Five Chinese Take-out food myths debunked
1)
You always get hungry an hour
later
2)
That’s not Chicken in your
Chicken Chow Mein
3)
It is difficult to learn to
cook Chinese food
4)
Chinese food uses hard to find
exotic ingredients
5)
Chinese food is expensive to
make
I was born in a
Chinese restaurant…well, actually I was born in a hospital, but a few days
later, my parents took me home, to the Chinese restaurant that my family owned,
lived in and worked. Ever since I was a
kid, I would watch my parents and grandparents work in the kitchen. When I was a pre-teen I started to work in
the kitchen myself….so suffice to say, I know my way around a Chinese kitchen.
As with any
“foreign” food and culture, there are a lot of myths going around, and Chinese
takeout fare is no exception (in fact I would say it’s probably the food that
has the most myths about it), so I would like to address some of the myths
floating around there and hopefully put some fears to rest.
1) You always get hungry an
hour later
Many people tell
me this is their biggest issue with Chinese food, that they don’t feel
satisfied because they feel hungry again an hour later. There may be some truth to this, however it
is not because it is “Chinese food” but because must have sides like fried rice
or noodles are high in complex carbohydrates.
Complex carbohydrates, such as those found in rice, noodles, pasta and
white bread are quickly digested and absorbed, giving you a full feeling
quicker, however it will also leave you feeling hungry sooner than if you were
eating mostly protein. Eating a bowl of
pasta would also give you the same effect.
2) That’s not chicken in your
chicken chow mein
How many times
did we get prank calls back in the day with kids asking “have you seen my
dog/cat?” The answer is, honestly, on
rare occasions, it might not be chicken, but it is not cat, dog, rat, panda or
anything else like that. It might be
turkey. Now that regulations are
tighter, it likely isn’t the case, but back in the day, turkey meat was
cheaper, had more white meat and was generally less fatty than Chicken, so some
restaurants used turkey in their sweet and sour chicken (chicken balls) and soo
guy. Personally I wouldn’t do that, I
prefer to be straight up with my clients and would instead advertise sweet and
sour turkey and soo fo guy (guy= Chicken in Cantonese, fo guy= literally fire
chicken, meaning turkey).
3) It is difficult to learn
how to make Chinese food
I suppose it
would depend on what dishes you were talking about, since “Chinese food” covers
a huge range of dishes, but most take out fare, is pretty simple to make,
although it might be time consuming. For
example, an eggroll is not difficult to make, but takes a few hours to make
from start to finish. Many dishes have
just a few steps, but require time consuming prep. If you have the time and would like to learn
a few dishes, stay tuned I will follow up with a few Chinese takeout recipes.
4) Chinese food uses hard to
find exotic ingredients
Once again, since
Chinese food covers a huge range of dishes (each province and region of China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan have their own signature dishes and styles), but since we
are talking about North American Chinese take-out food here, the answer is
no. It wouldn’t make sense to spend
extra money importing exotic ingredients while trying to keep the product costs
low. That’s why you will be able to find
all the ingredients at your local wholesaler or grocery store. Larger cities would have more of a variety of
dishes on their menu that uses more “exotic” ingredients, but these cities
would also have Asian grocery stores that would readily have the
ingredients. As for central Newfoundland
where I grew up, there were no Asian grocery stores, and so we got all our
ingredients locally. So, if you want to
make Chinese food, like the kind in your local restaurant, the ingredients
won’t be too hard to find.
5) Chinese food is expensive
to make
Chinese food is
no more expensive to make than any other North American dish, since common
ingredients are used (Singapore noodles, for example, uses rice noodles, pork,
carrots, onions, green peppers and eggs) which people might already have around
their house. In the restaurant, the
profit margin from ingredient to final product is pretty large, however the
profit is reduced when you consider how much work goes into preparing the food. So, if you have the time, Chinese food is
simple and not too expensive to make.
