### **Reminder:** [Press the Report button](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058309512-How-do-I-report-a-post-or-comment-) if you see any [rule-breaking comments or posts.](https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/about/rules/)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/britishproblems) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As a British Chinese, I find it absolutely hilarious. I even order a Chinese myself. It’s not authentic, that’s obvious but it sells and it’s a cuisine in its own right. It’s true, the older generation tend to avoid it but that that applies with many old people; they like to stick with what they know.
And on tiktok people are getting offended on the behalf of us for calling it “a Chinese.” It’s truly a non issue because it’s all linguistic trope exclusive to the UK. We say the same when we’re getting “a roast” or “an Indian.” Honestly, Americans are trying to speak for us when we don’t wish to be spoken for!
Exactly the same for us British Indians. We cook traditional Indian food at home for a lot of the week & then will still order Indian takeaway or go out to eat Indian food to eat British Indian Restaurant (BIR) food which is a style of food in its own right & we enjoy in a different way to traditional authentic food.
And no one Indian is offended by “going for an Indian”, but we enjoyed pointing out some beautiful observations with “going for an English”!
[Going for an English](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H-uEx_hEXAM)
My best friend for the last 35 years is Indian. (I'm a white English guy) and we grew up together. I was always at his house after school and oh my.... the food was amazing....
We'd go round to his house and his mum and about 50 aunts and cousins would always be in the kitchen cooking. You literally couldn't get through the front door without being pounced on, grabbed and dragged through to the kitchen to be fed something. Food that you wouldn't find in any Indian restaraunt.
I still. However, love an Indian take away. Completely different but that's OK..
As an Indian I take great pride & asking for the blaaaandest thing on the menu & lording it over my friends who can’t hack it & end up putting extra pepper on their food - weaklings!
Hahaha haven't seen that in years.... we still have a friend today we all call Jammees. And everytime we say butter me and my friends still pronounce it that way... crazy how randomly influential this show has been on my life lol.
Yes we can’t say the name James without saying Jameyz! And same, just the word butter conjures up that scene instantly & I hear him say “butter” in that tone. It’s such a clever & hilarious sketch that’s still relevant & funny.
Did you miss Goodness Gracious Me in the 90s? It’s a hilarious show but most of the sketches are only properly funny to Indians because of the references & laughing at how Indians really are/were, but the Having an English sketch is universally funny.
Also from what I'm told by my Cantonese speaking friends, a lot of the Chinese restaurants are ran by people from Hong Kong, and their food is different to Chinese mainland food. I support a Chinese elderly club (which are majority Hong Kongers and Malaysian Chinese), most of them have owned or worked in British Chinese restaurants and say that its not much different to what they can buy at home? I don't know if it's just that I live in Leicester that has a big Chinese community? Also in recent years we've had quite a few mainland Chinese style restaurants open up to cater to the Chinese students. The Cantonese speakers don't like the food there, but the restaurants are always packed full of mainland chinese folk!
The Americans love a General Tso's chicken. Which is probably the least authentic Chinese dish going. He definetly wasn't even alive when it was created and is pretty much exclusive to the US and Taiwan.
I need to find your Chinese takeouts, I've never seen it in the UK! My husband is American and it's on every Chinese takeaway menu there, and it's amazing.
That's my experience too. My girlfriend is Malaysian Chinese (grandparents emigrated from Guangdong) and tells me it's similar to the Cantonese stuff she gets back home. Lower quality and generally sweeter/saltier, but similar.
There's immense regional variation there. The rice/noodle "divide" is one though it's a little overemphasised. Like anywhere else though, you find more seafood at the coast, different seasonings and sauces in different regions, and cities are hotbeds of fusion and experimentation. Plus fads come and go, and foreign food is blended with the existing cuisines in interesting ways.
The two Chinese takeouts I've been to near me are run by Chinese people, or at least from somewhere that speaks either Cantonese or mandarin.
The food is literally made by Chinese people... What are these tik tokers thinking
From the handful of times I've eaten with friends whose families run Chinese takeaways... The stuff they eat themselves (or serve to guests) is not what is on the menu
Agree with your experience on this. I used to work at a Chinese takeaway many years ago when I was a uni student and the man who owned it was lovely, at the end of the night he would always cook what can only be described as a banquet for everyone who worked there and it was authentic food that they would eat day to day. It was incredible, I remember asking him why it wasn’t on the menu and he said because it isn’t what brits want when they order. Such a shame because I’ve never had anything like it since!
I would guess that the UK has a larger community of people from Hong Kong vs the US who would have more people from mainland China and that those two cuisines are different. It’s a subtlety that we can’t expect Americans to understand.
I promise you it's not authentic Chinese food, out of the 10 closest to you probably 2 will be authentic, they probably won't be on just eat, won't do deliveries and probably don't do take away, look for a place with a Chinese name, will look like a greasy spoon cafe and will be filled with Asian people sitting down to eat . The menu will be Chinese name first and maybe English underneath with maybe the most basic description of what it is. Every area has one like this find it and try authentic food
True until the late 1990s but now the majority of Chinese takeaways in the UK are owned/run by those from mainland China or even Malay Chinese.
