Exactly what is “New York Style” Chinese food? How is it different from regular Chinese food? Am I not getting the real deal?* Where can one find Chinese style Chinese food? (in America, that is. I’m not up to travelling to China just this second.)
*Yes, I know China has many different regions, and there’s really a huge variety of cooking styles. But my questions stands.
Hello?
tap tap tap
Is this thing on?
wanders out of the thread forlornly, wondering if this is one mystery that will never be solved…
Southern California. 
Just hie ye down to the suburbs of Monterey Park/San Gabriel/Alhambra (a stone’s throw east of downtown L.A.), and you’ll be smack-dab in the densest collection of authentic transplanted Chinese cooks in the US of A.
Fried frog legs? No problem…
Unless you’re a frog…
But…
What IS New York style Chinese food?
And, thanks rjung, but I haven’t been in SoCal in nearly 15 years, and I have no plans to go back any time soon.
Anything more Orlando(ish)?
No idear really, but I do know in most parts of the country, Chow Mein is chinese spaghetti type noodles in a light brown gravy with chicken, beef, shrimp or a combo. Very yummy. On the east coast, if you’re not careful, ordering Chow Mein will get you Chop Suey, one of the more disgusting foods on this planet.
But isn’t Chop Suey an American invention?
Seriously folks, I’m just going to sit right down on the floor here and cry. I’m so confused.
How come you never see Cajun style Chinese food? What is so special or different about NY style? What is it that makes in NY style?
I’ve never heard of New York style Chinese food! Szechuan, Hunan, Cantonese…but not NY.
Maybe to the retired folks in Fladah, it means “delivered in little boxes by a guy named Chang.” 
There’s two restaurants in my neck of the woods with the name of the store and underneath, “New York Style Chinese Food.”
One is a rather nice sit-down restaurant, with very good food for fairly cheap, and the other is one of those places where you walk in and order and then take the food home.
Maybe it means “as opposed to Chinese Chinese food, which you probably wouldn’t like”?
Maybe it means even though it’s supposedly Chinese, it’s owned by Italians, and all the cooks are Italian, and all the dishes are served in an overly oreganoed red tomato sauce?
According to this site, "When he opened Jade Palace in 1997, Mei incorporated his influences by serving New York-style Chinese food.
New York Chinese food, he said, is seasoned with bolder spices and is more flavorful. "
But this is the first I’ve heard of it.
I have heard Chinese buffets referred to as “New York Style Chinese restaurants.”
I will note that at the local greasy spoon (aka Norm’s Family Restaurant), the dessert menu offers cheesecake in plain style, and New York style. The New York style cheesecake is the plain style with a ladle of strawberry sundae topping drizled over it. I have seen cheesecakes labeled “New York style” treated this way at other Family Restaurants as well, BTW.
Ergo, “New York style” Chinese food is Chinese food that has had strawberry sundae topping drizzled over it. Q. E. D.
Watch this space next week, for my explanation of how the words “purple”, “orange”, and “silver” all rhyme with one another.
Where I live, I’ve seen several Chinese places state they serve “San Francisco Style” Chinese food. Is anybody familiar with that type of Chinese food? If so, how is it different from the other kinds?
Maybe it’s served on Rice-a-Roni? It’s the San Francisco treat!
If only I knew a place that you could get Indian-style Chinese food. In India, Chinese food is about as popular as it is here and is the only non-Indian food thats really widely liked. It seems like every menu has a Chinese section. It’s totally different than either Chinese Chinese food or American Chinese food- well they do have chop suey and a dish they call “American chop suey”, which I’m told is chop suey with a fried egg on top. Usually Indian Chinese food is served with a few sauces- including ketchup (hugely popular and sometimes called “Chinese tomato sauce”) and a mysterious green chili sauce. Your supposed to ladle on the sauces you like and kind of mix it around.
My SO has travelled a lot…and he still gets wet dreams thinking about the Chinese food he had in NYC.
I think it is like pizza…I personally think pizza in Italy sucks the big one (been to Italy often and have had it many places)…Chicago pizza is the best in the world, but NYC ain’t far behind.
Maybe it is that Chinese restaurants in NYC have the best quality of ingredients, a populace that can handle spice, and even the Chinese dives know ain’t nobody coming back if it doesn’t have a kick.
Then again, to open a restaurant in NYC and keep it open…well, you better be damned good as the competition is fierce.
Nope. The Green Garden in my neck of the woods, although “New York Style” does not offer a buffet.