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George[_1_] George[_1_] is offline
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Default American chopsticks

Kate Connally wrote:
> George wrote:
>> Kate Connally wrote:
>>> James wrote:
>>>> On Jan 25, 10:55 am, blake murphy > wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:12:29 GMT, notbob wrote:
>>>>>> I'm sitting here watching an old episode of Law & Order. Both
>>>>>> Waterston and
>>>>>> Hennessy are eating Chinese out of take-out boxes with disposable
>>>>>> chopsticks. Regulars know what I think about all the networks
>>>>>> standard
>>>>>> representation of NY'ers always eating Chinese in this manner. If
>>>>>> you
>>>>>> don't, I say it's all total crap.
>>>>> they eat chinese take-out with chopsticks because they are liberal
>>>>> pussies. don't you know anything?
>>>>>
>>>>> blake
>>>>
>>>> Probably easier to use the chopsticks than to use the cheap plastic
>>>> forks. Many cheap forks I've seen are TOO SHORT and bends like wet
>>>> noodle.
>>>>
>>>> The whole idea of eating out of the box is you don't have to wash
>>>> dishes.
>>>
>>> Yeah, but, I like to have my Orange Beef (or whatever) on
>>> top of the rice and eat them together. (I know that's not
>>> the correct way to do it if you want to be authentically
>>> Chinese about it.) So I would never eat it out of the box
>>> because then you have to eat the meat/veggie stuff in one
>>> bite and then take a bite of rice. And also, all the sauce
>>> sinks to the bottom of the carton and I like the sauce to
>>> soak into my rice and flavor it. So if I don't want to wash
>>> dishes I just use a paper plate and put the rice on it and
>>> then top with the meat/veggies stuff. Of course, doing this
>>> makes it harder to eat with chopsticks because the sauce
>>> makes the rice difficult to pick up since it no longer sticks
>>> together. It's worth it though. I just don't understand what
>>> the Chinese do with all the extra sauce that's left on the
>>> plate. Do they scoop it up with a spoon when they're done
>>> eating the solid bits? Or do they just discard it? I don't
>>> like to waste any of it because it's so flavorful. Even if
>>> there's nothing but sauce left I will save it and put it on
>>> some rice for a nice meal.
>>>
>>> Kate
>>>
>>>

>> There typically isn't such a surplus of sauce in typical Chinese
>> cooking. Many Americans seem to like to have things swimming in sauce
>> so they prepare it that way for them. Some will even add half a bottle
>> of soy sauce when they get the dish to make sure.

>
> Well, I don't know if adding extra soy sauce is meant to make
> sure there is plenty of sauce. In any case, I never saw the
> need to add soy sauce to any Chinese dish I've ever had. The
> seasoning added when it is cooked is always fine as is. It
> drives me nuts when I order Chinese take out and get about 5-6
> little packets of soy sauce, which I don't want. And no one I
> know actually adds additional soy sauce to their food. It is
> such a waste. I'm tempted to save all the packets and empty them
> into an empty bottle. Then I would never have to my soy sauce
> again. But I end up throwing them away and it bugs me to do that.
> I don't really want them as I hardly ever used soy sauce and when
> I do it's the low sodium version.
>
> Kate
>

Likely they do that because people always ask. Actually it is an insult
to the cook because you are indicating they did not prepare the dish
properly when you dump soy sauce on a dish that is likely right on
target. The mom & pop place in my town doesn't include them with take
out unless you specifically ask.