What is your favourite Chinese food main dish. Mine, Moo Shu Pork.

[applegrove]

A mixture of BBQ pork, egg, bean sprouts, wood ear mushrooms & hoisin sauce all spread on a pancake and rolled up to eat.

I'm looking for ideas for my parents who have Chinese food once a week but need variety.

[bigwillq]

1. General Tso's Chicken

with pork fried rice.

[applegrove]

2. Yes we have that too. Yummy.

[chollybocker]

22. Oh yeah.

My apartment is right on top of a Chinese restaurant, and *for some reason* I'm compelled to order their General Tso's Chicken at least once a week. It's like heroin for me.

[Denninmi]

3. Sesame Chicken.

Yum. But the restaurant makes all the difference. The best ones have a rich, dark sauce with strong sesame flavor. Some of the worst versions taste basically like thinned down ketchup over Chicken McNuggets. Also, I like the versions where they actually throw in more than one broccoli floret.

[applegrove]

4. Sounds delish.

[dixiegrrrrl]

39. The rich dark sauce is oyster sauce, betcha.

The sauce is what makes or breaks a good Egg Foo young for me.
Our local restaurant just got new owners, I ended up with ...flour gravy on my egg foo young.
Barf...........haven't been back since.

[JBoy]

5. BBQ Duck.

A little fatty, but when it's hot, served on top of rice with a sauce that's (I'm guessing) hoisin/soy/honey, it's crack on a plate.

BBQ duck is good in a pancake too.

[alphafemale]

6. House Special Lo Mein is even better cold the next day.

I eat mine with a special chili paste that I have only been able to get once a year from...of all places..a Jewish Food Festival in Savannah...from a rabbi.

[bif]

7. I'm real boring the first time I check out a Chinese restaurant

First time it's Almond Boneless Chicken. Then it's Egg Foo Young. Then it's anything goes, it they pass the test.

[applegrove]

10. We had egg foo young two weeks ago and it went over okay. But I want them to rave.

[hobbit709]

8. Baby octopus in spicy black bean sauce is my fave

where I eat.

[ohiosmith]

9. Ginger fried beef. Only ever got it in Calgary.

[blogslut]

11. Love Moo Shu

Sometime, try it rolled up in a leaf of butter lettuce.

[applegrove]

14. Yum. That sounds really good.

[fishwax]

12. ants climbing a tree

Small bits of marinated pork cooked in a spicy sauce and tossed with bean thread noodles. The version I've had also had scallions, dried mushrooms, and szechuan peppercorns.

Alas, I haven't seen it on Chinese takeout menus, and most of my Chinese food dining is at that type of place. My favorite main course in that case is probably Orange Chicken. Or maybe Szechuan Chicken. :)

Edited to remove an extraneous "q"

[applegrove]

15. They have Szechuan Chicken at the place we order from. I have not tried it

but will this week. Thanks.

[fishwax]

25. i hope you like it

It's good at all the places around here, but it seems to be prepared slightly differently from restaurant to restaurant (especially with respect to which veggies are included and how much). I'm a sucker for the szechuan spices and flavors, though. :)

[wickerwoman]

21. +1

I used to get that all the time at a restaurant around the corner from where I worked in Shanghai. I couldn't read the menu in Chinese but I knew where to point. :D Glad to know the name now. Ooo... and recipes online! You're my new favorite person.

I also love mapo tofu, kung pao chicken, fish-flavored eggplant, shrimp dumplings, egg tarts and all the street foods (tofu skin stir-fried with green peppers, egg fried rice, crepes with fish sauce). Oh and curry hotpot where you dunk in enoki mushrooms wrapped in beef. Mmmm...

Hungry and missing China now. :hi:

[fishwax]

23. oh my, I'm jealous

All of that sounds delicious! I love hotpot (we like to make it for special occasions around here) but haven't tried enoki mushrooms wrapped in beef.

