# What's authentic Chinese food really like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-authentic-chinese-food-really-like/511691 "2009-09-26T23:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-authentic-chinese-food-really-like/511691/21 "2009-09-28T12:53:37Z")
I have a local Chinese place, owned and run by a Chinese family. We are sometimes invited to family celebrations and have “real” Chinese food. When I ask what something is I’m often told “Eat it now, I tell you later!”😃 Always good though. And I have had the jelly fish thing as well. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-authentic-chinese-food-really-like/511691/22 "2009-09-28T13:54:45Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > My brother went to China with a group from the Motion Picture Academy. He said they were treated like heads of state. (so I don’t know how representative his experience was) He remarked that _ **rice** _ was rarely on the menu at any of the meals. The explanation he was given was that rice was too common a food to serve to visiting dignitaries. My experience is about 13 years old, when I went to conferences in Hong Kong and Beijing. In both cities, I went to banquets where they were obviously trying to impress the foreign visitors. The food was really unlike anything that I’d eaten in Australia or the US, and I enjoyed it a lot. Yes, there was no rice or noodles served with the meal – and hardly any vegetables either. After the grandest banquet (held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing), I talked to an Englishman about how he liked it, and he said he was still hungry, because they had mostly served seafood, which he couldn’t eat. I hadn’t noticed that, but it figures: you wouldn’t serve anything as common as beef, chicken or pork at a banquet like that. The other dish that I had a few times in Hong Kong, since I was on my own and not willing to try anything too adventurous in restaurants with only Chinese on the menu, was fried rice – which, in that part of China, gets served wrapped up in lotus leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-authentic-chinese-food-really-like/511691/23 "2009-09-28T16:12:40Z")
Buns up north,rice down south. It is mostly quite revolting to our Western tastes,and it totally smells like it. ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-authentic-chinese-food-really-like/511691/24 "2009-09-28T23:58:01Z")
Here’s a link to [Cafe de Coral](http://www.cafedecoralfastfood.com/hotselling.php?lang=en), one of the largest fast food chains in Hong Kong. It has pictures of their food, along with English menu. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-authentic-chinese-food-really-like/511691/25 "2009-09-29T02:12:37Z")
During my time living in downtown Seattle, a local Chinese restaurant with, I believe, a full Chinese staff offered very delicious and authentic dishes. My local Chinese friends all recommended the place. Also, I just got back from a week in Xi’an, Shaanxi located in central China. The fried rice I had there tasted exactly the same as the fried rice I used to eat as a child at a Chinese restaurant in suburban _Tijuana, Mexico_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-authentic-chinese-food-really-like/511691.md?page=1)