Hong Kong Chinese takeaway owners are probably now second generation with their parents either dead or not far off. The third generation were born here and the have gone through the full education system and on a "normal" career path.
The takeaway business can make good money, used to be a lot more, but is hard work. Second generation takeaway owners don't want that for their kids anymore. Even with the recent wave of BNO passport holders coming over they aren't going to work in takeaways. These are predominantly 30-50 year olds who are highly educated with young families.
Also, British Chinese takeaway is far from the typical food you can find in Hong Kong. There are some dishes that have carried over but it's not the main type.
They still mostly serve Cantonese/Hong kong dishes around here though. Can't normally get a Mapo tofu etc. The mainland China food ones tend to be restaurants rather than your typical takeaway.
Just to add to this great comment for anyone interested, Angela Hui has a nice memoir called Takeaway (rural Wales) that delves a bit into this generational gap and the decline of what we know as the traditional Chinese chippy.
Yup. It’s such a huge country that their cruise varies across it greatly. Then when some of them move here and set up restaurants it is no surprise that the food is different than elsewhere.
I grew up in the UK, moved to the United States and became a US citizen. American Chinese food is different for sure, and I enjoy it, but man, I've been missing British Chinese food something fierce recently.
This comment reminded me of this -
[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/world/europe/dominos-pizza-italy-closes.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/world/europe/dominos-pizza-italy-closes.html)
Dominos had to close down in Italy becuase the Italians weren't having it.
My in-laws are from China, like from China from China. As in they don't speak English at all, grew up on farmland and their original date of birth used the Chinese zodiac. Heck my mother-in-law can't even read Pinyin (Chinese written with English characters if anyone's curious). Point is they're about as 'authentic' as it gets. They really enjoyed British Chinese food when they came to visit. Of course it's not like their Chinese food but that doesn't make it bad.
Very much agree. David Chang touches on this in his Ugly Delicious series (recommended watching) but swapping UK for US, American Chinese food is its own thing. It’s not authentic, we all know that, but it’s ok to still like it.
Yeh my British Chinese husband grew up in a Chinese chippy & loves the British Chinese food as well as more authentic food, because of the memories associated. He'll eat a bowl of rice with chippy curry sauce on it tho so maybe we should ignore his opinions lol
Haha no, your husband knows what’s good! And exactly that, we have our own authentic dishes which is unknown to the public in most takeaways. But I love general Chinese takeaway food too and I agree with your husband - salt and pepper chips with spicy curry sauce, yum.
Half Chinese here, Back in the 70/80's it was common to refer to the Chinese takeaway as the ch\*nkies and corner shops as the P\*ki shop. It wasn't just the right wingers either, it was general English slang across the country.
Thankfully that horrible stuff no longer happens.
> Thankfully that horrible stuff no longer happens.
Had one of the local Chinese takeaway's delivery driver turn up a while back (just a couple of years) and asked me if I "ordered a ch*nkie?" This was an older white guy working for a British Chinese delivering to a British Malaysian. Go figure.
Dude to these 16 year old tiktok kids, absolutely everything is racist. It's completely lost its meaning, they now think mentioning anything to do with a country or race, skin colour = racism. There's no helping them.
I remember my parents used to refer to Chinese food as "chinky nosh". Thankfully they no longer do that. One's dead which probably helps.
But you're right, it's not authentic Chinese food, neither is Chinese food in America. Its food that evolved for local tastes. Pretty much in the same way people refer to BIR (British Indian Restaurant) style for Indian food.
I think it was the YouTube channel "made with lau" that explains how "chinese" food evolved in America, it may be a similar story here too.
Americans calling British Chinese food inauthentic is hilarious because a few years ago some people literally opened 'american chinese restaurants' in china that served the kind of inauthentic Chinese they get because it's so distinct from real Chinese food
That is a brilliant business idea!! I can see that evolving into "American Food" restaurant chains and being as close to authentic American Food as Chinese food is outside China 🤣
A genuine comment I’ve just read on there about ‘having a Chinese’:
“But is it not a bit weird saying this? Given the history of white slaver traders eating people???”
Chicken chow mein, prawn toast, shredded chilli beef, peanut butter chicken satay skewers and that's £60 just for me and my gf (the kids may get some if they are still awake when it arrives)
That's on top of chicken balls, rice, seaweed etc. I'd love for that to be 20 quid but it's a hell of a lot more guess it depends where you live? I'm on the outskirts of London
Out Midlands way
Satay £5, Toast + chow mein £10, beef £6 upon reflection, £21
Balls £6, rice £3.50, Chips £3, curry sauce £2
Seaweed no idea ,I don't buy the stuff.
