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AHH F/UGH posted:If you told him that, China would probably tell YOU that. Yeah, and when I first arrived in China in the fall of 2013 and lived there through early 2017 (with one six-month break), I was a bit cockier and looser when it came to expressing myself (within reason, of course). However, when my girlfriend and I went back for a year in 2018-19, the atmosphere felt very different and totally stifling. I kept hearing all these scary stories from foreigners out of Zhuhai, where I had lived during my first China run, was super nervous about slipping up in some way and couldn't wait to get out. Even though I had no palpable reason to be afraid, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we crossed the border into Hong Kong for the last time. Edit: That said, I still miss the poo poo out of certain aspects of China and East Asia, in general. Hope I get to go back, someday.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:12
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AHH F/UGH posted:Exactly what we have here, and the staff are all barely English speaking Chinese immigrants and the menu is in Chinese first… but when I order the kung pao chicken it’s like 90% just fried batter bits soaked in oil and 10% crap chicken Dang. I live in southern california, so it might be the consolidated market from a bunch of universities and lots of immigrants. You're right that it can be very hit or miss though. A lot of real good places around me will get bad reviews because people will leave bad reviews for too spicy food or bad customer service. So you kind of just have to try for yourself.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:20
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SerCypher posted:bad reviews for bad customer service. When I'm scouting a new place to try this is something I look for. If there's a bunch of Americans bitching about rude/dismissive/inattentive customer service then the chances of it being legit are better.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:28
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Chicago Chinatown (near a few unis with a ton of Chinese students) has the best array of legit authentic Chinese food restaurants that I've found anywhere. The Sichuan restaurants are particularly fantastic.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:32
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Rental Sting posted:Chicago Chinatown (near a few unis with a ton of Chinese students) has the best array of legit authentic Chinese food restaurants that I've found anywhere. The Sichuan restaurants are particularly fantastic. Where do you like? I stayed in Chicago Chinatown and was unimpressed with most of the food. Qing Xiang Yuan dumplings was good, that was about it. I only went to one Sichuan place because it was so bad I couldn't bring myself to try another.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:35
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Grand Fromage posted:When I'm scouting a new place to try this is something I look for. If there's a bunch of Americans bitching about rude/dismissive/inattentive customer service then the chances of it being legit are better. 
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Dec 3, 2021 21:44
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Grand Fromage posted:Where do you like? I stayed in Chicago Chinatown and was unimpressed with most of the food. Qing Xiang Yuan dumplings was good, that was about it. Yeah, Qing Xiang Yuan is rad. I think Chengdu Impression and Szechwan JMC are both great. Lao Sze Chuan, not so much. That's the one all the white people go to so the food is highly compromised. However, I never actually lived in Chengdu as you did so I probably have different expectations. The same restauranteur that owns that one opened a Hunan restaurant called Lao Hunan like ten years ago but there were a bunch of portraits of Mao on the walls and people got pissed so it got shut down, lol. Additionally, Argyle St. on the northside is a mecca for SE Asian food. EDIT: Chinese Cafe on Wentworth has a really solid HK cha chaan teng/dim sum vibe and is open all hours of the night. Rental Sting fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Dec 3, 2021 |
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Dec 3, 2021 21:45
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The more "rude" the old aunties pushing the dim sum carts around the better the food, always.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:46
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Rental Sting posted:I think Chengdu Impression and Szechwan JMC are both great. Lao Sze Chuan, not so much. That's the one all the white people go to so the food is highly compromised. However, I never actually lived in Chengdu as you did so I probably have different expectations. The same restauranteur that owns that one opened a Hunan restaurant called Lao Hunan like ten years ago but there were a bunch of portraits of Mao on the walls and people got pissed so it got shut down, lol. Chengdu Impression is the one that was so bad it scared me off. Next time I go I have some recommendations from former Chengdu residents to check out.
