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Posts: 371

Shifu

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Q: Is Chinese food good and/or healthy?

Personally I don't like Chinese food. Chinese people seem to think it fell from the heavens. I look at most of the food and I think to myself this is not food.

I tried hotpot but that was basically pay to make your own soup. which was tiring, not tasty nor did I go home with a full tummy.

Most of the food is way too oily for me too. It is like everything has to be fried in China or it is not food.

In the west we eat a load of edible 'crap' from hot dogs to burgers to my personal fave the pizza.

Before I can to China I spent some time in Spain on their Mediterranean diet.

Of all the food I've eaten the Spanish seems to be the most delicious and healthy.

13 years 13 weeks ago in  Food  - Lanzhou

 
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Posts: 461

Shifu

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Despite that Chinese dishes often come together with a lot of vegetables, soup and fish, Chinese food is far from being healthy.

Too many sauces and oil are used in the cooking process. Vegetables are always overcooked, destroying by that all the vitamins or minerals they can contain. When a dish is brought on the table, you don't even see what is inside the dish as everything is covered by oil and sauce.

If you give a Western style salad to a Chinese (adding only a bit of vinegar and olive oil), there is a lot of chances he won't eat it, because tasteless.

As for the rice, Chinese often wash it before cooking it, which also washes aways all the the vitamins. Chinese rice keeps all its vitamins on the upper surface, while some Western types of rice keep the vitamins inside.

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13 years 13 weeks ago
 
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Emperor

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I'm not going to say the food is healthy. These enough oil and salt and msg to kill a horse (then the horse would have the right amount of oil, salt, msg in it that it could be for dinner). But to say it's not good. There are way too many different options out there and varieties on those options that anyone should be able to find something they love with the food.

Give me the spicy version of you idea of making your own soup and I'll eat like a king. Spicy hot pot and cold beer... it would be my last meal on death row.

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13 years 13 weeks ago
 
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Governor

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I think Chinese food is great. I love how it varies by province. It's very flavorful and there are tons of options, but I wouldn't call it healthy. Most Chinese food is fried with tons of MSG and few vegtables.

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13 years 13 weeks ago
 
Posts: 423

Shifu

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I tried some Chinese food.. i dislike all. This is a big problem for me as i don't go to eat if im invited.. always use a excuse. I think im the most difficult person when it comes to food. Specially when you see how dirty they work with food. i have been i a few kitchens.

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13 years 13 weeks ago
 
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chinese are taught that everything in china is the best and western food here is horrible (maybe on purpose) . chinese food is like any other some good some not some healthy some not

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13 years 13 weeks ago
 
Posts: 371

Shifu

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fritz, I hear you and I am the same. I always turn down invitations to eat with others and if I do go I am near terrified in case I have to eat something I dont want to or leave my host insulted.

I have seen other foreigners eat like kings and envied them.

Sometimes I think I just have too many issues when it comes to food.

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13 years 13 weeks ago

Tired of dirt and lies.

 
Posts: 423

Shifu

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GoldenBoy, i also wish i was like others and enjoy the Chinese food but, i cant pretend and like you say i hate to embaris them as im sure they mean it good to invite one.

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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 67

Governor

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oh, my dear. i want to say life is hard, all kinds of Chinese food is poison toxic deathless .

now I can't eat out....... again ,each time I do at home, such insurance .

how unbearable the chinese food is ! Angry

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13 years 12 weeks ago

Life is cruel funrn

 
Posts: 1006

Shifu

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zengpingjiang/wenna7/50 cent, I thought you were gone but here you are new nick name and all... Anyway, MSG, OIL, SALT, Dirty conditions, lack of proper food handling, lack of proper refrigeration, lack of proper temperature for holding hot food, not to mention chemicals and toxins band throughout the world still being used here... To many things to list... So no I don't think so but 90% of the locals will tell you it is.

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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 67

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NjordView profile,i am chinese, so I still know some.

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13 years 12 weeks ago

Life is cruel funrn

 
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zengping. clearly uneducated and knows nothing about food safety he like all locals probably has no clue as to why you should not allow flies to have access to raw meat that someone will eat. that's why they use heavy amounts of seasoning and spices to cover up the fact that the meat is rotten

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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1006

Shifu

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what you talk about, flies on meat is good fung shui make the energy more direct so you shit you pant more quickly! Never wash hands make a man more strong, ancient Chinese secret! now me sing my song: "me Chinese, me play joke, me go pee pee in your coke!" ahhhh-hohohohohoho!!! it so funny!

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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1084

Shifu

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Western food involves too much empty calories, too many carbs (like bread, cakes etc), cheese, dairy and rich sauce based products while Chinese food is too oily (although contains alot more vegetables)

So by a close draw I say Chinese food is healthier.

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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1006

Shifu

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Every wonder how many calories are in a mooncake? Wink Easily in 1000 range... Big Mac 490... Chinese dumplings, 45 calories per dumpling, most people I know eat at least 6-10 dumplings... Steamed meat buns 150 cal (most people eat 2-3) They eat rice and noodles every meal and you think they aren't addicted to carbs? for real? I got fat here not back home! Puzzled

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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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Njord is right.. i eat very little but gained 10 kg....