Glad I could help with the name of the dish! :hi:

[geardaddy]

36. I loved Shanghai!

Where's that main park with the nice pavilion restaurant in the middle of the lake?

I had a fantastic eel dish there when I was there 25 years ago.

In Beijing in the winter, we had Mongolian Hot Pot. Yum!

[wickerwoman]

40. Century Park?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Park_%28Shanghai%29

Mmm... hot pot.

Also I completely forgot Singapore Fried Noodles.



I'm a sucker for the vermicelli, I guess.

[geardaddy]

41. No, I think it was Yu Yuan Garden

I love Singapore fried noodles!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuyuan_Garden

[geardaddy]

34. Ma-yi pa shu (ants climing a tree)

They have that at the one Taiwanese restaurant here in Minneapolis
It was very common in Taiwan when I was there. Except it wasn't spicy.

[MiddleFingerMom]

13. Orange Chicken or Mongolian Beef...

.
.
.
...but I judge a Chinese restaurant by its hot-and-sour soup.
.
.
.

[fizzgig]

27. that's my standard, too

[alphafemale]

16. I too love Moo Shu.

They never give you enough pancakes or hoisin though.

[applegrove]

17. I agree with you on the pancakes. You can usually buy hoisin sauce in the grocery store. At least

where I live.

[driver8]

18. I would have to go with Kung Pao Chicken.

The hotter, the better!!

[hibbing]

19. Moo Goo Gai Pan

Hi,
Love the Moo Goo, chicken breast, veggies and a clear sauce, very mild sauce. Find the quality on this dish varies greatly from place to place though. Second choice would be Chicken with Garlic Sauce. I have a tiny little favorite place that does both these dishes very very well.

Peace

[sakabatou]

20. Golden noodle chow mien

[applegrove]

24. I worked at a Tibetan restaurant that had the most amazing stir fried noodle dish.

One of my favourite foods ever. I'll keep your chow mein idea in mind. yes I think my parents would like that.

[sakabatou]

26. I go to a vegetarian Chinese place, the Golden Buddha in SF

Best Chinese vegetarian food I've had.

[blueamy66]

28. hot and sour spicy soup

I could eat it everyday!

[old mark]

29. Shrimp, scallops and chicken with Chinese vegetables in Hoisin sauce...

can't remember the name for it, but it is great! We live 5 minutes from a really wonderful Chinese restaurant, and go there at lease once a month.

mark

[surrealAmerican]

30. I think the place we order from calls it "eggplant in garlic sauce" ...

... or something like that. It's very nice stuff. I also like chow fun (that's the wide rice noodles) a lot.

[av8rdave]

31. I also love Mu Shu Pork, also Sesame Chicken

[xchrom]

32. wor won ton soup, pot stickers, chow fun -- love, love chinese noodles,

crispy duck, mongolian beef, moo shu pork.

oh great now i want chinese.

[hifiguy]

33. My own homemade Kung Pao Beef

based on the recipe from Henry Chung's Hunan Style Chinese cookbook.

Beef, bamboo shoots, carrots (all thinly sliced, not cubed), a simple sauce of Pearl River Bridge light soy sauce, Xiaoshing wine, vinegar and a pinch of sugar, and some spring onions. Crushed chili pepper and whole dried Thai chilies. Finish with a handful of peanuts and a little sesame oil.

I make it hot enough to blow Adam Richman or Andrew Zimmern's head off.

[geardaddy]

35. Too many to name

Here's a few.

Jiao-zi (pork dumplings, boiled or steamed)
Guo-tie (potstickers)
Xiao-long bao (small steamed pork buns)
Ma-po Doufu (Mother Ma's Tofu - spicy tofu and minced pork with garlic and scallions)

[Moondog]

37. If it's Szechuan or Hunan, I probably like it. Cantonese, not so much.

[RebelOne]

38. Yes, hot and spicy Szechuan is my favorite.

Next in line is shrimp with lobster sauce or Egg Foo Yong.