I’m from the DC area. I go to school in Chicago. There is usually curry on the menu. The cheap takeout places give you the little white foldy boxes, sometimes with handles. The authentic places in Chinatown do not. But they give you fortune cookies!
I’m going to slide this over to Cafe Society.
I’m Japanese-American, and lived most of my life in Asian-majority areas of the US, and I’m totally fascinated by this variation in “Chinese” food, particularly the curry and Irish-Chinese three-in-one thing. It doesn’t look at all like any fried rice I’ve ever had. I would never guess it was sold as Chinese food.
I can’t say I’m terribly surprised that the Irish found a way to put a potato in Chinese food. 
Around here, (Northern California) the only Chinese place I’ve ever seen selling french fries is a place that specifically advertises itself as selling “London-syle” fish and chips - plus the standard Chinese-American restaurant menu. The contrast is usually good for a double take from people who see it for the first time.
The oyster buckets are pretty much de rigeur for any Chinese take-out around here, too. I suspect the same is true down in L.A, which would go a long way towards explaining their ubiquity in film and TV.
I agree that the “oyster pail” is very limited, although I’d add regular clamshell styrofoam boxes to your list and I personally haven’t actually seen the foil container used for a while (they were ubiquitous when I was a kid, though).
:dubious:
Here in the Greater SF Bay Area, I don’t think I have been to a chinese restaurant that doesn’t serve fries unless we are talking about white tablecloth places, and usually they have a full range of ‘american’ food as well.
They just want to maximize their earnings- the fries and such aren’t very good…
Several of them have curries as well, although that isn’t as prevalent.
You would say wrong.