish and instant noodles. For that reason alone, I thought he should be hospitalized.
Not only was mama a good ethnic cook (if theres one thing filipinas know how to do better than cleaning house, squatting, reproducing, and gambling, its cooking), her schizophrenic tendencies mixed with too much free time and a mean chardonnay addiction led her to treat us kids as guinea pigs on whom to test everything from spicy nigerian meat pies to simple okinawan soba. Never knew what I was gonna get as a kid.
Once youve been given the power and ability of choice, there aint no going back. Unless youre forced and then you can bitch about it on some random website. |
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good4kicks
LoopKicker
Joined: Jan 20, 2004
Posts: 955
Status: Offline
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Feb 27, 2005 - 05:58 PM |
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bleucheese: the question is not whether or not you would choose one cuisine to live on. The question is if you had to choose one, which one would it be? |
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bleucheese
Veejay
Joined: Aug 01, 2003
Posts: 1980
Location: this side of the tracks
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Feb 27, 2005 - 06:08 PM |
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death by starvation. theyre all equally good or bad depending on my mood. |
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bleucheese
Veejay
Joined: Aug 01, 2003
Posts: 1980
Location: this side of the tracks
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Feb 27, 2005 - 06:19 PM |
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ok. to be fair, id go with spanish (including the basque region) before death. pintxos rock. |
Last edited by bleucheese on Feb 27, 2005 - 06:26 PM; edited 1 time in total |
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amega
Barker
Joined: Nov 18, 2004
Posts: 199
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Feb 27, 2005 - 06:23 PM |
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I like food from Kan Nan which includes food from Shanghai, Su Chuan and Zhe Jiang. My mother is a terrific cook. She cooks delicious Zhe Jiang style food. I remembered that we used to have some German friends over for dinner at our house. They all loved her food.
As I said before, what kind of food we prefer is very much a learned habit. So someone considered disgusting, could be other’s delicacy. One of my mother’s best dishes is fried rice cake which is mixing sliced rice cake with vegetables and meat. Once, my mother prepared the same dish for my Taiwanese girl friend. She complained it tasted like rubber.
Hahaha… that's the way the life is. We eat different, and that makes life living in different countries challenging. What happens if this whole world all eats at KFC and Pizza Hut (that seems happening in China everywhere today). That would be certainly great for the KFC’s stock price, but boring.
Here are few characteristics of Kan Nan food:
(1) Lots of sea food, steamed or added light soy sauce to keep its original taste. Use a bit of wine and ginger to take away the fishery smell.
(2) Instead of MSG, a bit sugar was added to give the food a bit of sweetness, which is like adding salt to the cake mix.
(3) To keep the food fresh and tender, it fries meat and vegetable in a lot of hot oil.
(4) On the dinner table, instead of salt and pepper in the western cooking, vinegar and soy sauce were used for dipping. Vinegar is supposed to be able to kill the germs, especially in sea food.
(5) In general people in Kan Nan do not eat snake or dog meat. But they do eat turtles and frogs. They are local delicacy. I like frog leg, but never dare to eat turtle. Kan Nan is also famous for its fresh bamboo shoots, taro roots and lotus roots. They are great in soups with meat or chicken.
(6) In Kan Nan, vegetables and meat (called Cai) were eaten with steamed rice or rice soups. Some of those dished could be salty, not for use as meal by itself like that western food.
Overall, Chinese food are better in numbers, a lot of people, a lot of dishes, a lot of liquor, a lot noise, and a lot laughs.
Hello Good4kicks,
I lived in North America for over thirty years. Some places there were no decent Chinese food. I cooked Chinese at home using the local ingredients. So why do you not cook at home. It does not take much work to prepare a western style salad, or a pork chop. |
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Kiwi
Post Boaster
Joined: May 07, 2003
Posts: 4762
Status: Offline
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Feb 27, 2005 - 11:02 PM |
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How come there are no options whatsoever for Anglo food? I mean Jesus, there is such a thing as English food. In fact English chefs were in great demand by the elite throughout Europe during the 18th century. At one stage I believe the most famous restaurant in Paris was an English restaurant.
