# I want to cook celery so it tastes like it came from a Chinese restaurant **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198 "2018-11-08T16:38:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/21 "2018-11-10T01:07:44Z")
IME, the flavor people most associate with Chinese restaurant cooking is from the sesame oil added at the end. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/22 "2018-11-10T02:54:23Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > I’ve cooked it in an oyster sauce I bought at a Chinese grocery store & it turned out delicious. “Delicious” isn’t the point. “The same as the restaurant” is a different question. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/23 "2018-11-10T02:57:33Z")
Use bokchoy instead of [American] celery. I also endorse 2 other suggestions in this thread: cut pieces at an angle, and sprinkle a little Chinese sesame oil on the completed dish immediately before serving. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/24 "2018-11-10T03:29:08Z")
> [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > Use bokchoy instead of [American] celery. > > I also endorse 2 other suggestions in this thread: cut pieces at an angle, and sprinkle a little Chinese sesame oil on the completed dish immediately before serving. But to get the same taste as American celery from an American Chinese restaurant, you need American celery. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2018, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/25 "2018-11-11T01:19:48Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > [Wok hei](https://hakkasan.com/blog/wok-hei-breath-wok/), perhaps? If that’s what you’re going for, OP, good luck. I hear it’s near impossible to get in a home kitchen, and even with the right tools in a professional kitchen it takes practice and a fair amount of experience. Tangent: from the reference: “The reason a flame ignites is due to the water on the ingredients causing fine oil droplets that mix with the oxygen in the air coming into contact with the flames below the wok when the food is tossed.” Actually, mixing oil with steam causes thermal cracking: you get short-chain volatile hydrocarbons mixed with the air. Also > [@Balthisar](#): > > there aren’t too many home cooks that use the wok technique. 🙂 You aren’t being clear there. There aren’t too many home cooks that use the \* flame \* technique. They all use woks. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/26 "2018-11-12T17:25:20Z")
Very very many chefs and good translations recommend (and I can vouch for it) that a the simplest and best way to saute greens is with (peanut) oil a touch of salt, and a touch of either chicken fat or lard at the end; I prefer lard, because it is less recognizable as a taste but simply adds it’s depth to the dish. If you’d like to serve celery, either slice it thin thin shreds vertically (after cutting it quarterly), salt it lightly, let it sit for a while to shed water, squeeze it and serve it up (“raw”) as a salad with a little vinegar and sugar and maybe sesame oil if you feel like it. For sautéing, the spinach, soft greens, etc., the quick stir in oil and salt with the fat add does the trick; many times you can add a little minced garlic first. For celery sliced in thin rounds or ovals, and, as for boy choy stems, other quick stir preparations for harder vegetables, give it a quick boil or steam–30 secs? a minute?–to “break the rawness,” as I’ve read the expression is. Then proceed as above or for whatever. Yes there are other recipes for hardish vegetable of course–gosh, if you like celery you _must get your hands on_ [celtuce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtuce)- (this english name has “celery” as part of it for a reason—but the above is standard sure fire and tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/27 "2018-11-12T17:28:58Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Head to the Chinese market and look for something labelled, Chinese celery! You’ll recognize it because it’s much longer and thinner usually, sometimes much leafier too. Once chopped and cooked it is indistinguishable from reg celery in appearance. It has a stronger celery taste and is brilliant for certain dishes. I use it in yum talay, and def notice a difference. > > Give it a try, it might be the answer. ETA to above. Just to be clear, Chinese celery (tastes like more concentrated Western celery) is way different that celtuce. ---
**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:** [November 13, 2018, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/28 "2018-11-13T21:25:09Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, same here in Chicago, at least the places I tend to frequent. Coincidentally enough, I spent the long weekend as a tourist in Chicago, and one of the things that I found kind of neat was a Chinese restaurant (north of the river north of the loop, don’t remember the name) that had really, really good food, and there was, indeed, a Mexican-looking cook using a wok. I guess it’s regional. When I think “generic Chinese restaurant” I think of the ones like I mentioned above, i.e., everything including the business plan being provided by a single supplier. You know: the Taco Bell of Chinese food. While there are a few standout Chinese restaurants (including a truly excellent one near me), these are kind of the exception in my area. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/29 "2018-11-13T21:49:18Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Oops, I meant a Chines restaurant in China. Chinese restaurants in the USA don’t typically use woks. They use all of the friendly, easy to make Sysco-like ingredients that don’t require real wok cooking. > > Even in China, not all Chinese restaurants will use a wok. It’s for certain dishes only, and as I mentioned, there aren’t too many home cooks that use the wok technique. > > The thing with a wok isn’t just a different type of pan or temperature; there’s a real skill involved in using it effectively, too. > [@Tamerlane](#): > > Really? This flies in the face of my anecdotal experience in the SF Bay Area. At the not-even-remotely-facy-but-not-a-chain-very-vaguely-sorta-decent-Americanized-mall Chinese place I regularly get takeout from I always see the chef at the far corner of the kitchen slaving over a hot wok. I remember similar scenes from plenty of similar places in the area, from the cheap to moderately pricey and from the pretty mediocre to pretty good. > > Not challenging you, exactly - I really _don’t know_. Maybe in most Chinese places in the U.S. woks are kinda rare, but I wonder if it is a regional thing. We do have multiple Chinatowns with a large and long-standing immigrant population here, so perhaps that is the difference. Note the Location: Michigan. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198/30 "2018-11-13T21:58:54Z")
here they cook everything on a flat round stove type of thing and do this bit where they do a lap around it cooking and chopping and by the time they get to where they started the foods done [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-cook-celery-so-it-tastes-like-it-came-from-a-chinese-restaurant/824198.md?page=1)