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Dec 3, 2021 21:48
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I have maybe a dozen online acquittances that have lived and worked in China for a long time, at least since the mid 2000's. Most of them are just the typical low level english teacher situation. All of them really enjoyed living in China, would always talk about how yeah it's a disorganized mess and the government is garbage but there was something endearing about the mad circus of life there. Every single one of them has finally left. Most just cite the "vibe" in China becoming really scary over the last decade. They all desperately miss China and some are struggling to adapt to life and developing new careers, but they absolutely had to get out as they were all beginning to feel quite unsafe.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:02
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Baronjutter posted:The more "rude" the old aunties pushing the dim sum carts around the better the food, always. As a counterpoint to this: In Fuzhou, the old ladies that would sell me baozhe from a cart were always spectacularly kind and friendly to me. They were also baffled each and every time I came back that I had not become fluent in Mandarin in the week or so since I last saw them.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:08
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It's not that people aren't kind and friendly, it's that the expectations of what "service" entails are so different. In China the server comes when you sit down to take your order, brings the food, and otherwise fucks off unless you shout for them. In the US that's considered rude and people (for some loving reason I cannot comprehend) want the server to fake smile and come over every 45 seconds interrupting your meal to "check in" and poo poo. At a restaurant that's Chinese staffed and catering to a mostly Chinese audience, they aren't going to do that poo poo and then they get negative reviews for bad service.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:18
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i think the happy medium is the korean way of just havin a lil button also saw it a bit in t1 city prc and taiwan
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Dec 3, 2021 22:22
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Baronjutter posted:Every single one of them has finally left. Most just cite the "vibe" in China becoming really scary over the last decade. They all desperately miss China and some are struggling to adapt to life and developing new careers, but they absolutely had to get out as they were all beginning to feel quite unsafe. The "vibe" certainly has changed, but surveillance state/authoritarian moves aside, a lot of the change seems to stem from the country becoming more organized, developed, and less of a "mad circus" playground for boozed-up laowais. Also, I think it's pretty healthy for people to age out of that poo poo eventually, anyway.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:23
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Rental Sting posted:The "vibe" certainly has changed, but surveillance state/authoritarian moves aside, a lot of the change seems to stem from the country becoming more organized, developed, and less of a "mad circus" playground for boozed-up laowais. Also, I think it's pretty healthy for people to age out of that poo poo eventually, anyway. Yep, I think that was a big part of it too. These were mostly western nerds who probably couldn't cut it at a regular job in the UK or Australia or the US or whatever. They loved the "expat lifestyle" of lowish pay but even lower cost of living letting them stay a boozed up 20-something well into their 30's.
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Dec 3, 2021 22:25
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Baronjutter posted:They loved the "expat lifestyle" of lowish pay but even lower cost of living letting them stay a boozed up 20-something well into their 30's. Who wouldn't???
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Dec 3, 2021 22:39
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ninjoatse.cx posted:This thread inspired me to order 3 different types of Tim Tams and wagon wheels from an Australian gift basket shop. The Wagon Wheels may disappoint, but the Tim Tams are an absolute treat. Plain ones are perfect but most of the other types are great too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8hEo4N8Nhs
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Dec 4, 2021 00:18
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I find Tim Tams to be rather bland Come at me, continent of Australia ya dumb fackin cants
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Dec 4, 2021 00:42
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Grand Fromage posted:I'm going to make like four meals worth of gongbao jiding later and that'll cost me maybe $10 of ingredients.  Good poo poo, OP
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Dec 4, 2021 01:16
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Grand Fromage posted:The big news scandal when I was in Chengdu was when some rabbit restaurants were found to actually be serving cat. Happy I'm not a big rabbit fan anyway, and Fleta is a boneologist and assured me she would be able to tell if it was a rabbit or a cat if we did order it. My experience with rabbit has always felt a little sketchy. You order meat in China and, honestly, in my experience it's been fine (seems that way, at least. I've only ever gotten food poisoning here once and it was from mcdonalds. I ended up in the hospital it was wild.) but every time I've gotten rabbit there's always something about it that's off and feels unclean. Like you're eating a rabbit head and as you're picking at it you see there's still little bits of green in its teeth and you think, drat, that should have probably been cleaned out right?