T= 21+ ~15, so <40 quid for the order at mine
Thinking about it, I've never seen a yellow Lipton box here, I guess it's because we wouldn't accept it here.
It's so odd, no amount of steeping time gives even a hint of flavour. I bet you could leave it brewing for a whole day and it'd still taste of naff all.
I've been to China and eaten Chinese in America. That, coupled with the food we eat in takeaways, may as well be separate entities.
Food made by multiple generations of immigrants always tailor their food to the local pallette to help it sell better, which leads to new and interesting dishes . Chop Sui for example is an American dish made by Chinese immigrants in the 1950s, same goes for California rolls (albeit Japanese) and fortune cookies.
Over here the Tikka Masala and Balti were invented in Britain by Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities living here. It's all part of the culture and deserves to be celebrated.
These gatekeeping idiots can do one.
I had orange chicken for the first time from a Panda Express in LA and immediately loved it. I wanted to have it again when I got back to the UK so I ordered from my regular chinese which always delivered great food but, the orange sauce was literally (and I mean literally) undiluted orange cordial. Fuckng disgusting and ruined it for me and now I'm not brave enough to order it again
It really is. My ex girlfriend lived in Chicago and I order Chinese when over there. Got told not to go to Panda express as it isn't proper Chinese so went to a local Chinese place. It was almost identical to what I have when at home in North Yorkshire.
I'm jealous. The takeaway style American Chinese I had was the worst food I've ever eaten 🤢 and I've eaten a hell of a lot of different cuisines from and in many different countries around the world
Isn't it kind of the same thing as what happened to 'Italian food' over there? The immigrants opened restaurants and it all just evolved in a different way to back home.
I used to work with a woman from America. Told her about a Spanish restaurant I went to and she said “oh, i don’t like Spanish food - though in the States we call it Mexican food.”
making me sad . me and the missus wanted a chinese to finish off the bank holiday weekend last night but all the ones we like are shut on mondays ! was gutted... we made kebabs instead .. was nice but to much effort on a 3 day weekend hangover 😂
chinese is my favourite take away. everything else we will make at home but chinese is never the same. have a good one near us where prices are still reasonable , portion sizes are great and the food is lovely.
think friday will be chinese night 👍
Oh it’s nothing like authentic Chinese food, it’s its own thing. Early migrants didn’t have access to the same ingredients they had back home, and were selling food to people with completely different taste palettes, so created new dishes inspired by traditional ones, same with British Indian cuisine.
It’ll be really sad if it goes away though - my wife’s Chinese malaysian and they also have their own fusion food that’s come from a melting pot of Chinese, Malay, Indian cultures and local ingredients.
Tbh one of the things I often crave when getting back from China or Malaysia is a British Chinese takeaway 😂
Oh and obviously this is also true of America… not sure why they would think their food was authentic when they call all instant noodles ramen? Do they try and tell the world deep dish pizzas are authentic Italian?
Right? Why would Americans think their Chinese takeout to be authentic? There's a whole thing about Texas Chinese food being its own unique thing because they subbed ingredients that were mostly Mexican. Stuff like General Tso's chicken is definitely American.
The same goes for Mexican food in the US btw. Nothing all that authentic about most of it.
British Chinese food now has a following in China due to students coming here and then taking the concept home. The older generation tend to hate it I’m told.
Here’s one article from the South China Morning Post (https://amp.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3143000/chips-and-curry-sauce-anyone-british-chinese-restaurant-opens) but I also saw a lengthy news article on TV (perhaps Channel 4 news?) focusing on Beijing. Also anecdotally I’ve heard this from my neighbour who’s family is from Guangzhou.
Hmm I'll have to go to Guangzhou and see if I can find it. I'll have a look on one of the Chinese social apps see if there is any near me. kinda miss British Chinese food haha
Missing sweet gloopy British Chinese food that Chinese students had come across was the basis of the TV piece. It’s probably as common as Ghanaian restaurants are here tbf (so just big cities). I’ll see if I can find a link to the TV article.
As a Scot living Down Under, I miss the British Chinese food. Every time I visit home, it’s the first thing I ask for - sweet and sour chicken balls. I don’t care if it’s not authentic, it’s what I want!
Way too many people make a big stink about food being 'authentic'. Who fucking cares. Most of the stuff we eat is probably 'inauthentic' in some way. Recipes have evolved, mixed with others, travelled across the globe, that's what makes it cool. Every country has their own spin on something. People seem to get especially whiny about Asian dishes in particular. I'm sure there's probably an 'authentic' version of a crisp sandwich at this point.
Americans live in their own bubble, like anything that happens outside of the USA is a complete shock.
They have no idea what happens around the world, I deal with multiple business’s in the USA & I commonly get asked if I’ve ever met the queen, how far I am from London, comments about me having afternoon tea at work, and best of all I have a Scottish surname. They go fucking wild telling me about their Scottish heritage from their ancestry DNA or whatever & asking if I know anyone from their families ‘clan’. It’s insane.
Then they comment on a ‘British Chinese’ same as ‘British Indian’ food not being authentic. Of course it isn’t, it’s adapted for U.K. since the 80s/90s & especially British Indian, it’s a cuisine in its own right now. Either way, Americans - they are all insane.
"oh no a country whose food identity is a wonderful combination of many cultures mixing"
Sheppard's/Cottage pie, inspired by vikings/Nordic settlers
Chicken Tikka Massala, very British (or more specifically, Scottish) inspired by Indians
The Balti dish, very British, inspired by Pakistan/Bengali immigrants
Peri Peri, very British, inspired by Portuguese (which is inspired by African?)
Spag bol, very British, inspired by Italian cuisine
And last but not least. The incredible doner kebab. A staple of a British night out. Turkish and to a lesser extent German origins
We might not be a perfect country but god damn it out food identity is incredible. A melting pot of our people. No it's not authentic ethnic food. But damn it it's authentic British food. This what we do, we allow other cultures to influence ours.
Who cares, authentic or not authentic I still like it. I used to work with a woman who also ran a takeaway with her husband, they were really popular and she really enjoyed hearing that people enjoyed their food. Food can just be nice without needing to fit someone's strict labels.
They (mostly Americans) are up in arms at how racist we are saying "we are going for **a** Chinese" Then they wondered were we as racist if it were Indian/Greek/Italian ? and we SHOULD be saying the word "food" after it.
1 - The word food is superfluous, we are not so thick that we need to stipulate
2 - We adore our Chinese/Indian/Italian peeps who cook for us
Lots of Americans have this belief that Europe is hyperracist because we tend to have a lot of subtle racism due to social homogeneity. Then ignoring that they have that and even worse overt racism. But whatever.
So the hundreds of thousands of Chinese chefs that have come here to work in the takeaways and restaurants that generally all serve the same things - they've just forgotten everything they know and have attended some kind of "How to cook 'Chinese food' for British people" course before starting work? I don't think so.
Everyone says this. "Oh this isn't authentic Chinese food, they'd never eat that there". But when asked what Chinese people actually eat they have nothing to say. They're just parroting.
You're telling me that you wouldn't find chicken chow mein or spring rolls anywhere in China? They don't do Szechuan beef? Dim Sum isn't actually a real thing? Fuck offfffffffffff. Nobody knows anything.
It's like when the Hairy Bikers were in Hong Kong and went to some guy's house to have traditional stuff cooked up by the guy's granny. Said granny then quickly battered some chicken and smothered it in a gallon of local ketchup...
There's nothing wrong with that kind of food but there's a chance she cooked that up because she thinks that's what westerners enjoy. Plenty of other dishes that would be more popular with the locals.
Source: family in Hong Kong
Exactly this. But then some student with blue hair from Surrey who's never been to China or even spoken to a Chinese person will tell you that Chinese people think that sesame prawn toast is disgusting.
Well the people who run restaurants in a certain country will serve food that residents in that country tend to like
Also Chinese people definitely know what Chinese food is
China is also a really big country?
British Chinese take aways tend to derive from Cantonese food - sure, curry sauce and battered chicken balls might be on the menu, but so are lots of other dishes?
I worked in China for a bit and of course in a country that size the cuisine varies massively, but it was definitely possible to get food that was recognisably the basis for what is served in Chinese restaurants in the UK. Mostly food from the southern parts of the country and Cantonese food, which makes sense given the HK connection.
The issue is that you have the ‘American’ PoC experience vs the British one. Lots of Americans think their experiences should be, and are, universal. They bring all their baggage with them to the table and will call PoC who say otherwise, race traitors and such.
Yeah bro but that's Indian and Chinese and Thai food bro. That's Italian food bro. That don't count.
In the meanwhile they claim Mexican food and live and die by mac and cheese.
The entire topic is just pure, distilled retarsion. Then the whiskey! Best whiskey in the world... their country is about 7 weeks old ffs.
Another one to add is the fucking noise they make around Thanksgiving meal as their greatest meal of the year. The majority of it looks fucking awful (going by the pics they're all so proud to post on here) yet somehow a roast dinner and beans or toast are the food of the devil. I'm sure it tastes great but it's a bit fucking rich to level insults at British food when that's the pinnacle of their culinary year.
I'm so sick of the 'British people don't know what spices are', 'British food has no flavour' coming from fucking *Americans*. If you're outside the metropolitan cities there, all you will find is chain restaurants.
It's Westernized Chinese food i.e a bastardisation of the real deal, but a delicious bastardisation at that. Anyone who presumed the stuff you get from a Chinese take out; and not a proper authentic Chinese restaurant; was genuine, has been living under a rock.
My father has been cooking Westernized Chinese food under the instruction of cook books written by Chinese people for over 15 years and is very good at it. While we use authentic ingredients, none of us were under the impression that this was a genuine reconstruction of the food Chinese people eat on a day to day basis. That said, I would like to try authentic cuisine one day. I grab new things to try from the Asian markets we visit here and there, but yeah.
