On Jan 7, 12:00*pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
>
> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 06:20:20 -0800 (PST),
> wrote:
>
> > That looks very similar to 'fried rice' with the exception I've not
> > seen any meat in fried rice.
>
> You've never seen fried rice with meat (or seafood) in it? *Have you
> ever heard of it, at least?
>
> -sw
>
>
Yes, I've had it with shrimp but most places around here just serve it
as I described above then the customer adds whatever they want to the
rice. There appears to be as many versions of 'Chinese food' in North
America as there are Chinese in China.

On 1/7/2013 4:50 PM, wrote:
> Yes, I've had it with shrimp but most places around here just serve it
> as I described above then the customer adds whatever they want to the
> rice. There appears to be as many versions of 'Chinese food' in North
> America as there are Chinese in China.

You betcha. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Texas and found that
the Chinese restaurants here are really superior to many other places.
I believe it may have something to do with the fact that most of the
cooks are Hispanic. No lie.

And hearing Asian people speak with a Texas accent is a trip!

"Y'all want Wonton or Hot and Sour soup?"

George L

George Leppla > wrote:
> On 1/7/2013 4:50 PM, wrote:
>> Yes, I've had it with shrimp but most places around here just serve it
>> as I described above then the customer adds whatever they want to the
>> rice. There appears to be as many versions of 'Chinese food' in North
>> America as there are Chinese in China.
>
> You betcha. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Texas and found that the
> Chinese restaurants here are really superior to many other places. I
> believe it may have something to do with the fact that most of the cooks
> are Hispanic. No lie.
>
> And hearing Asian people speak with a Texas accent is a trip!
>
> "Y'all want Wonton or Hot and Sour soup?"
>
> George L

The one thing here in Pittsburgh, not much Spanish, at all.
But, in my work at a university it was an everyday thing to interact, with
many different people, completely out of whack with typical areas of the
country. I might be eating lunch with an Indian, Korean, English, Russian.
Very interesting to watch a Korean speaking perfect English from new
Zealand, or a black girl speaking English from England.

There was one show on No Reservations, showing what a Chinese would want to
order authentic stuff vs typical menu. Heavy into fish in authentic, and of
course, soups.

Greg

On 1/7/2013 5:03 PM, George Leppla wrote:
> On 1/7/2013 4:50 PM, wrote:
>> Yes, I've had it with shrimp but most places around here just serve it
>> as I described above then the customer adds whatever they want to the
>> rice. There appears to be as many versions of 'Chinese food' in North
>> America as there are Chinese in China.
>
> You betcha. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Texas and found that
> the Chinese restaurants here are really superior to many other places. I
> believe it may have something to do with the fact that most of the cooks
> are Hispanic. No lie.
>
> And hearing Asian people speak with a Texas accent is a trip!
>
> "Y'all want Wonton or Hot and Sour soup?"
>
> George L

We cracked up when friends took us to a local Chinese buffet in
Brownsville the first time we visited The Valley. They had won ton soup,
hot and sour soup, egg drop soup and menudo on the buffet.

I have not found the Chinese food here very good. It's hard to find a
restaurant that is not a buffet. We do have a decent local place where
the menu is pretty traditional. Good, not great.

Nothing in North America beats the various Chinatowns in the big cities.
New York, San Francisco and my favorite place for Dim Sum, Vancouver,
BC. Portland, OR has some pretty good dim sum, too.

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.

Janet Wilder wrote:
> On 1/7/2013 5:03 PM, George Leppla wrote:
>> On 1/7/2013 4:50 PM, wrote:
>>> Yes, I've had it with shrimp but most places around here just serve
>>> it as I described above then the customer adds whatever they want
>>> to the rice. There appears to be as many versions of 'Chinese
>>> food' in North America as there are Chinese in China.
>>
>> You betcha. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Texas and found that
>> the Chinese restaurants here are really superior to many other
>> places. I believe it may have something to do with the fact that
>> most of the cooks are Hispanic. No lie.
>>
>> And hearing Asian people speak with a Texas accent is a trip!
>>
>> "Y'all want Wonton or Hot and Sour soup?"
>>
>> George L
>
> We cracked up when friends took us to a local Chinese buffet in
> Brownsville the first time we visited The Valley. They had won ton
> soup, hot and sour soup, egg drop soup and menudo on the buffet.
>
> I have not found the Chinese food here very good. It's hard to find a
> restaurant that is not a buffet. We do have a decent local place where
> the menu is pretty traditional. Good, not great.
>
> Nothing in North America beats the various Chinatowns in the big
> cities. New York, San Francisco and my favorite place for Dim Sum,
> Vancouver, BC. Portland, OR has some pretty good dim sum, too.

The Kings Cafe in Seattle had excellent Dim Sum but sadly it is long gone
now. I gave up taking people there though because they were only used to
the Americanized stuff and they thought this food was weird. *shrugs*
There are some other places that serve it but I didn't find it to be as
good.

Sqwertz wrote:
> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 16:57:45 -0600, Sqwertz wrote:
>
>> These are much more glorified versions of fried
>> rice. I have seen a restaurant that *doesn't* offer these - even the
>> more authentic Chinese restaurants.
>
> That should say I have NEVER seen a restaurant that does not offer
> these. And that's pretty universal across the U.S.