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Dec 4, 2021 01:26
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Nah man, that's how you know it's nice and fresh
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Dec 4, 2021 01:43
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I've found pretty good Sichuanese is unexpected places around the world, but it seems like Sichuan peppercorn (hua jiao) just doesn't travel well at all, no matter how recently it was shipped, how it was vacuum-sealed, etc. Some places I've been outside Sichuan have better ingredients and great cooking otherwise, but the numbing sensation and citrus-like flavor of the peppercorn is mediocre at best. Meanwhile in Sichuan nearly every single dish has hua jiao that zings, and on occasion you accidentally get a glob that seems to make your whole body tingle.
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Dec 4, 2021 02:26
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Smeef posted:I've found pretty good Sichuanese is unexpected places around the world, but it seems like Sichuan peppercorn (hua jiao) just doesn't travel well at all, no matter how recently it was shipped, how it was vacuum-sealed, etc. Some places I've been outside Sichuan have better ingredients and great cooking otherwise, but the numbing sensation and citrus-like flavor of the peppercorn is mediocre at best. Meanwhile in Sichuan nearly every single dish has hua jiao that zings, and on occasion you accidentally get a glob that seems to make your whole body tingle. Nah, you just got to get the good stuff. The bags at Chinese groceries are old and sad. If you're in the US, Mala Market, Flybyjing, and 50hertz all sell good huajiao. 50hertz has fresh harvest right now (their green Sichuan pepper oil is also fantastic) and the others should get it soon. Flybyjing's fresh harvest tribute pepper is as fragrant and zippy as anything I ever ate in Chengdu. I'm not a fan of any of their prepared sauces/spice mixes, but the raw ingredients are fantastic. That 10 year vinegar is magical. Also some places treat huajiao by radiation or heat because it can carry citrus blights. The US doesn't do that anymore, but when you get pepper that was processed like that it saps the flavor.
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Dec 4, 2021 02:32
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Grand Fromage posted:Nah, you just got to get the good stuff. The bags at Chinese groceries are old and sad. If you're in the US, Mala Market, Flybyjing, and 50hertz all sell good huajiao. 50hertz has fresh harvest right now (their green Sichuan pepper oil is also fantastic) and the others should get it soon. Flybyjing's fresh harvest tribute pepper is as fragrant and zippy as anything I ever ate in Chengdu. I'm not a fan of any of their prepared sauces/spice mixes, but the raw ingredients are fantastic. That 10 year vinegar is magical. I'm in HK and in normal times am in mainland half the time. I never cook anything more complicated than an egg sando, so I didn't even know there are huajiao brands. I just go test the restaurants wherever I travel based on the recommendations of my Chinese gourmand friends. I feel like even around the rest of China the huajiao isn't as potent as it is within Sichuan. I always have to ask for them to overload it. The other issue I have is that places think Sichuanese food must be spicy therefore load the gently caress up on the spiciness. While that seems to be true for Chongqing, I've just never had anything terribly spicy in Chengdu. Smeef fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Dec 4, 2021 |
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Dec 4, 2021 02:55
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Smeef posted:I'm in HK and in normal times am in mainland half the time. I never cook anything more complicated than an egg sando, so I didn't even know there are huajiao brands. I just go test the restaurants wherever I travel based on the recommendations of my Chinese gourmand friends. I feel like even around the rest of China the huajiao isn't as potent as it is within Sichuan. I always have to ask for them to overload it. oh lol. Yeah, I think the problem is just the rest of China doesn't handle The Buzz and lowballs it. I agree on the spicy too, Sichuan food really isn't that lot but it has a reputation. Chongqing is more peppery. A fellow goon had a landlord who was a Sichuan chef and loved to complain about how kids these days don't know poo poo about cooking and just load their food with huajiao and lajiao and call it Sichuan. If you want real rear end-burning food Hunan and Guizhou are right there, eat those. E: Like I think part of the huajiao difference is that you develop a tolerance. When I first moved to Chengdu my mouth was buzzing all the time, but after a few years I literally would have to just eat handfuls of it straight from a bag to get much. So when you're eating food there it has a whole lot of huajiao in it because everyone's got a tolerance. Other places don't have that so they throw in five and it's sufficiently buzzy for the uninitiated. Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Dec 4, 2021 |
