Chinese food

mary_s__davis

What Can I eat in a Chinese restaurant that's healthy?

JeromeBarry1

Very little. Anything, but very little.

WinoGelato

Whatever you want that fits in your calorie goal for the day.

Flapjack_Mollases

Egg Foe Young isn't bad. Basically an omelette.

RAxB

I get shrimp and vegetables. It comes in a broth sauce with garlic and I don't feel gross after eating it!

Alatariel75

I get chilli prawns, it's just prawns with veggies in a chilli sauce, the sauce is sweet but most of it gets left behind.

Ready2Rock206

Egg drop soup. Something with lots of veggies and little sauce.

bkbirge

Avoid the rice and noodles, go for the grilled and steamed items, see if they'll let you order the sauce on the side, skip breakfast and lunch to bank calories.

everher

I love Chinese food so I've been wondering too. I make some dishes at home, but there are some things I just like from the Chinese place near my home.

tlflag1620

I generally skip the rice and/noodles (not worth the additional calories it add to the meal) and avoid fried appetizers and main dishes (egg rolls, fried dumplings, orange chicken, general tso's chicken, sweet and sour pork, etc). Pot stickers are okay, as is steak or chicken on a stick. Soups are generally a good bet. A good option for main courses are stir fried dishes that include meat and veg... You can ask for sauces on the side if you want to control cals further. Lots of sodium in Chinese takeout tho, so no matter what I order I fully expect a 3-4 lb gain on the scale the next day (water weight, obviously).

bobbi29

I get broccoli beef but I ask them to just steam the broccoli and sauce on the side.

Arapacana1

Egg drop soup or hot and sour soup, followed by a small (1 cup) serving of beef and broccoli.

tlflag1620

MeganAM89 wrote: »

I always go all out when I know I'm gonna eat it and I just put my dinner at like, 700 calories lol. I am gonna eat all of that crap and you better believe I'll make room for it, whether through exercise or a lighter breakfast and lunch.

My standard dinner is about 700 cal... If I'm not careful I could easily do 1200 at a Chinese place, lol.

fidangul

My weakness is prawn crackers. So, I don't eat any at the start untill I have had my main meal. By then I should be full and with a little willpower keep it to 1 or 2 crackers. Having said that we don't have Chinese often so I pretty much eat what I fancy, log it and move on.

CattOfTheGarage

tlflag1620 wrote: »

MeganAM89 wrote: »

I always go all out when I know I'm gonna eat it and I just put my dinner at like, 700 calories lol. I am gonna eat all of that crap and you better believe I'll make room for it, whether through exercise or a lighter breakfast and lunch.

My standard dinner is about 700 cal... If I'm not careful I could easily do 1200 at a Chinese place, lol.

I can do 3000 if I'm really going for it! I only have Chinese restaurant meals rarely so that I can afford to let it all hang out.

Unknown

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laurens47

Most Chinese restaurants and take-out places have a menu labeled "Diet Chef Specials" or "Diet Menu". I usually get (if I don't want the other "stuff"), steamed chicken or shrimp with steamed veggies and oyster sauce on the side.

savithny

Noel_57 wrote: »

Chinese food is so fattening, but why then are there so very few fat Chinese?

Because "restaurant Chinese food" is not what Chinese people eat every day.

It's like saying that "American food is so fattening" because you look at the Cheesecake Factory menu and assume that's what most Americans eat every day.

melissa6771

I get plain rice and shrimp/lobster sauce with an egg roll and eat half. Also, pork strips are very healthy. Steamed Peking ravioli. These are my go to's for Chinese. Then there are always the very bland diet dishes with steamed everything which I personally would never get.

Loves2snack

I love to get Panda Express because their food isn't SO bad. A good option is chicken and veggies, like green bean chicken, beef broccoli and what not.

cwolfman13

Get real Chinese, not Americanized Chinese food...

http://www.businessinsider.com/authentic-chinese-food-vs-american-chinese-food-2014-7

At the Chinese restaurant we go to very occasionally, many of these authentic dishes are available as well as Americanized Chinese dishes...the "real" stuff is much better IMO.