Yes. I recently looked at all of the online menus for Chinese places in
this area to find out if they served tomato beef and brown rice. Not many
did. But all had fried rice and all gave meat, shrimp and tofu options.
What they didn't say was whether or not you had the option of getting brown
"fried" rice. And while some did serve brown rice, I don't know if they
would have day old brown rice. Because that's what you need to make fried
rice.

On 1/7/2013 6:09 PM, Sqwertz wrote:
> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 16:57:45 -0600, Sqwertz wrote:
>
>> These are much more glorified versions of fried
>> rice. I have seen a restaurant that *doesn't* offer these - even the
>> more authentic Chinese restaurants.
>
> That should say I have NEVER seen a restaurant that does not offer
> these. And that's pretty universal across the U.S.
>
> =sw
>

I worked with a fellow whose parents were born in China. His mom was a
real mail order bride. He said that in his family fried rice was
something you made with leftovers.

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.

Janet Wilder wrote:
> On 1/7/2013 6:09 PM, Sqwertz wrote:
>> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 16:57:45 -0600, Sqwertz wrote:
>>
>>> These are much more glorified versions of fried
>>> rice. I have seen a restaurant that *doesn't* offer these - even
>>> the more authentic Chinese restaurants.
>>
>> That should say I have NEVER seen a restaurant that does not offer
>> these. And that's pretty universal across the U.S.

It is. People who say that theirs doesn't come out right are using fresh
rice. The rice *has* to be leftover and very dried out. And I would
imagine it would be one of those things that's never the same way twice.

Sqwertz wrote:
> On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:46:54 -0600, Janet Wilder wrote:
>
>> On 1/7/2013 6:09 PM, Sqwertz wrote:
>>> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 16:57:45 -0600, Sqwertz wrote:
>>>
>>>> These are much more glorified versions of fried
>>>> rice. I have seen a restaurant that *doesn't* offer these - even
>>>> the more authentic Chinese restaurants.
>>>
>>> That should say I have NEVER seen a restaurant that does not offer
>>> these. And that's pretty universal across the U.S.
>>
>> I worked with a fellow whose parents were born in China. His mom
>> was a real mail order bride. He said that in his family fried rice
>> was something you made with leftovers.
>
> Except that would be illegal in restaurants, so they make it all fresh
> :-)

How can it be illegal? I've seen that Restaurant Impossible show and they
often have leftovers.

"Sqwertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 20:17:31 -0800, Julie Bove wrote:
>
>> Sqwertz wrote:
>>> On Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:46:54 -0600, Janet Wilder wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 1/7/2013 6:09 PM, Sqwertz wrote:
>>>>> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 16:57:45 -0600, Sqwertz wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> These are much more glorified versions of fried
>>>>>> rice. I have seen a restaurant that *doesn't* offer these - even
>>>>>> the more authentic Chinese restaurants.
>>>>>
>>>>> That should say I have NEVER seen a restaurant that does not offer
>>>>> these. And that's pretty universal across the U.S.
>>>>
>>>> I worked with a fellow whose parents were born in China. His mom
>>>> was a real mail order bride. He said that in his family fried rice
>>>> was something you made with leftovers.
>>>
>>> Except that would be illegal in restaurants, so they make it all fresh
>>> :-)
>>
>> How can it be illegal? I've seen that Restaurant Impossible show and
>> they
>> often have leftovers.
>
> Yeah, they just scrape it off the plates after the customers have
> left.

No, no. I mean cooking more than is needed for that day and putting the
rest in the fridge.
>
> A Chinese restaurant tends to only cook what it needs on demand. It's
> not like they have a whole prime rib in back that didn't get ordered.
> Even the hanging roast/BBQ ducks would be gone before the end of the
> night.

Yes but... Wouldn't they be able to cook extra rice and refrigerate it?
Fried rice does need rice that isn't freshly cooked.

"Sqwertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 21:23:54 -0800, Julie Bove wrote:
>
>> "Sqwertz" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>> A Chinese restaurant tends to only cook what it needs on demand. It's
>>> not like they have a whole prime rib in back that didn't get ordered.
>>> Even the hanging roast/BBQ ducks would be gone before the end of the
>>> night.
>>
>> Yes but... Wouldn't they be able to cook extra rice and refrigerate it?
>> Fried rice does need rice that isn't freshly cooked.
>
> When you have the proper stove, the rice does not need to be precooked
> and cooked/dried out. Though I have heard that some restaurants set a
> bunch of rice to cook and hold on timers before they leave for the
> night.
>
> Regardless, we were talking about the ADDITIONS to fried rice.

Well I was talking about the rice. Because they would of course have plenty
of meat and veg at the ready.

Sqwertz wrote:
> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 16:57:45 -0600, Sqwertz wrote:
>
>> These are much more glorified versions of fried
>> rice. I have seen a restaurant that *doesn't* offer these - even the
>> more authentic Chinese restaurants.
>
> That should say I have NEVER seen a restaurant that does not offer
> these. And that's pretty universal across the U.S.

Very easy to make at home, too

Put whatever you want into a frying pan with some oil (usually leftover
meat - dice into small pieces - and/or veggies here, both already
cooked), fry it up briefly on a fairly high heat, seasoning as needed,
add leftover cooked rice and whatever further seasoning you like,
optionally a beaten egg or two, and voila, you have homemade,
clean-up-the-kitchen fried rice.

This is my favorite way of dealing with leftovers. We usually keep
cooked rice in the freezer just to have around for this purpose.

-S-