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Dec 4, 2021 03:02
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Grand Fromage posted:Nah it's fine. Stuff like gutter oil really isn't that common, it just makes a lot of news for obvious reasons. The big news scandal when I was in Chengdu was when some rabbit restaurants were found to actually be serving cat. Happy I'm not a big rabbit fan anyway, and Fleta is a boneologist and assured me she would be able to tell if it was a rabbit or a cat if we did order it. That's why you've got to eat the heads, so you can be sure no one's pulling a fast one. It may be NMS to post a picture of it, but the stacks of skulls at the rabbit head stalls near where I was in Shuangliu were seriously impressive. I was told that a common scam was in shaokao, where the lamb starts real and then becomes rat (or whatever else is cheaper than lamb) once you're drunk enough you can't tell the difference. I only did shaokao at carts where I was choosing my own skewers though, so I never cared. drat, now I really miss shaokao in Sichuan.
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Dec 4, 2021 03:20
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BrainDance posted:My experience with rabbit has always felt a little sketchy. You order meat in China and, honestly, in my experience it's been fine (seems that way, at least. I've only ever gotten food poisoning here once and it was from mcdonalds. I ended up in the hospital it was wild.) but every time I've gotten rabbit there's always something about it that's off and feels unclean. Still not used to buying a whole chicken here and then the head will just flop out. Please cut that off for me and send it elsewhere, I barely like having the shrimp heads.
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Dec 4, 2021 03:21
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Grand Fromage posted:oh lol. Yeah, I think the problem is just the rest of China doesn't handle The Buzz and lowballs it. I agree on the spicy too, Sichuan food really isn't that lot but it has a reputation. Chongqing is more peppery. A fellow goon had a landlord who was a Sichuan chef and loved to complain about how kids these days don't know poo poo about cooking and just load their food with huajiao and lajiao and call it Sichuan. I think Chongqing goes heavier on the LA of the mala, to the point of being uncomfortable. Guizhou was the most underrated IMO, I really liked the sour-spicy funk that they do instead.
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Dec 4, 2021 03:30
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Rental Sting posted:The "vibe" certainly has changed, but surveillance state/authoritarian moves aside, a lot of the change seems to stem from the country becoming more organized, developed, and less of a "mad circus" playground for boozed-up laowais. Also, I think it's pretty healthy for people to age out of that poo poo eventually, anyway. I was there 2008-2010 and then 2019-2021 and it did feel like people were more guarded around foreigners in general now. But all the COVID restrictions have accelerated that, since it's the dirty foreigners infecting everyone (never mind that the vast majority of imported cases were from Chinese nationals returning).
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Dec 4, 2021 03:45
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Cadmiel posted:I think Chongqing goes heavier on the LA of the mala, to the point of being uncomfortable. Guizhou was the most underrated IMO, I really liked the sour-spicy funk that they do instead. Guizhou food is loving amazing and it's a crime that the popularity of laoganma hasn't also driven Guizhou food more generally to become more widespread.
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Dec 4, 2021 03:47
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ninjoatse.cx posted:This thread inspired me to order 3 different types of Tim Tams and wagon wheels from an Australian gift basket shop. The caramel ones are excellent when you put them in the fridge Do not let anyone convince you the tim tam slam is something Australians do, as it was invented by the marketing wing of the American company that bought Arnotts to drive up sales. AHH F/UGH posted:I find Tim Tams to be rather bland I find them a bit wierd and almost waxy since they started using stuff like oils to make chocolate softer.
