• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Small neighborhood Chinese food places... how low quality do you think their meat is?

Zarkusim

Neo Member
original.jpg
Newspaper is in thai
 
if you're in the US, chances are the reason that Chinese place near you is able to keep that low price is due to wholesale buying price and corner cutting in some other areas. the risk of getting shut down by inspectors in most cases is not worth using some strange meat in their menu. plus in most dishes, you can easily tell the difference between beef/pork/chicken with dog/cat/other birds (Cantonese food actually have roasted pigeons so it's not uncommon to see that on the menu).
 

V2Tommy

Member
That's how you know it's an authentic Chinese restaurant. Anyone that's even lived with older Chinese mainlander has seen the "One rag to rule clean them all". That rag that's cleaned your dishes will be used to wipe the floor etc. Washing dishes with hot water? That's usually a nope too.

I hate that you're not kidding at all.
 

n0razi

Member
15 year industry veteran here (worked and managed multiple restaurants)

The VAST majority of non-chain restaurants (including everything from your local $5 fried rice wok place to you authentic Mexican taqueria to that famous BBQ place that won all those pit master awards) source their ingredients from the same 5 or so major distributors... they include B&M warehouses such as Restaurant Depot to delivery companies such as Sysco and Brothers or Southern Produce. In turn, those distributors get all their meats and produce from probably the same 5 or so global farms. Big chains have their own in house distribution network but many of those get their stuff from the same big farms listed above. The "meat" in your $5 fried rice comes from most likely the EXACT same place as the filet mignon at your local 4-5 star steakhouse. When people complain about the "mystery meat" in cheap Chinese take-out, the reason it tastes different is mostly due to the way it is prepared which is driven by customer demand. Cheap take out meat tastes like cheap take out meat because that is what most customers expect and pay for. Secondary reason is how the food is handled and stored. Cheaper places with lax regulations will mosty likely freeze their meat longer or store cooked meat for more than a day. Thats where the rubbery texture comes from (not because the meat is of lower quality). Food regulation is pretty strict in most major cities and you can expect a minimum level of quality; check your city health records since it is public domain in most places.
 

Alebrije

Member
Those places , I mean the cheap chinesee food are the home of E Coil, Salmonella and other deceases... the use a lot of spices to hide the taste of the meat because most of time is old freezed meat and those stories about cat, rat, dog ,horse meat are not just urban legends...
 
Every now and then I get a weird craving for cheap Americanized Chinese food, specifically the $10 per head buffet variety.

I don't ask them what's in the food, and I don't want to know, I just know I have a problem.
 

YukiOnna

Member
Have plenty of good neighbourhood Chinese restaurants around here and by extension of that there's Korean and Vietnamese, too. The option of a Chinese menu is the best part so I can go deep in and the folks (family run) are nice too and the standards are pretty good. The thing is, the authentic ones here are the ones that do take-out or is a food court solely serving the cuisine. No fortune cookie bullshit either.

I rarely visit the bigger ones because they tend to just be Americanized (or Canadianized in this case).
 

Jooxed

Gold Member
Most go to Restaurant depot and get it themselves as opposed to getting it from Sysco, US Foods etc.
 

Meicyn

Gold Member
Every now and then I get a weird craving for cheap Americanized Chinese food, specifically the $10 per head buffet variety.

I don't ask them what's in the food, and I don't want to know, I just know I have a problem.
Hell yeah dude I have an unreasonable desire for it now thanks to this thread. They could lace that General Tso’s with powdered COVID and I will still consume it.

I know what I’m eating tonight.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom