# Chinese Restaurants **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2006, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-restaurants/341231 "2006-01-23T08:05:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ty\_Cobb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Ty\_Cobb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ty_Cobb)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-restaurants/341231/41 "2006-01-26T18:18:49Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Then one night we were invited to eat with them: phenomonal! I asked why they didn’t offer this stuff on their menu: American people no like. They like other food. Which is probably generally true, but their daughter eventually got them to open a more innovative place in an upscale part of town and now they are swamped with business. I have a Chinese friend who says that westerners like to order foods marked spicy or hot on the menu, but they don’t really want it hot or spicy. The same thing is true in Mexican restaruants, or Tex-Mex where even ordinary chili is listed as 3-alarm. ---
**Author:** ![Ty\_Cobb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Ty\_Cobb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ty_Cobb)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-restaurants/341231/42 "2006-01-26T18:36:17Z")
> [@Flipshod](#): > > Does anyone have cite or evn just a company name on the franchisors? If they are indeed franchises, then the recipes probably are standardized-as well as the rest of it. [Manchu Wok - Chinese fast food](http://www.entrepreneur.com/franzone/details/1,5885,12-12---282556-,00.html) Several hundred locations. There are dozens more on [Google chinese franchise](http://www.google.com/search?as_q=franchise+chinese&num=100&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images) But I would never suggest you invest in a name unless that brand is currently advertising in your town. There are really no Chinese restaurant chains worth buy the name. Most people simply check you out by looking in the window, no matter the name. Most of your restaurant supply wholesalers will be able to provide everything for the kitchen, and most food wholesalers will provide everything on the menu except less common spices. Most print shops have menus they’ve done for other restaurants, so you can just use them as a guide. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-restaurants/341231/43 "2006-01-26T18:50:38Z")
> [@nital](#): > > and i’m not familiar with the bay area, but here in houston, most chinese restaurants outside of chinatown still serve americanized chinese food, again, because you seriously limit interest in that dish. most people aren’t interested in trying something new. my parents had duck on their menu. i honestly only remember that being ordered a handful of times in 14 years. every now and then you might find a restaurant that serves a couple real chinese veggies, but if they’re anything like my parent’s restaurant, they give the blah stuff to americans (sorry, but it’s true), and the tastier stuff to chinese people that come in. i think my parents have actually made real chinese food with homegrown chinese veggies on occasion for chinese customers. Wow. I wouldn’t consider duck particularly exotic! All the restaurants here have it, including the more Americanized ones. I doubt this is in the buffets. but I don’t tend to go to those. There are some very good and cheap takeout only places near me, with more interesting stuff than on a normal menu. We go to the oriental supermarket pretty often, because it carries much better quality fish than the Safeways and Albertson’s. And when my wife won the basket at the farmer’s market, it came with a lot of vegetables we had to look up to figure out how to cook. I certainly don’t blame your parents for offering what sells. The worst Chinese restaurants I’ve ever been to were in North Andover Massachusetts. The served a basket of rolls before dinner. :eek: I suppose that was what the locals wanted. Boston wasn’t like that! ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-restaurants/341231/44 "2006-01-26T19:41:04Z")
> [@nital](#): > > every now and then you might find a restaurant that serves a couple real chinese veggies, but if they’re anything like my parent’s restaurant, they give the blah stuff to americans (sorry, but it’s true), and the tastier stuff to chinese people that come in. Here in Seattle, we have a substantial Asian population, and “exotic” ingredients can be easily found in specialty markets, so it’s not difficult to get more authentic dishes. There’s a Chinese place in my neighborhood that’s always packed, and they have two menus: the standard American menu with kung pao and sweet-and-sour-from-a-jar, and a separate menu mostly in Chinese with haphazardly translated English equivalents. I like to mix and match from the two menus. I mean, I’m never going to order “blood sausage with tofu of unusual odor,” but there’s some good stuff on the specialty menu. So it can be done. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2006, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-restaurants/341231/45 "2006-01-27T11:49:03Z")
> [@Ty Cobb](#): > > I have a Chinese friend who says that westerners like to order foods marked spicy or hot on the menu, but they don’t really want it hot or spicy. The same thing is true in Mexican restaruants, or Tex-Mex where even ordinary chili is listed as 3-alarm. Yeah, this pisses me off. I have the expectation that _hot_ or _spicy_ is going to be hot or spicy. Imagine that. All you stupid bastards that don’t know the difference are ruining for the rest of us. At a Thai place, the waitress/owner/whatever actually warned me that “Thai hot’s not the same as Mexican hot.” I ordered hot anyway, and it was still mediocre hot. Every time we go to Buffalo Wild Wings we’re cautioned about whether we’ve ever had “wild” or “blazing” before. Sheesh. Now this ain’t bravado – I don’t eat whole scotch bonnets, for example! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-restaurants/341231.md?page=2)