You really can't beat:
plum pudding (made using a nice single male whiskey, not a cheap one)
a good bakewell tart (not the crap available in the shops)
a choclate pie made with a recency era pastry (eggwhites, grounds alomonds, sugar - no flour. . . a nice pastry but a real bitch to work with)
boiled hoggart with caper sauce
pork pies
steak and kidney pudding (or steak, Guinness and oyster perhaps?)
a good bitter with lots of hops (Fuggles and Goldings from Kent, no degraded continental varieties)
Whiskey (invented by Scottish and Irish really, but close enough. Lets get a pan British unity thing going - leaving the Welsh out obviously)
Bacon and eggs
Kedgree for breakfast - very civilized.
Stilton soup |
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good4kicks
LoopKicker
Joined: Jan 20, 2004
Posts: 955
Status: Offline
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Feb 27, 2005 - 11:35 PM |
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I thought I had a category in there, "Other - please specify" but it doesn't seem to have made it in. Maybe I screwed up. |
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cactus
Talker
Joined: Feb 24, 2005
Posts: 115
Status: Offline
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Feb 28, 2005 - 11:14 AM |
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I really do not like the local style oily stuff too much. I would prefer Japanese if I had to stick to one cusine everyday.
Thai and Indian food are also very good though but I think Japanese food is more healthy. |
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cactus
Talker
Joined: Feb 24, 2005
Posts: 115
Status: Offline
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Feb 28, 2005 - 11:32 AM |
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| amega wrote: |
| I like food from Kan Nan which includes food from Shanghai, Su Chuan and Zhe Jiang. |
Amega, mind if I correct your Chinese pronounciation?
Kan Nan, should be Jiang Nan
Su Chuan, should be Si Chuan or Su Zhou? Si Chuan food is really spicy and you said you like local Shanghainese food, so I guess you mean Su Zhou?
My personal opinion: Kan Nan food, compare to other Chinese cuisine, is really not that good. Usually it is tasteless unless you put a lot of soy sause in it. Su Zhou food is the worst, everything is sweet, even pork dumplins are sweet.
My favourate Chinese Cuisine is Sichuan style although I am local Shanghainse. I think you can also realise that local food is a failure if you see all the fully-occupied Sichuan, Hunan, and hotpot restaurants in Shanghai.
Well, some cold dishes in Shanghainese food are good but who can eat cold dishes only?  |
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cks69
Ranter
Joined: Aug 06, 2004
Posts: 562
Status: Offline
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Feb 28, 2005 - 12:21 PM |
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If I had to choose ONE? uuuumph...it would be a tossup between Japanese and Spanish.
In the end tho, I think japanese would conquer |
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cactus
Talker
Joined: Feb 24, 2005
Posts: 115
Status: Offline
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Feb 28, 2005 - 12:36 PM |
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| cks69 wrote: |
If I had to choose ONE? uuuumph...it would be a tossup between Japanese and Spanish.
In the end tho, I think japanese would conquer |
yeah~ Japanese! The only problem with Japanese food in Shanghai is the price. It seems all the Japanese restaurants here are quite expensive.
BTW, CKS69, may I ask what is Spanish cuisine? What's the difference between Spanish food and French food and Italian food? Recently I have tried some Portugese food and I found it's great! Portugal is not that far from Africa so I guess the African food should be good as well  |
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yu888
Board Deity
Joined: Jan 25, 2003
Posts: 17500
Location: ZhongShanParkArea SH
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Feb 28, 2005 - 12:39 PM |
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| good4kicks wrote: |
| I thought I had a category in there, "Other - please specify" but it doesn't seem to have made it in. Maybe I screwed up. |
Seems the poll function only allows 10 options, thus the last option was probably dropped.
I don't think I would want to live on JUST one particular food, yet so many people DO do it so I guess that makes us all spoiled  |
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amega
Barker
Joined: Nov 18, 2004
Posts: 199
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Feb 28, 2005 - 12:40 PM |
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Hello Cactus,
Thank you for correcting my pronunciation. I’ve never had chance learning Pin Ying. My spelling is from a local dictionary. I thought it should be the correct one?
| Quote: |
| “As I said before, what kind of food we prefer is very much a learned habit. So someone considered disgusting, could be other’s delicacy.” |
For any one who has tasted spicy food, Shanghainese food became tasteless as they do not have much seasoning. For the people from Si Chuan or Hu Nan, any food is tasteless without pepper. I heard Mao even ate watermelon with pepper.
