American Style Chinese

[KRS1]

Went to Shanghai-Lo off of Huay Kaew road in the Harbour shopping plaza between superhighway and canal road (across from northern farms)

anyway, this is the closest ive fond to American stye Chinese. Give it a shot if this is what your looking for. Didnt see any Kung Pao on the menu but the Cashew chicken and Hokkien style noodles were very close to what youd find back in the US. (they had 'Orange Chicken')

meat dishes were 120small-250big...double those prices for seafood dishes.

Theres a hotel behind Harbour, and i believe this restaurant caters to the chinese crowd from the hotel.

[Ulysses G.]

Some American stye Chinese is great and some is terrible. I have to admit that I miss the good stuff. Some of that bright pink sweet and sour pork would hit the spot.

[CMNightRider]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll give it a try.

[KRS1]

Some American stye Chinese is great and some is terrible. I have to admit that I miss the good stuff. Some of that bright pink sweet and sour pork would hit the spot.

in 15 years in thailand, this place has come closet to american style chinese...they had a picture of something almost exactly like that on the menu. Meat is crusted in corn starch like back in the US.

i think this is 'The One'...lol

Edited March 4, 2014 by KRS1

[KRS1]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll give it a try.

please report back whether good or bad, along with what you ordered please....

Edited March 4, 2014 by KRS1

[junglechef]

Went a month or so back, had scallops with broccoli, was terrible

[KRS1]

Went a month or so back, had scallops with broccoli, was terrible

the food i had was not terrible.

probably not up to scratch for a 5 star chef as yourself, but it wasnt bad.

Edited March 4, 2014 by KRS1

[Jingthing]

Went a month or so back, had scallops with broccoli, was terrible

Aha! Could very well be typical American style Chinese then!

Was it western broccoli or gai lan?

Edited March 4, 2014 by Jingthing

[sante]

KRS1, thanks for the restaurant tip. When growing up in Brooklyn New York many many many years ago, my family would go out for Chinese food almost every Sunday (although sometimes we'd substitute Nathan's hot dogs in Coney Island).

On the table at the Chinese restaurant would be combination plates with chicken chow mein and pork fried rice, orders of egg rolls with fiery mustard for dipping and BBQ spareribs with a sweet sauce. If the crowd was large enough there would be additional dishes, among them sliced roast pork, cashew chicken, and shrimp in lobster sauce. The meal usually began with either egg drop or wanton soup. And for dessert, fortune cookies.

Will definitely check out Shanghai-Lo--I cut through Harbour Plaza on my weekly trip to Rimping at Maya for KK's round wholemeal bread.

[Elfin]

I think American style Chinese food would be the same as Australian Chinese food (same dishes). I notice that the Shanhai-Lo has "Orange Chicken", but my favourite is Lemon Chicken. My Chinese students always laugh when I tell them that.

My 2nd favourite would have to be the sweet and sour pork that is in the picture.

Damn, now I'm hungry!!

[mizztraveller]

Do American and Australian Chinese restaurants have 'chop suey' on their menus or is that just a UK Chinese restaurant dish? I know you'll never find it in China!

Sent from my GT-I8552 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Elfin]

Do American and Australian Chinese restaurants have 'chop suey' on their menus or is that just a UK Chinese restaurant dish? I know you'll never find it in China!

Sent from my GT-I8552 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Some Aussie Chinese restaurants still have Chop Suey, but it really is a dish from the 60s and 70s

[Jingthing]

Do American and Australian Chinese restaurants have 'chop suey' on their menus or is that just a UK Chinese restaurant dish? I know you'll never find it in China!

Sent from my GT-I8552 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Chop suey is not common anymore in Americanized Chinese restaurants in the USA. It was some decades ago. It is now considered very dated. Chowmein on the other hand, done Chinese American style rather than Hong Kong style, is still massively popular.

[Mapguy]

What in the world is "American-style Chinese"? What is spoken about is probably some bland variation of SE Chinese cooking. Describing one type of Chinese cooking as "Chinese" is patently absurd. China is a big place with many different culinary approaches. For example, one doesn't seem to find any mention of barbecued or stewed yak here (to pick a rather localized example!) There are a lot of American cities, usually the larger ones,which offer several alternative styles, usually toned down to meet local sensitive taste buds.

[HooHaa]

i used to go nuts for breaded almond chicken.

Canadian chinese, especially on the west coast is a result of what was essentially railway slave laobur. there was a place right near my house called the tai pan, right next to the chinese corner that sold amazing fresh produce and cut flowers.

Those markets are sadly a thing of the past and im only mid 40.

7-11 replaces all.

Edited March 4, 2014 by HooHaa

[Jingthing]

No, there is a distinctive style of Americanized Chinese food that is popular mostly with non-Chinese in the USA. There are ALSO many more authentic and regional Chinese restaurants in the USA enjoyed by all kinds of people. This thing, it DOES exist in the USA. In Thailand, I don't know.

Americanized Chinese tends to be served with large amounts of goopy sauces (shrimp in "lobster" sauce), and more emphasis on SUPER COMBOS of ingredients.

Americanized egg foo young is something I've never seen in Thailand. The British version is different.

Sometimes Americanized Chinese can be quite delicious and there are different quality levels of places serving such dishes.