Seajolly

If I'm wanting Chinese food, it's because I'm craving a very specific dish. So I let myself have it, and just adjust elsewhere in the day, like having a light breakfast and skipping lunch and having an early Chinese dinner.

CattOfTheGarage

As in a previous thread about Chinese food, it's not clear what country you are in, OP, which makes it hard to recommend. Chinese restaurant food is completely different in different countries - for example, General Tso's Chicken and Mu Shu Pork are specifically American dishes and don't exist in the UK, where the standards are things like Sweet and Sour, Kung Po, Beef and Black Bean Sauce. Some things are similar, like Egg Foo Yung. But you also get different regional cuisines in different places - I believe USA Chinese restaurants are often Hunanese, whereas UK ones are usually more Cantonese with a bit of Szechuan.

Where are you based, OP?

savithny

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

As in a previous thread about Chinese food, it's not clear what country you are in, OP, which makes it hard to recommend. Chinese restaurant food is completely different in different countries - for example, General Tso's Chicken and Mu Shu Pork are specifically American dishes and don't exist in the UK, where the standards are things like Sweet and Sour, Kung Po, Beef and Black Bean Sauce. Some things are similar, like Egg Foo Yung. But you also get different regional cuisines in different places - I believe USA Chinese restaurants are often Hunanese, whereas UK ones are usually more Cantonese with a bit of Szechuan.

Where are you based, OP?

Or there's even "Cashew Chicken, Springfield Missouri Style."

(I remember thinking "WTF?" when I first encountered that one).

Charlene_1985

I like Chinese Food from the take out place near my parents' so I get it like 3-4 times a year. I just enjoy it and exercise more that day and the next. But in the interim, I buy the PF Changs dinners for two. With 1/2 app, 1/2 entree, and 5oz wine, it's around 800-900 calories. I just skip lunch or eat something small like an apple to make it fit. But I run and have a 2300-2500 calorie budget to maintain.

_Justinian_

Walk about 10-15 miles beforehand and then eat whatever you want.

WinoGelato

savithny wrote: »

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

As in a previous thread about Chinese food, it's not clear what country you are in, OP, which makes it hard to recommend. Chinese restaurant food is completely different in different countries - for example, General Tso's Chicken and Mu Shu Pork are specifically American dishes and don't exist in the UK, where the standards are things like Sweet and Sour, Kung Po, Beef and Black Bean Sauce. Some things are similar, like Egg Foo Yung. But you also get different regional cuisines in different places - I believe USA Chinese restaurants are often Hunanese, whereas UK ones are usually more Cantonese with a bit of Szechuan.

Where are you based, OP?

Or there's even "Cashew Chicken, Springfield Missouri Style."

(I remember thinking "WTF?" when I first encountered that one).

Hah... I went to college in Springfield. They have Chinese restaurants on every corner and allegedly "invented" cashew chicken. I have no idea if this is true but it doesn't surprise me that someone created an entry in the database!

CattOfTheGarage

Here, every Chinese restaurant has a section entitled "European Dishes". Among them is always "Chicken Maryland".

I have been told that Australian Chinese restaurants list Chicken Maryland under "Australian Dishes".

rks581

Practically every Chinese restaurant will have a menu of authentic Chinese dishes, if you ask for it, as others have said. And those dishes are much healthier than a pound of fried rice. (You'll get a small portion of steamed rice, usually.) Any time I've seen the "real menu" the names of the dishes were in Chinese with smaller English names below.

Or, if you're in a city with a Chinatown, just go there instead of a local Americanized place. You could certainly even ask for foods to help lose weight. Chinese culture emphasizes health effects of foods. Now, a Chinese dish for losing weight might not be the same as a Western low-calorie dish, it might have certain ingredients or be served at a certain temperature or something like that, but I suppose there's enough wisdom involved that the dish will be healthy. At any rate it'd be a different experience than Americanized Chinese food and hopefully an interesting one.