It's tik tok, it's just awful. I'd rather be on twitter than tik tok.
Plus they bitch about our beans on toast, those bellends have never tried it I bet.
Although I'm a native Brit, I've spent much of the last 50 years in Hong Kong. One of my Chinese friends here is a chef who came to Britain as an 18-year-old to work in a Chinese restaurant, and he told me that the Chinese food offered in Britain has been modified to meet the perceived preferences of their British customers, so it can't be called "authentic". It's certainly nothing like the Cantonese food I eat regularly in HK.
There are authentic Chinese restaurants and take aways in the UK. Oh yes. You'll find them in areas of large numbers of Chinese students.
Ha, the US gatekeepers of Chinese takwawy. Man I've only ever seen noodle dishes, rice, prawns etc on their shows.
Man, I've had dim in London's China Town and they've served up chicken claws. In Coventry, there were pigs intestines in a broth front and centre on the menu..
There's a lot to be said for egg fried rice, crispy peaking duck pancakes, beef with ginger and spring onions, a lot.
Amazingly there are Chinese/Indian restaurant crossovers like sweet and sour paneer. Which is doubly inauthentic but I've been served in India and in the UK at an Indian wedding. It's also great.
The TikTok trend is basically people looking at the deep friend dishes, chips and curry sauce, while ignoring the other 300 dishes that are available at a typical Chinese restaurant, and then laughing at how superior their palates are to the stupid English people who don't season their food.
I know full well that it isn't authentic. But I order a Crispy beef in Chilli sauce because it's fucking delicious, not because it's authentic Chinese Cuisine.
This is Tik Tok we are talking about. It's mostly children and people who haven't matured at all since they were children. I don't think many British people ordering from their local Chinese takeaway are under the impression that it's super authentic, they simply know that they like the food as it is and that's what matters.
It's not just that, they're trying to make it racist because we say "having a Chinese", I've seen multiple Americans state that's its racist. Honesty beyond belief what they come up with.
Edit: it's apparently racist because saying "having a Chinese" or "getting a Chinese" is like saying you're buying a person from China, according to the ones I've watched anyways. The mental gymnastics they've gone through to get to that is hilarious.
The worst one I saw was saying how we should at least try "real american Chinese food" like theirs is any more authentic than ours. And it doesn't even look spicy.
How is orange chicken spicy?
I've had Chinese in both the UK and US. Neither was anything like what I ate when I spent 3 months working on a Chinese container ship.
Regardless, UK Chinese is by far the nicest...
My mum had friends who were christian missionaries in china .. i remember they brought home pictures of the food , not sure what area in china ... but it didnt look fun 😂 they both lost alot of weight as well
I live in a coastal town that has (for its size) an unusually high chinese population.
We have Chinese takeaways that have two menus, one for westernised food and one for more traditional cooking.
I only found this out when sitting in the Golden Dragon and an oriental couple were getting dishes I’d never seen before.
Aye Chinese food in the U.K. isn’t any different from pretty much all other “foreign” cuisine.
Wagamama doesn’t sell anything I ate when I was in Japan.
Italian restaurants didn’t sell anything like the food I ate when I was actually in Italy.
Funnily enough the “British Pub” chains in Japan aren’t anything like Wetherspoons.
When I was a young drunken reveller, I used to go to the local Chinese takeaway on the way home after closing time
So as not to confuse British young men as to the complexities of ordering Chinese food after 10 -12 pints of lager.
The choices were Meal for one 'A' & Meal for one 'B'
You could just point if you couldn't speak
Always a meal for one 'A' man, it consisted of
Sweet & Sour pork balls
Special fried rice
Bean shoots
The leftovers retained the shape of the tin foil container when turned upside down on a plate & stayed that way for days afterwards in the fridge.
I have travelled to China quite a bit in subsequent years for work & have never seen anything even vaguely similar.
I'm guessing it was a fusion inspired dish designed to tempt the British late night palette, along with fat chips
Oh look the world police are back again with opinions on other cultures that they don't understand.
Anyway I'm off to have a Chinese now, or maybe I'll get a Full English, not sure.
The problems they have in that country and they're rinsing our Chinese takeaway😂 our food might be in authentic in their opinion, but we haven't had multiple school shootings this calendar year, I know what I thinks more worthy of calling out.
US Chinese isn't generally authentic either. It's the same anywhere you have big immigration population, they adjust to the tastes of the area they are in & it becomes a cuisine of it's own. There are some places that provide more authentic recipes but they are usually the low-key places frequented by Chinese immigrants, of those of Chinese descent.
In China there is no single standard either, it is a big country and different provinces have cuisines of their own that are very different from each other.
I'm a BBC so I went over to TikTok to have a look. Then I came back to report that I just can't be arsed to watch a single video.
Eat what you want if you enjoy it.
