Now I’m confused. Every Subway I’ve seen features a “toppings area,” where the counterperson puts stuff on your sandwich. True, they have cucumbers, but they won’t put them on the sandwich unless you ask. Everything is optional.
Are there different types of Subways?
Yeah, see, that’s what I like about Subway - that if I want cucumbers on my Italian Sub (and I often do. By God, cucumbers are good on anything.) - I can have it. For that matter, if I want a banana pepper sub topped with banana peppers and extra banana pepper, hell, no problem. What the heck are the Subways like where you’re from?
I would understand (and be properly appreciative) if I had asked for cucumbers. Since I didn’t, and do not consider cucumbers to be an appropriate default component of an italian mix, I was a bit taken by surprise. Prociutto, provelone, salami, pepperoni, lettuce, onions, tomatoes and even regular ham I can see, but cucumbers? That’s weird.
And the proprietors of the Mexican joint need to be told that no amount of cumin makes up for a lack of peppers.
So much translucent mucus, so little thyme.
[Bob Newhart]
Moo goo goo goo - Chinese baby food!
More goo to go!
[/Bob Newhart]
I’m having a tremendously hard time believing that’s how they make Egg Foo Young. Maybe they have “Egg Goo and Cum” on the menu. Every version I’ve ever seen involves frying bean sprouts and other things into a patty with beaten egg being the binding agent. Some form of brown sauce is usually dolloped over it. Theirs was as close to that as wonton soup is close to an egg roll.
(B)Anonymous Coward(/B) Philadelphia has a Chinatown filled with authentic foods. My guess is the opposite. Wonder Wok sounds like a Taco Bell approach to Chinese food. A few dishes, all made from pool of 9 or so ingredients. Authentic Chinese food can involve frogs, pigs’ blood, and sweet red bean paste. But most dishes are easily recognizable. Frankly, I’m having trouble finding the words to express why the meal fluiddruid is crap made by a no-talent disgrace to the kitchen and aimed at folks who have never experienced anything remotely like real Chinese food. But, that’s what it is.
Fortunately, my neighborhood is blessed with Chinese restaurants. There are four within a mile of my apartment. None of them are of the Chinese and American food! variety. All have Chinese on the signs and menus. I love this city.
Doesn’t sound very fast to me, even if the guy did get there in 15 minutes. In that time I can run to Publix, pick up an 8 piece hot fresh fried chicken, and be home.
I’ve found the delis at grocery stores are not half bad when looking for a quick meal.
I accepted your challenge!
That’s what I was expecting. Sometimes the sprouts get switched out for other things - I’ve gotten water chestnuts and veggies instead – but it’s patty shaped with the sauce. Not horrible tasteless starch goo over scrambled eggs and diced carrots!
Of course, to lodge my complaint elsewhere I’d have to write a letter…they thoughtfully have a website up with their menu, but no e-mail address. Bleh.
Might I suggest the magic of a Whois search?
Well I shall have to take a moment to brag about living in the Bay Area. Chinese restaurants are about as common as pizza joints here. Quality varies of course, but it’s usually decent.
They have someone else do their web hosting; besides which, no e-mail address is provided. Nice try though.
Here is their website.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that unquestioned goo will be an improvement, y’know.
I do not question the questioning of goo. In fact, allowing unquestioned goo to breach one’s gastrointestinal tract is unquestionably a questionable practice. One should always, without question, inquire as to the origins of goo before unquestioningly ingesting such.
Good lord!
I just realized that this thread is really about killing and eating Gumby’s blue mermaid friend!
You people make me sick!
My condolences on the lousy Egg Foo Yung. Of course it should be a recognizable patty with some recognizable stuff in it, and yeah, a nice brown gravy is better than goo. Seems like most Chinese restaurants know this – the basic dishes don’t vary that much from place to place. And you can eat them.
There’s a little Chinese dump around the corner from me that’s in its third reincarnation since I moved here about five years ago. The first place was dirty and forgettable, but they had cheap lunch specials – things like decent versions of General Gau’s or Yu Hsiang chicken, and would get them together quickly. The second place was dirtier and even more forgettable – the lunch specials sucked and they even knew how to screw up pan-fried dumplings somehow. But I could still depend on them for a decent box of lo mein when I had a taste for it.
Last month the third incarnation, which I’d eagerly awaited expecting – yippee – a decent Chinese place in the neigborhood, arrived. It’s shiny clean, and the folks who run it are just great. Too bad they can’t cook. They’ve got a range of dishes from all over Asia. And they do them just wrong. Tom Yum Soup? Spicy dishwater with baby corn cobs and bean sprouts in it. Not the slightest hint of lemon grass or coconut. Chicken Curry? A blob of half-shredded chicken embedded with bones, with chili and perhaps a little cumin. Yechhh. General Gau’s? Slippery, unbattered pan-fried chicken, no hint of sweet or sour or anise.
I’m so sad. I was really looking forward to this place. I like these new folks and I’d like to see them succeed, so I’ve kept going back and I’ve worked my way through most items of interest on their small menu. Nothing I’ll get again, unfortunately. Nothing as bad as what was described in the OP, either, but I bet I’ll be seeing reincarnation number four in less than a year.
Pity.
If you want real, no shitting, authentic Chinese food, you can’t get it at a restaurant. In fact, if you have to do any sort of money exchange for it, it’s not “real”. If you want authentic Chinese food, make friends with a Chinese person and ask him/her to make you dinner.
I don’t ask for authentic… I just ask for edible.