In San Francisco's Chinatown at the bigger Chinese restaurants, there is sometimes a separate chef for these dishes.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Jingthing

[Oscar2]

i'd love some chicken chow main (pan fried Cantonese style), beef and broccoli, chee pao gai, chicken in orange sauce...

[NeverSure]

Here are some pictures of American Chinese food. The orange sauce is very popular,

served on breaded and fried chicken.

I don't think that our European, Aussie or NZ friends would put up with crap food,

and the restaurant wouldn't last long. LINK

Edited March 4, 2014 by NeverSure

[vagabond48]

I lived in NYC and would frequent Chinatown quite often. I normally would eat in restaurants where the clientele almost entirely Chinese.

I don't recall them eating any of the foods described as American "Chinese" style. I think the better term to describe this type of food is Chinese style American dishes.

I have eaten these dishes mostly at takeout places during lunch because it was convenient, cheap and tasty "enough" but so can a plain bologna sandwich on white with mayo and french's mustard if your really hungry enough.

[FolkGuitar]

American-style Chinese food really began as Cantonese-style cooking with ingredients adapted for the American pallet. Most Americans don't want to chew on chicken feet...

As said before, it was the railroad workers from Canton who first populated the US Chinese sections of towns, and opened restaurants featuring their own regional dishes, which do tend to be heavy on sauces.

In the mid to late 80's, regional styles began to emerge, with Hunan and Szechuan styles adding more spice and flavorings, and more variety to the table.

These days we can pick and choose a US restaurant based on the specific region of China, just as we do when we choose an American regional restaurant (Cajun, Tex-Mex, New England seafood, etc.)

[uptheos]

Does it have 4,9,15,18 and 23?

[Ulysses G.]

I lived in NYC and would frequent Chinatown quite often. I normally would eat in restaurants where the clientele almost entirely Chinese.

I lived in San Francisco and a lot of high quality restaraunts serving authentic Chinese food, would also have their own version of the Americanized dishes. They were excellent.

Of course, there were also much less expensive places around for the lunch crowd, but you could also get really good Chinese food there, although it would be a very different type of recipe. There was one cheap place with mostly Asian customers on Market street, on the 2nd floor next to the Sheraton Palace that had the best Almond Chicken I've ever had. I miss it to this day.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Ulysses G.

[orchidlady]

I did get egg <deleted> yung at sea food restaurant in China(based on picture-no English translation, so don't know the name in Chinese) but it was more like a half cooked custard-quite wet-but with all the ingredients in typical egg <deleted> yung back home. I don't think that would appeal to average American so when the Canton laborers came and started cooking I think they cooked it more well done.

[roger1999]

Does anyone know if this place at the Harbour opens for lunch?

[HooHaa]

for those who still cannot grasp the genesis of canadian or localized (im sure amercan is similar) chinese food, here is an example.

Authentic restaurants certainly exist now, but up until the late 70's there weren't many around and those that were catered to an almost exclusively asian clientele.

strangely, these restauruants always seemed to do quite well, despite the rumors of missing cats that bigots seemed to enjoy trying to spread.

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

[uptheos]

On my one and only visit to China for two months, I hated most of the food I ate and I'm open to quite a few options. Didn't care much for the people who served it either. The UK version of Chinese is OK if you're really hungry.

[HooHaa]

On my one and only visit to China for two months, I hated most of the food I ate and I'm open to quite a few options. Didn't care much for the people who served it either. The UK version of Chinese is OK if you're really hungry.

to be honest in my time in beijing the smell of the spice (i reckon 7 spice mix) just made me feel ill. all smelt the same, unless we went very high end, i hated it too

[chiangmaicondo]

do they hot and sour soup

[kcore]

KRS1, thanks for the restaurant tip. When growing up in Brooklyn New York many many many years ago, my family would go out for Chinese food almost every Sunday (although sometimes we'd substitute Nathan's hot dogs in Coney Island).

On the table at the Chinese restaurant would be combination plates with chicken chow mein and pork fried rice, orders of egg rolls with fiery mustard for dipping and BBQ spareribs with a sweet sauce. If the crowd was large enough there would be additional dishes, among them sliced roast pork, cashew chicken, and shrimp in lobster sauce. The meal usually began with either egg drop or wanton soup. And for dessert, fortune cookies.

Will definitely check out Shanghai-Lo--I cut through Harbour Plaza on my weekly trip to Rimping at Maya for KK's round wholemeal bread.

How about moo shue pork with plum sauce and real egg foo young?

[Jingthing]

For anyone who incorrectly thinks that American Chinese food is not a thing. There is a rich history behind it. Yes, it used to be a BIGGER thing. Tastes in the USA have become much more sophisticated in recent decades:

If you visit any of today's modern Chinese American communities, such as the San Gabriel Valley outside of Los Angeles, Flushing in New York, or numerous areas around San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and even Houston, you will find an interesting array of wonderful and delicious Chinese food. Yet when you compare that to what most 20th century Americans believed to be Chinese food, (and what still passes as Chinese food in many parts of the country to this day), there's absolutely no comparison. So what happened?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Menuism/how-american-chinese-food-came-to-be_b_1902395.html

For those of us who grew up on the old style Chinese American food, now it is a comfort food/nostalgia food. Personally I much prefer representations of more authentic Chinese food (but you can keep the chicken feet) but wouldn't condemn people who think lemon chicken is their favorite "Chinese" dish. The world is big enough for different personal preferences in foods ...

Edited March 5, 2014 by Jingthing