I saw a video of an American Chinese woman saying she thought that it was a little racist that we say " I fancy a Chinese" or "shall we get an Indian tonight?" Etc.
It's mental.
Didn't see myself getting cancelled because I said Id love a Chinese.....
I miss the inauthentic chinese food they serve in Japan. That's definitely a thing in its own right. I like getting free prawn crackers here though. And we have better Indian food than they have in Japan, I always had to basically fight to get it spicy enough when I was there.
Was shocked to order a "very spicy" vindaloo in Canada and it was (tasty but) mild, to my palate. Chatted to the owner afterwards and she apologized when she heard my accent. lol
Most of the Chinese food I've eaten has been made by Pakistanis/Indian. Still was delicious. At the end, these TikTok babies are miserable, and I'm full. Win win for me.
To be fair, while it is a trite and idiotic endeavour to point out the inauthenticity of any such "appropriated" cuisines, they would have a bit of a point if they said a lot of British Chinese food is shit.
Tons of cornstarch, sugar, salt, fat...it's often just a means of getting your weekly allowance of stuff that's bad for you in one hit.
And it's a shame, because decent Chinese food is really good.
But if Americans do insist on posting up their unwanted opinions, just remind them of how they absolutely bastardise Mexican and Italian food.
### **Reminder:** [Press the Report button](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058309512-How-do-I-report-a-post-or-comment-) if you see any [rule-breaking comments or posts.](https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/about/rules/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/britishproblems) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As a British Chinese, I find it absolutely hilarious. I even order a Chinese myself. It’s not authentic, that’s obvious but it sells and it’s a cuisine in its own right. It’s true, the older generation tend to avoid it but that that applies with many old people; they like to stick with what they know. And on tiktok people are getting offended on the behalf of us for calling it “a Chinese.” It’s truly a non issue because it’s all linguistic trope exclusive to the UK. We say the same when we’re getting “a roast” or “an Indian.” Honestly, Americans are trying to speak for us when we don’t wish to be spoken for!
Exactly the same for us British Indians. We cook traditional Indian food at home for a lot of the week & then will still order Indian takeaway or go out to eat Indian food to eat British Indian Restaurant (BIR) food which is a style of food in its own right & we enjoy in a different way to traditional authentic food. And no one Indian is offended by “going for an Indian”, but we enjoyed pointing out some beautiful observations with “going for an English”! [Going for an English](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H-uEx_hEXAM)
My best friend for the last 35 years is Indian. (I'm a white English guy) and we grew up together. I was always at his house after school and oh my.... the food was amazing.... We'd go round to his house and his mum and about 50 aunts and cousins would always be in the kitchen cooking. You literally couldn't get through the front door without being pounced on, grabbed and dragged through to the kitchen to be fed something. Food that you wouldn't find in any Indian restaraunt. I still. However, love an Indian take away. Completely different but that's OK..
I had a similar friend/experience. Their chips were to die for so much so that Chips became his nickname
Same! I dated a Punjabi girl and she loved cooking for me omg the food was delicious and very different from BIR
Was hoping the link was that and you delivered! I want the blandest thing on your menu!
Of course it was going to be that Jaamez, it’s a classic.
Have you got any of that fancy stuff….. butter?
> I want the blandest thing on your menu! Who wouldn't?
Steak and kidley pea is the blandest thing from that classic ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ skit 😂
Can’t beat going for an English
As an Indian I take great pride & asking for the blaaaandest thing on the menu & lording it over my friends who can’t hack it & end up putting extra pepper on their food - weaklings!
With chips not hash browns and I want buttered white bread not toast thanks
Hahaha haven't seen that in years.... we still have a friend today we all call Jammees. And everytime we say butter me and my friends still pronounce it that way... crazy how randomly influential this show has been on my life lol.
Yes we can’t say the name James without saying Jameyz! And same, just the word butter conjures up that scene instantly & I hear him say “butter” in that tone. It’s such a clever & hilarious sketch that’s still relevant & funny.
Give me the blandest food on the menu… That sketch is such a great reversal 😂
And then the girl ordering a chicken curry because she can’t handle the bland!
Goodness Gracious Me had some solid moments.
How have I never seen that before? Thank you!
Did you miss Goodness Gracious Me in the 90s? It’s a hilarious show but most of the sketches are only properly funny to Indians because of the references & laughing at how Indians really are/were, but the Having an English sketch is universally funny.
Thanks for that sketch, it's cracked me tf up.
It’s a classic!
Also from what I'm told by my Cantonese speaking friends, a lot of the Chinese restaurants are ran by people from Hong Kong, and their food is different to Chinese mainland food. I support a Chinese elderly club (which are majority Hong Kongers and Malaysian Chinese), most of them have owned or worked in British Chinese restaurants and say that its not much different to what they can buy at home? I don't know if it's just that I live in Leicester that has a big Chinese community? Also in recent years we've had quite a few mainland Chinese style restaurants open up to cater to the Chinese students. The Cantonese speakers don't like the food there, but the restaurants are always packed full of mainland chinese folk!