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Dec 4, 2021 04:03
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Grand Fromage posted:E: Like I think part of the huajiao difference is that you develop a tolerance. When I first moved to Chengdu my mouth was buzzing all the time, but after a few years I literally would have to just eat handfuls of it straight from a bag to get much. So when you're eating food there it has a whole lot of huajiao in it because everyone's got a tolerance. Other places don't have that so they throw in five and it's sufficiently buzzy for the uninitiated. Lmao but also at the thought of OP hammering straight fistfuls of huajiao to chase the high like some sort of demented addict
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Dec 4, 2021 04:31
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Re: sobering atmosphere for foreigners here, it's a triple thing (at least): - Things are becoming more organised and rigorous, which means less space for perma-drunk randos. - The recent huge upheavals in education have made it literally impossible for many expats to remain, regardless of preference. - Stuff has indeed become a lot more locked-down, restrictive, repressive, etc. If someone is fully mobile, there are better places to be right now. Different people are going to be hit by those 3 things in a different order of importance, but the overall effect is clear. And while people can argue endlessly, it seems fairly clear that the first is generally good, the second is too soon to tell, and the third sucks for everyone, Chinese and foreigner alike.
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Dec 4, 2021 04:35
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Porfiriato posted:Lmao but also I wouldn't consider myself demented, but...
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Dec 4, 2021 04:48
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What were the recent upheavals in education that affect foreigners?
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Dec 4, 2021 07:15
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Grand Fromage posted:
 this gave me a boner
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Dec 4, 2021 09:02
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AHH F/UGH posted:I find Tim Tams to be rather bland I'll fuckin' have my pet cassowary disembowel you mate.
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Dec 4, 2021 12:58
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a primate posted:What were the recent upheavals in education that affect foreigners? Complex, but basically the for-profit education sector was immediately cut in half, and another half of that remainder put on notice that they'll be gone in a few years. Decent aims, unsympathetic targets, but imo poor execution. Others will say differently, of course.
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Dec 4, 2021 13:01
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Grand Fromage posted:
Got a good recipe for this because I kinda want it now
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Dec 4, 2021 13:48
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Seth Pecksniff posted:Got a good recipe for this because I kinda want it now Dunlop's Food of Sichuan recipes are all good if you want a bunch. Here's the gongbao: 300 g chicken breast, cut into small cubes. You may think hey I want to use thigh, and you can, but most of the places I ate in Chengdu used breast and I think it works better. You can also sub pork loin here and make it gongbao rouding, or shrimp or whatever. Don't have to be super precise about weights, you just want the ratio of stuff to sauce to be roughly correct. Marinate for 30 minutes mixed with: 1.5 tbsp cold water .5 tsp salt 2 tsp light soy 1 tsp Shaoxing wine 1.5 tbsp potato starch Seasonings. I put these in little prep bowls so I can dump them into the wok in sequence. Bowl 1: However much Sichuan pepper you want However much dried chaotianjiao and erjingtiao you want Bowl 2: 3 garlic cloves, sliced Equal amount of ginger, sliced Whites of five green onions, chunked roughly similar size to the chicken Bowl 3: 75 grams peanuts, cashews, or mixed 50/50 is what I do Sauce: 2 tbsp sugar 3/4 tsp potato starch 3/4 tsp dark soy 1 tsp light soy 2 tbsp black vinegar, or Baoning, or mixed, whatever 1.5 tbsp chicken stock, just some water with powder is fine 1 tsp sesame oil MSG Heat the wok to about 200 c, add a good glug of caiziyou, swirl the oil around. Add bowl 1, stir fry until fragrant. Add bowl 2, stir fry until fragrant. Add the chicken, stir fry until just barely cooked. Add the nuts, stir fry a bit and mix. Add the sauce, mix and toss until it's bubbling and fully thickened, done.
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Dec 4, 2021 18:28
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