Chinese takeaway

monkino · 22/04/13 - 23:58

I am willing to accept that it my just be my perception, but has anyone else felt that the quality of Chinese takeaways has deteriorated over the past 10-15 years?

I am not just talking about a specific restaurant, or restaurants in a specific area (I have lived all over, not just London and outside) but I have travelled across the UK and have experienced the quality reducing quite a bit.

For example, the chicken does not taste or feel much like chicken, the soups taste very synthetic, and many of the other dishes feel like poor quality, and pre-cooked elsewhere and just heated up.

Might just be, but wondered if other people felt the same?

[Deleted User] · 23/04/13 - 00:00

Tastes change also as you get oldr over 10 - 15 years.

I'm not a huge fan of Chinese takeaway and never have been. It has always been chock full of monosodiumwhatsits.

curvybabes · 23/04/13 - 00:07

I stick to my local takeaway.. its literally next to me and I know they cook everything in there and get their meat from the local buther and can honestly say its just as good as it was 20 years ago, I have been to a few chinese buffets and I had to leave the chicken it was horrible ( soft and squidgy eww)

monkino · 23/04/13 - 00:18

Yeah_Jackie wrote: »

Tastes change also as you get oldr over 10 - 15 years.

I'm not a huge fan of Chinese takeaway and never have been. It has always been chock full of monosodiumwhatsits.

You could be right!

monkino · 23/04/13 - 00:19

curvybabes wrote: »

I stick to my local takeaway.. its literally next to me and I know they cook everything in there and get their meat from the local buther and can honestly say its just as good as it was 20 years ago, I have been to a few chinese buffets and I had to leave the chicken it was horrible ( soft and squidgy eww)

I agree about the chicken I have had! Too squidgy!

indyw · 23/04/13 - 03:22

I avoid the takeaways that serve the "squeaky chicken". There are 2 local good ones who use real chicken so I'm fairly happy

Johnnys Arcade · 23/04/13 - 03:48

Someone once told me that a lot of the lower quality Chinese takeaway shops soak proper chicken in a substance known as "Lie Water" which causes the chicken meat to at least double in size because some chemical that is added to the water causes the meat to absorb a large quantity of water. Disgusting!

Mr Teacake · 23/04/13 - 03:51

Chinese food isn't filling, which is probably due to the amount of chemicals they use.

SilvioDante · 23/04/13 - 03:58

The chinese takeaways around here are dire, over-priced too. Only thing we like are the banana fritters. Indian restaurants are far better in quality from a personal point of view. As a kid, my pals and I found 5 dead Mullet, lying, washed up on the bank of a local river, took them to the nearest chinese takeaway where they paid us cash for the rotting fish. Lovely, kept us in Kensitas Club **** for a week. :eek:

curvybabes · 23/04/13 - 05:50

Mr Teacake wrote: »

Chinese food isn't filling, which is probably due to the amount of chemicals they use.

I think they are really filling, ours does me (small meal) and the kids and then usually enough for a meal for me again the next day, i have ibs though so cant eat a large meal all ay once,

cbe21ok · 23/04/13 - 13:54

Chinese chips do not taste the same as they used to, nowhere near as good, not round here anyway. I hardly get Chinese now, that MSG kills me. Last one i had was Christmas eve, beef in oyster sauce, it was poor, beef was thin and rubbish quality, too much bleedin carrot as well (who wants carrot in a flippin takeaway?). I nearly took it back but couldn't be bothered.

[Deleted User] · 23/04/13 - 14:06

The problem with most Chinese take aways is that they all have the same generic, bland gloopy sauce. Really vile. I haven't had a Chinese take away in years for this very reason.

doom&gloom · 23/04/13 - 14:17

The meat is never good in Chinese places, I think it's because it's boiled before it's fried, the prawns and duck are okay though.

If you get lemon chicken or pork dumplings the meat is okay though (but being battered it's less heathy).

[Deleted User] · 23/04/13 - 16:42

Most of them I have tasted seem to use that weird chicken.

walterwhite · 23/04/13 - 18:06

Mr Teacake wrote: »

Chinese food isn't filling, which is probably due to the amount of chemicals they use.

The food from mine is, perhaps you should try a different one.

walterwhite · 23/04/13 - 18:07

Mine now does salt and pepper chips and chilli & garlic fried rice which are the best things ever, so no I disagree they have got worse.

SaddlerSteve · 23/04/13 - 18:31

There are a lot of Chinese takeaways that now seem to be fish and chip shops with the Chinese as a sideline. A lot do use that dodgy chicken which is just reformed meat.
All the Chinese takeaways near me in MK are pretty poor, but i have a friend who lives near Towcester and his local (Happy Garden) is very good... so good that i now happily drive 12.5 miles to it to get Chinese whenever we want it.

daisiesfan · 23/04/13 - 21:28

MiSsMaLfUnKtIoN wrote: »

Most of them I have tasted seem to use that weird chicken.

Cat :eek:

Oliver Loxton-P · 23/04/13 - 22:03

daisiesfan wrote: »

Cat :eek:

It tends to be beef they pass that off as. The meat is quite similar.

doom&gloom · 24/04/13 - 00:18

It's rubbery whether you get chicken or beef I think, the charsiu pork is usually better I think.

c00kiemonster72 · 24/04/13 - 02:23

I used to work for a company that supplied the Chinese takeaways and Restaurants.

Not many of them used 100% chicken, most of them used 80% as it was far cheaper than the 100%, the lowest grade stuff we sold was 65% and believe me quite a few takeaways used this!

Beef, Pork, Duck and Prawns were all 100% so that was all I ever ate from them.

MSG was delivered weekly in 25KG bags:eek:

Mr Teacake · 24/04/13 - 02:24

walterwhite wrote: »

The food from mine is, perhaps you should try a different one.

It seems to be a common view that chinese food isn't filling with all that MSG.

jeffiner1892 · 24/04/13 - 02:27

Mr Teacake wrote: »

It seems to be a common view that chinese food isn't filling with all that MSG.

Our Chinese takeaway can feed 8 of us for £15 so I can't really agree that it's not filling.

Richard_Harmer · 24/04/13 - 02:30

I used to love a bit of roast duck from the takeaway, but now I usually only have roast chicken from the takeaway, as the roast duck for me now tastes too chewy to be of any taste to me!

Mr Teacake · 24/04/13 - 03:13

jeffiner1892 wrote: »

Our Chinese takeaway can feed 8 of us for £15 so I can't really agree that it's not filling.

The acid test is whether you're hungry half an hour later, simply eating it all doesn't mean it fills you up properly.

Johnnys Arcade · 24/04/13 - 15:45

Mr Teacake wrote: »

The acid test is whether you're hungry half an hour later, simply eating it all doesn't mean it fills you up properly.

Exactly. Chicken pumped full of water & chemicals may seem to fill you up, but not really as it is 50% water!

Hey there!

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