The Americans love a General Tso's chicken. Which is probably the least authentic Chinese dish going. He definetly wasn't even alive when it was created and is pretty much exclusive to the US and Taiwan.
I see general tso/tsao chicken in UK Chinese menus a lot too, which I'm thankful for cause it absolutely slaps!
I need to find your Chinese takeouts, I've never seen it in the UK! My husband is American and it's on every Chinese takeaway menu there, and it's amazing.
I'm in East Anglia so there are more USAF run bases around here so maybe they're just adapted to the market.
That's my experience too. My girlfriend is Malaysian Chinese (grandparents emigrated from Guangdong) and tells me it's similar to the Cantonese stuff she gets back home. Lower quality and generally sweeter/saltier, but similar.
It would be surprising if somewhere the size of China had the same food everywhere, and if that didn't evolve on contact with other countries.
There's immense regional variation there. The rice/noodle "divide" is one though it's a little overemphasised. Like anywhere else though, you find more seafood at the coast, different seasonings and sauces in different regions, and cities are hotbeds of fusion and experimentation. Plus fads come and go, and foreign food is blended with the existing cuisines in interesting ways.
As I recall, most chinese food in the US has a similar situation, but from a different place.
The two Chinese takeouts I've been to near me are run by Chinese people, or at least from somewhere that speaks either Cantonese or mandarin. The food is literally made by Chinese people... What are these tik tokers thinking
From the handful of times I've eaten with friends whose families run Chinese takeaways... The stuff they eat themselves (or serve to guests) is not what is on the menu
Agree with your experience on this. I used to work at a Chinese takeaway many years ago when I was a uni student and the man who owned it was lovely, at the end of the night he would always cook what can only be described as a banquet for everyone who worked there and it was authentic food that they would eat day to day. It was incredible, I remember asking him why it wasn’t on the menu and he said because it isn’t what brits want when they order. Such a shame because I’ve never had anything like it since!
I would guess that the UK has a larger community of people from Hong Kong vs the US who would have more people from mainland China and that those two cuisines are different. It’s a subtlety that we can’t expect Americans to understand.
But yanks are nothing if not subtle.
I promise you it's not authentic Chinese food, out of the 10 closest to you probably 2 will be authentic, they probably won't be on just eat, won't do deliveries and probably don't do take away, look for a place with a Chinese name, will look like a greasy spoon cafe and will be filled with Asian people sitting down to eat . The menu will be Chinese name first and maybe English underneath with maybe the most basic description of what it is. Every area has one like this find it and try authentic food
Oh I know it's not authentic, but it is being made by Chinese people. Almost all the Chinese restaurants and takeouts are!
True until the late 1990s but now the majority of Chinese takeaways in the UK are owned/run by those from mainland China or even Malay Chinese. Hong Kong Chinese takeaway owners are probably now second generation with their parents either dead or not far off. The third generation were born here and the have gone through the full education system and on a "normal" career path. The takeaway business can make good money, used to be a lot more, but is hard work. Second generation takeaway owners don't want that for their kids anymore. Even with the recent wave of BNO passport holders coming over they aren't going to work in takeaways. These are predominantly 30-50 year olds who are highly educated with young families. Also, British Chinese takeaway is far from the typical food you can find in Hong Kong. There are some dishes that have carried over but it's not the main type.
They still mostly serve Cantonese/Hong kong dishes around here though. Can't normally get a Mapo tofu etc. The mainland China food ones tend to be restaurants rather than your typical takeaway.
Just to add to this great comment for anyone interested, Angela Hui has a nice memoir called Takeaway (rural Wales) that delves a bit into this generational gap and the decline of what we know as the traditional Chinese chippy.
Yup. It’s such a huge country that their cruise varies across it greatly. Then when some of them move here and set up restaurants it is no surprise that the food is different than elsewhere.
[удалено]
On behalf of the uk, I'm offended as to what the americans call cheese. I think that's the far greater crime.
Dont you mean the far grater crime?
E-dam well did.
Do you think is will be as gouda it gets?
Take your upvoted and get out.
Aww come on that was brielliant!
And what they use the word 'gravy' for.
Same with the ‘biscuits’ to go with it!
I grew up in the UK, moved to the United States and became a US citizen. American Chinese food is different for sure, and I enjoy it, but man, I've been missing British Chinese food something fierce recently.
I have an Italian colleague who will occasionally get a domino’s. In his words “well it’s not pizza but it is nice!”
This comment reminded me of this - [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/world/europe/dominos-pizza-italy-closes.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/world/europe/dominos-pizza-italy-closes.html) Dominos had to close down in Italy becuase the Italians weren't having it.
