Another fan of ma po tofu. It’s a simple dish that is damn tasty when done well.
Can’t remember the name of this dish, but it’s slices of fatty belly pork layered with taro. Unhealthy, but oh so nice.
Deep fried ice cream is a bit of a showboat dish, but it’s quiet good too.
At my favorite restaurant in Salem, I generally get beef and broccoli, whatever that steamed green bean dish is called, some spring rolls, sweet and sour pork, sesame chicken, and as much fried rice and lo mein as I can fit on a plate.
They also have a sushi bar (Japanese, I know) and I always have three or four inari as well. I stay away from the kind with fish though. I hate seafood.
Anuybody ever tried clams in black bean sauce? heavenly? Also, lobster wor bar is pretty hard to find…try it!
One thing I have noticed…the old-style "cantonse"Chinese retaurants are dying out…everything now is Szechuan (which i like, but you DO get tired of red pepper after a while).
Old-style Moo Goo Gai pan or Hong su Gai is great!
My favorite cantonese restaurant (Ho Sai Gai, Brookline, MA) closed many years ago-the proprietor (Mr. George Chung) was a great guy!
My favorite dish is Three Penis Soup–not because I’d eat it (I’m vegetarian) but because I love to tell my friends it’s on the menu.
My wife and her entire family only get Almond Boneless Chicken. I hate going to the chinese restaurant with them since we can’t do the pass everyone’s around and taste everything.
As for me, I’m very experimental. My favorite soup is hot and sour, favorite appitizer is pot stickers (dumplings, steamed preferred to fried).
As for entree, the best is a place near my parents house that serves spicy ginger and garlic sauce. What kind of meat is whatever I’m in the mood for at the time (baby shrimp, beef or 4 treasures which is beef, chicken, lamb and pork).
I also like
Mongolian Beef
Garlic Chicken
Orange Chicken
Kung Pao beef or chicken
Lo Mein
Egg foo yung
really just about anything but sweet and sour or almond boneless chicken.
My favorite is Combination #4.
My favorite Chinese take-out dishes:
Yat Gaw Mein, but it has to be Baltimore-ghetto style
Egg Foo Yung
House Fried Rice
Dragon and Phoenix
Happy Family
Hot & Sour Soup
Wonton Soup
I’ll try just about anything, though.
I have a P.F. Chang’s in very close proximity to my office. I got so addicted to their Kung Pao Chicken I had to stop eating their altogether. I was getting fat(78g of fat! No wonder it’s so good)! Anyway, other dishes from Chang’s that I love (but no longer eat, except on special occasions):
Ma Po Tofu
Cantonese Roast Duck
Beef A La Sichuan
Ma Po Tofu - no meat
There’s a place near our house that makes the BEST VERSION, with crunchy little bites of water chestnut. It is insanely good, I start craving it really hard every 2 weeks or so.
If anyone has a decent Ma Po Tofu recipe - I’d love to try to make it at home.
It really comes from New York City. It was invented there sometime around the early 1970s, IIRC.
I like “Ding Ding Chow Mian”, as it is cooked at the Chinese Muslim restaurant on Dong Ting Lu, in TEDA Tianjin China.
The “mala yangrou”(Chinese Chili with lamb) is excellent at the Tarp restaurant on BeiHai Rd. off De San Da Jie in TEDA as well.
These are the best I’ve had in China and I’ve been here for awhile.
My favorite is Singapore mei fun, the curried thin rice noodles with a combination of meats and veggies. Most take out places have it on the menu but you usually have to order the large (quart) size for them to bother. I don’t mind; I can eat the large happily!
As the name suggests, this is a dish of the Chinese diaspora and likely unknown in China itself. I imagine that’s true for most of the dishes named, or at least the versions you get in the Western world would likely be unrecognizable at home. I’d be interested what any Dopers in China, or spent time there, ate or eat.
Another vote for ma po tofu (which on menus here is written ma po dao fu).
There’s a dish a local restaurant makes called “beef fun noodle” which is a mild dish with hai fun and some diced beef. We always call it “big fun.”
Another local restaurant makes curry chicken with onion which is to die for.
Other dishes I love:
singapore rice noodle
chicken in black bean
mollusk in black bean
curry beef with potato
hot and sour soup
And I know it’s not Chinese, but the only restaurants anywhere near that serve pad thai are Chinese restaurants and pad thai is of the gods.
Hey, you beat me to it. It’s outstanding if you like curry flavors, which I adore.
My usual chinese meal:
Sweet and Sour chicken balls (which seem to be a Canadian thing, from discussions I’ve had…).
General Tso’s chicken.
Egg roll.
Lo mein.
Fried rice.
We go for dim sum at least once a month at a local place that serves it on weekends.
I especially like shrimp with eggplant, shrimp with green pepper, beef shu mai, mini pork buns and sticky rice.
Yum.
Geez, too many to choose from:
Hot and Sour Soup
Egg drop soup
Shredded pork/chicken in garlic sauce
Scallops in black bean sauce
Beef with broccoli
Chicken with mushrooms
Black pepper chicken
Seafood hot pot
Fried bean curd
Steamed fish
Orange flavor chicken (which IMO is what “General Tso’s chicken” really is 
)
Peking duck
Beef lo mein
Beef with egg over rice
Shrimp in lobster sauce
Honey walnut shrimp
Pickled vegetables
Soy chicken
Crispy skin chicken
Beef tripe (alone or with rice or noodles)
Barbecue pork, any variety
And I gotta agree with Winnie – if you find a restaurant that makes a damn good Hot & Sour Soup, patronize it often! I used to work within ten minutes of a Szechwan restaurant that makes the best H&SS in the west Los Angeles area, and I’ll still go out of my way to visit them just for another hit every few months…
Dim sum is a great way to eat. Besides what’s already been recommended, cheung fan is good. It’s like steamed gelatinous pancakes filled with either barbecue pork (cha siu for the sinophiles), shrimps or beef. As an alternative to ha gau (shrimp dumplings), you might like to try ha gwo (deep fried shrimp dumplings, which come with salad cream). At Chinese New Year, loh baat gou (turnip cake - better than it sounds, it contains many other ingredients) is excellent with some chilli sauce.
[QUOTE=chinbender]
Seriously though, I haven’t seen Crab Rangoons on this list. QUOTE]
Oh, man, I love these things! I haven’t had them in years - I’m definately going out for some this weekend!
I once tried a recipe in a long-lost cookbook that was stir-fried chicken and vegetables and cantalope. It was exquisite, and I made it several times. But I’ve lost that cookbook, and I can’t seem to locate the recipe online. Damn, it was so exotic and flavorful! Anybody that can find this recipe (it was in a Sunset Cookbook) will be my BFF (and recipient of a free dinner, if they’re in the Puget Sound area)…
Yum! I enjoy Chinese food, and am willing to experiment with different dishes, so my favorites cover a wide variety:
Appetizers: steamed dumplings, barbeque rib tips, crab rangoon (these are delicious!)
General Tso’s chicken
Singapore Mei Fun
Moo Shu Pork
Lemon Chicken
Chicken with Cashews - the stir fry variety with brown sauce only!
Eggplant with tofu - but only from one particular restaurant - the others I’ve tried haven’t been good
Now I’m hungry for Chinese … and it’s only 7:30 am!!! 