There’s a Chinese restaurant near me that has a Sunday buffet, but once a month, they serve a “traditional” Chinese buffet, with only a couple of Americanized dishes. I thought I’d be adventurous, and decided to give it a try.
I thought “why not?” After all, Chinese food is a part of the American-Jewish experience (especially on Christmas!)
I was the only white person in the restaurant, and it was packed, with a 20 minute wait to get in.
Let me just say that what we consider Chinese food, really isn’t. “Real” Chinese food has VERY different tastes and textures, and quite frankly, I was unable to eat most of it. I tried a little bit of everything, but I wound up with a plate of uneaten food.
As I was leaving, the owner said, “I told you you wouldn’t like!” I said he was correct, and that I’d be back the following Sunday for the “regular” buffet!
Mark
I worked in China in ‘76-’77 and you are right. If American Chinese food was like Chinese Chinese food, the restaurants here would be out of business by sundown. The worst was what we called “Goodyear” — sea slug with cross hatches and a texture and toughness just like its namesake.
LOL. I heard that Chinese Food, the American variety, was created by Herb Libowitz from the Bronx, NY. And his nephew Lyman invented the fortune cookie.
We had a similar experience in a Chinese restaurant in NYC. We were out to dinner ,with Chinese colleagues, of my husband ,and one of the women did the ordering. The food was just awful. We left the restaurant starving.
The thing that sticks with me about authentic Chinese food is how little meat they use compared to the Americanized version. The vegetable-to-meat ratio of authentic Chinese is very high. You know how at the buffet people fish out the beef in Beef and Broccoli? All that's left is broccoli and you have to search for one or two little strips of beef? In my experience, that makes the dish all that more authentic!