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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 960

Shifu

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Not overly healthy but sensational none the less. The food is the BEST part of living in China. If there is a better sensation than the peppery fizz of Schezuan food being washed down by a cold beer then I have not found it. Hotpot, BBQ as well. Just make sure that you add plenty of dishes with fresh green veggies and eat plenty of fruit and you cant go wrong. Yes i do at times worry about what is added but you have also got to learn to let go and enjoy the experience. So far so good.....

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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 164

Shifu

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Be a smart eater, tell the waitress/host, can you put less oil and msg for that dish please! The waitress will tell the chef to put less of everything. Wink

Njord:

I find if I ask the waitress anything extra they just ind of smile and I get what I get, when I get it...

13 years 11 weeks ago
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13 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 196

Shifu

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Chinese food has the potential to be very healthy, that said however it is not healthy at all. As everybody here has stated it is all cooked in oil and then topped off with MSG and some sauce that is loaded with MSG as well, white rice is so far from being healthy, it is simple carbs that turns straight to sugar in your belly, you might as well be eating sugar. There is very little meat in most Chinese food which is need to not only build muscle but to make you feel full. Protein fills you up so you don't need to eat the extra rice to do the same thing.

Western food is far healthier but the eating habits of westerns are really bad, we eat on the run hence fast food, which is far from healthy as well.

Chinese food has made me fat but it was mostly the rice, because the dishes contain very little protein I was filling up on rice, or carbs, which are the worst thing that a person can eat.

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13 years 12 weeks ago

Come on thumbs down everything I say. rnrnPlease I like it thumbs down some more.

 
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Emperor

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The healthiest food I ate here is when I visited a friend's relative's house. There wasn't really any oil in it, the ingredients were simple, mostly vegetables and fish. However, all the other food I've had here is drenched in oil, it's horrible. Back home, my family ate very healthy. I'm really missing an oven right now.

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13 years 11 weeks ago
 
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I'd have to say I never had a balanced diet there, so no. salads sucked . I read that real Chinese food was better than our home stuff. I didn't hink so and I tried many things, beer fish and i got the better fish-NOPE. I think mine was spit up by a cormorant . I found most food, even baking to be too oily.
BTW, next time I could bring pizza from home in my suit case,, waddya think I could get for day old pizza from home?

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13 years 8 weeks ago
 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erONP33MBlA

 

floods affecting food supply, crops and storage losses.

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4 years 17 weeks ago
 
Posts: 197

General

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My top 3 likes:

Sweet & sour fish (song shu gui yu)

Steamed dumplings

Sichuan hot pot

 

My top 3 dislikes frown

Noodles in Northern Jiangsu

Sharkfins (turn down every time)

Fried corns (yu mi lao)

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4 years 17 weeks ago
 
Posts: 4

Minor Official

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As spanish i agree with you with the comment about the mediterranean food, but i cant be totally agree when you say the chinese food is unhealthy and taste bad. First, we need to define chinese food, which kind of chinese food? because the variety is quite big between provinces. Is the doufu unhealthy? well, it depend where you will eat it and which kind of doufu. is the duck meat unhealthy? same, Recently i was in yunnan (kunming, xishuangbanna...) and the food there is totally different despite is a province close to sichuan. About the oil... yes, most of times the oil here is shit, so i use spanish oil when i cook.

I don´t know where you go to eat food, but if you go to eat a 3 yuan baozi in a restaurant, or a 8 yuan mixian, well... we can´t say thats real food. I live in Chengdu (Sichuan) and i can tell you there is healthy and good food, as also can find bad food, is up to you what you eat.

And this doesn´t mean i defend the idea chinese food is the best, is far of being as good as a diet in Spain, Norway, Japan... and recently i prefer to cook spanish food. So in conclusion, i agree half and half haha

icnif77:

De gustibus non est disputandum!  

1 year 12 weeks ago
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1 year 13 weeks ago
 
Posts: 19869

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... mmm yummy-naa-dou ... 

 

https://news.yahoo.com/restaurant-china-sparks-outrage-patron-223658024....

 

Restaurant in China sparks outrage after patron films how they make orange juice

Wed, September 6, 2023

 

A restaurant in eastern China has come under fire after being caught using tap water meant for washing mops to make its famous orange juice.

Caught in the act: A customer filmed the staff at Tianye Restaurant in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, placing a bucket of orange juice into a mop sink and filling it with tap water. In the now-viral video, mops, plastic brooms and a dustpan containing some food scraps are seen hanging on the same sink.

In the video, upon realizing that she is on camera, the staff member quickly removes the bucket from the sink. Meanwhile, other employees try to stop the customer from filming, but to no avail.

 

The aftermath: Furious, the customer emerges from the kitchen and announces to other diners that the restaurant has been using tap water to make orange juice. The enraged patron also points out that the juice being made is powdered, revealing the packet he took from the kitchen

 

.... more ... wink

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1 year 12 weeks ago
 
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