# American Chinese food: Regional differences? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2013, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476 "2013-08-29T04:48:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/41 "2013-10-07T01:59:18Z")
I’ve never tried one, but the (in)famous St. Paul Sandwich is a specialty of the Chinese restaurants in St. Louis and other Missouri cities. It looks like an unholy amalgam of Chinese food and Midwestern sandwich fare. > **[St. Paul sandwich](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul_sandwich)** > > The St. Paul sandwich can be found in many Chinese American restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri, as well as in other cities in Missouri, including Columbia, Jefferson City, and Springfield. The sandwich consists of an egg foo young patty (made with mung bean sprouts and minced white onions) served with dill pickle slices, white onion, mayonnaise, and lettuce between two slices of white bread. The St. Paul sandwich also comes in different combinations and specials, such as chicken, pork, shri One s... ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/42 "2013-10-07T02:57:58Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > There also are differences between the Chinese food you’ll get in the San Gabriel Valley (L.A. County) and in Chinatown, as well as from the Chinese food in San Francisco Chinatown. I can’t really describe what the difference is, or why, but it does seem different to me. Pretty simple. SF Chinatown is historically Cantonese, San Gabriel Valley is Taiwanese. Not sure what LA Chinatown may be. Seattle Chinese is mediocre. The only Chinese food that I call authentic can be found in Hongcouver. Vancouver even has multiple Shanghaiese restaurants worthy of the name. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/43 "2013-10-07T04:00:51Z")
Washington, DC is the land of mumbo sauce, which started in DC’s little neighborhood Chinese takeouts and is now de rigueur for fried chicken and fries (which are also had from DC neighborhood Chinese takeouts). Nobody’s claiming it’s anything like authentic Chinese, or even American Chinese, and nobody cares either, cause Washingtonians just love their mumbo sauce. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/44 "2013-10-07T10:19:44Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > And bok choy… well. A seafood/Italianish restaurant in the North Shore had bok choy (out of season) as a vegetable in their vegetarian pasta dish. **Bok choy**. It was as terrible as you’d expect. I never knew bok choy had a season, I thought it came up from Mexico/California/Arizona/New Mexico like lettuce, spinach, celery and such. I don’t notice much variation in the assorted leafy stuff we get in the market and specifically the oriental grocery [Ah Dongs in Hartford] Hm, this weekend we bought baby bok choy, napa cabbage, regular red and green cabbage, scallions, bunch spinach, buttercrunch lettuce, asparagus beans, romaine lettuce and already cut fresh bamboo shoots [they don’t always have the shoots] and it is a regular set purchase for us, at least twice a month. [We do also get frozen veggies, and the American standards of potatoes, carrots, onions, different squashes] There normally isn’t much difference in season, as I said, they are all shipped in from warmer zones. Heck, if we lived in Arizona we would probably grow our own instead of buying them - there is a way of planting and harvesting [square foot gardening] where you replant as soon as you pick, and you time the garden beds so each week the list comes ready to harvest if you life in a year round growing season area. [I have a friend who has 45 buttercrunch lettuces planted, he picks one a day and replants. It is in some sort of aquaponics rig he picked up secondhand - you plant in the little plastic clamshell you send the plants to market in, he just reuses the shells until they die. Neat setup, I would love something like it.] ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/45 "2013-10-07T10:31:04Z")
If you’re buying a locally-grown vegetable, it was out of season (generally spring, at least for more northerly climes like the Midwest and New England). You can buy nearly any vegetable at nearly any time if you go far enough afield to import it, or if you’re buying stored ones that could be older than you realize, depending on the item. My comment about it being out of season was that my only guess as to why a seafood/Italian joint might have bok choy in a single dish on the menu was that someone got a deal on a cheap veggie (and thus, usually, a seasonal one) and was trying to figure out how to use it. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/46 "2013-10-07T19:14:59Z")
Well, I don’t know about variations within the U.S. but we went to Ireland several years ago and stopped at a Chinese place. There wasn’t one thing on the menu that I recognized. I don’t remember what we had but I do remember that it was good. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/47 "2013-10-08T13:34:47Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > The food I had at restaurants in Chicago’s Chinatown was bland and nothing special. However, they were recommended by a fellow of British heritage who was born in India and grew up in Australia, so his tastes ran to bland and nothing special. That’s strange considering people from those three countries eat quite a lot of spicy food. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/48 "2013-10-08T15:45:07Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > Well, I don’t know about variations within the U.S. but we went to Ireland several years ago and stopped at a Chinese place. There wasn’t one thing on the menu that I recognized. I don’t remember what we had but I do remember that it was good. I’ve only had Chinese food once or twice in the US. Apart from those cute boxes they come in I much prefer the local take on Chinese food to the US one. That’s from a tiny sample though, there are presumably lots of excellent Chinese joints across the US. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/49 "2013-10-09T03:09:15Z")
Once we tried [China Star](http://www.chinastarfairfax.com/) in Fairfax, Northern Virginia, because we’d heard it had _authentic_ Chinese cuisine _like in China_, instead of that ersatz American Chinese stuff. Turns out they have a two-part menu: one part is the authentic _Chinese menu_. The other is the American menu. We looked over the Chinese menu first and could not find anything that looked appealing; there was practically nothing vegetarian on that side. We were grossed out by authentic dishes like Intestines, or Tripe with Pig Blood. So we regretfully turned to the American menu and ordered from there, and we were very unimpressed with the results. I ordered the broccoli with garlic sauce. It came coated in a heavy sugar glaze. In fact, its flavor was overwhelmingly sugar. Apparently the conception is that Americans gotta have their sugar just as Chinese want their Pig Blood. But I’m sorry, I just don’t want sugared vegetables. So that’s how we learned that neither extreme works for us, and we prefer something in between. When I stir-fry vegetarian at home, I focus on the garlic, ginger, and chili pepper flavors. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/50 "2013-10-09T03:28:06Z")
You need dim sum for authentic Chinese food. We have three restaurants around here in NJ that offer it on weekends. Shrimp in bell pepper or eggplant, tiny ribs marinated perfectly, miniature pork buns, sticky rice, taro cakes, fried shrimp balls, Chinese broccoli steamed in soy sauce, pork shu mai – I must have them all! My husband even dares the chicken feet. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/51 "2013-10-09T19:11:31Z")
BTW, how does one eat chicken feet? ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/52 "2013-10-09T19:36:43Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > BTW, how does one eat chicken feet? Very carefully as nearly as I can tell. I try to concentrate on the shrimp in eggplant and sticky rice when it’s anywhere near my plate. I very gingerly put them in my soup stock sometimes to help add a bit of body. ---
**Author:** ![simple\_homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@simple\_homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simple_homer)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/53 "2013-10-10T09:08:07Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > BTW, how does one eat chicken feet? I have tried them only once. My understanding is that you put them in your mouth and suck off the skin to eat, and then spit out the bone. Nasty. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476/54 "2013-10-10T22:25:12Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > And Chinese buffets are delivered to every town in America by truck so are identical. Every Chinese buffet I’ve been to has been distinct enough. Definitely not serving identical food to all the others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-chinese-food-regional-differences/667476.md?page=2)