By the way, the Japanese hot pot is sweet. For a hot pot, I love it spicy, not sweet |
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ShanghaiUnderground
StreetBeater
Joined: July 15, 2004
Posts: 2413
Location: Shanghai
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Mar 04, 2005 - 05:05 AM |
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Persian food, such as from/in Iran, is my favorite.
It was not listed, so I voted Japanese. My next choice, Spanish. |
_________________
"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth." |
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Caesara
Post Roaster
Joined: July 31, 2004
Posts: 4572
Location: The Middle Kingdom (Shanghai)
Status: Offline
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Mar 04, 2005 - 08:50 AM |
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^ Good lord, you were voting at 5:05am?
I swear this is the hardest question I've answered in ages.
Thai and Indian: Can't live without a good curry or Tom Kah Gai.
Japanese: Miso, salmon sashimi, goma ae, tempura, teriyaki...! Yum!
Spanish: Paella. Say no more.
Italian: My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Sichuan: Spicy, spicy, spicy is delicious!
So I chose French.
'Cause if I had to (nevermind the tastebud delights to be found in French restaurants), I think I could live on real French bread, creamy Brie and a good bottle of Bordeaux.
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Drizzle
Veejay
Joined: Apr 02, 2003
Posts: 2036
Status: Offline
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Mar 05, 2005 - 10:55 AM |
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Good, proper Mexican food for me all the way baby.
I really think Taco Popo should have been up there on the list. It's very popular here. |
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GC
The Ginger Prince
Joined: Dec 01, 2003
Posts: 21408
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Mar 05, 2005 - 12:14 PM |
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i'll vote for indian, in the uk i would normally have it 3 or 4 nights a week.
agree with drizzle, where is the mexican option. was in taco popo last night and had the chicken nachos, outstanding as ever. |
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3jdjWFUViQ |
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cks69
Ranter
Joined: Aug 06, 2004
Posts: 562
Status: Offline
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Mar 05, 2005 - 01:26 PM |
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Taco Popo definitely hits the spot late night, but it is NOT authentic mexican food. It's even hard to get authentic mexican food if live anywhere in the US but SoCal, Arizona, NM and Texas... |
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GC
The Ginger Prince
Joined: Dec 01, 2003
Posts: 21408
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Mar 05, 2005 - 01:31 PM |
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kuniform
Lurker
Joined: Aug 03, 2004
Posts: 38
Status: Offline
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Mar 05, 2005 - 01:41 PM |
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| Post subject: Missing Cuisine.. |
I notice English wasn't up there - Bacon/Eggs/Sausages/Mashed Potato/Baked Beans... Roast Meat & Two Veg....
I could live on Japanese or Chinese food [possibly even Italian] but I'd miss the roasts after a while... |
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ShanghaiUnderground
StreetBeater
Joined: July 15, 2004
Posts: 2413
Location: Shanghai
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Mar 06, 2005 - 07:02 AM |
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| Caesara wrote: |
| ... 'Cause if I had to (nevermind the tastebud delights to be found in French restaurants), I think I could live on real French bread, creamy Brie and a good bottle of Bordeaux. |
I have often felt the same, especially after living in France for a spell. But it would have to be in France. I've eaten at a few 4-5 star French restaurants in San Francisco and NY and elsewhere, but they all suck in comparison. For me, it seems the only good French food is in France. I was at a school outside Paris, and the daily dorm food was better than the 5 star French restaurant in NY. 20 to 30 different desserts to choose from daily, all you can eat bread baked fresh daily, and 2 or 3 different quality wines dispensed from the soda machines. Now that is quality of life.
Anyway, the same with Indian food. The best is in India. The same with Mexican food, the best is in Mexico and Southern California (and maybe the southern portions of Arizona, NM and Texas as cks69 mentioned). But anywhere else, and Mexican food sucks.
People have been raving about the Taco Popo here, but I have a strong suspicion it ain't nothing like the real thing. |
_________________
"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth." |
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Rio
Post Boaster
Joined: Dec 04, 2004
Posts: 4724
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Mar 06, 2005 - 07:44 AM |
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