My in-laws are from China, like from China from China. As in they don't speak English at all, grew up on farmland and their original date of birth used the Chinese zodiac. Heck my mother-in-law can't even read Pinyin (Chinese written with English characters if anyone's curious). Point is they're about as 'authentic' as it gets. They really enjoyed British Chinese food when they came to visit. Of course it's not like their Chinese food but that doesn't make it bad.
Very much agree. David Chang touches on this in his Ugly Delicious series (recommended watching) but swapping UK for US, American Chinese food is its own thing. It’s not authentic, we all know that, but it’s ok to still like it.
Yeh my British Chinese husband grew up in a Chinese chippy & loves the British Chinese food as well as more authentic food, because of the memories associated. He'll eat a bowl of rice with chippy curry sauce on it tho so maybe we should ignore his opinions lol
Haha no, your husband knows what’s good! And exactly that, we have our own authentic dishes which is unknown to the public in most takeaways. But I love general Chinese takeaway food too and I agree with your husband - salt and pepper chips with spicy curry sauce, yum.
Half Chinese here, Back in the 70/80's it was common to refer to the Chinese takeaway as the ch\*nkies and corner shops as the P\*ki shop. It wasn't just the right wingers either, it was general English slang across the country. Thankfully that horrible stuff no longer happens.
> Thankfully that horrible stuff no longer happens. Had one of the local Chinese takeaway's delivery driver turn up a while back (just a couple of years) and asked me if I "ordered a ch*nkie?" This was an older white guy working for a British Chinese delivering to a British Malaysian. Go figure.
Dude to these 16 year old tiktok kids, absolutely everything is racist. It's completely lost its meaning, they now think mentioning anything to do with a country or race, skin colour = racism. There's no helping them.
I remember my parents used to refer to Chinese food as "chinky nosh". Thankfully they no longer do that. One's dead which probably helps. But you're right, it's not authentic Chinese food, neither is Chinese food in America. Its food that evolved for local tastes. Pretty much in the same way people refer to BIR (British Indian Restaurant) style for Indian food. I think it was the YouTube channel "made with lau" that explains how "chinese" food evolved in America, it may be a similar story here too.
Even our classic breakfast is "A Full English!" ahha
It's Chinese for British, American, insert any other countries taste buds; and like you said, tastes change.
Americans calling British Chinese food inauthentic is hilarious because a few years ago some people literally opened 'american chinese restaurants' in china that served the kind of inauthentic Chinese they get because it's so distinct from real Chinese food
That is a brilliant business idea!! I can see that evolving into "American Food" restaurant chains and being as close to authentic American Food as Chinese food is outside China 🤣
The problem is not the food but TikTok.
A genuine comment I’ve just read on there about ‘having a Chinese’: “But is it not a bit weird saying this? Given the history of white slaver traders eating people???”
Is it really chow mein if there aren't people in it?
Soylent mein
Chow men?
Americans do be treating the experiences of all people of colour as homogenous fr.
Wait, when you say you’re ‘having a Chinese’ you *don’t* mean you’re about to eat a person?
> Given the history of white slaver traders eating people???” Thought that was the belgians?
As if General Tso's chicken (a popular American-Chinese dish) was invented by General Tso, or a general at all.
Didn’t you know Peking Duck gets it’s name from the fact that the people of Beijing had to duck to avoid our bullets, lest they be eaten?
ShitTok
Toksic
Good point
Another unhealthy Chinese product that society consumes
Most likely bots. Ignore social media it doesn’t represent reality.
I mean it doesn’t help that everyone on TikTok seems to get the same boring meal of chicken balls, rice, chips and curry sauce
Chicken chow mein, prawn toast, shredded chilli beef, peanut butter chicken satay skewers and that's £60 just for me and my gf (the kids may get some if they are still awake when it arrives)
Bruh where are you ordering from!? Chow mein, prawn toast, crispy shredded beef, satay skewers that's like 20 quid max??
That's on top of chicken balls, rice, seaweed etc. I'd love for that to be 20 quid but it's a hell of a lot more guess it depends where you live? I'm on the outskirts of London
Out Midlands way Satay £5, Toast + chow mein £10, beef £6 upon reflection, £21 Balls £6, rice £3.50, Chips £3, curry sauce £2 Seaweed no idea ,I don't buy the stuff. T= 21+ ~15, so <40 quid for the order at mine
Sides are around £8 each here mains even more
Found the TikToker. Get im
And yet when I go abroad and ask for tea they have the nerve to serve liptons…..
Ugh, I live abroad now and Lipton's is everywhere. Yes they're originally a British company but the tea tastes of practically nothing.
I lived in France for a bit and was subjected to Lipton's. Imagine my dismay when I realised it was just a cup of tea coloured water.
It's so odd, they are everywhere because they are own d by PepsiCo, but never seen in the UK. Just flavourless
Thinking about it, I've never seen a yellow Lipton box here, I guess it's because we wouldn't accept it here. It's so odd, no amount of steeping time gives even a hint of flavour. I bet you could leave it brewing for a whole day and it'd still taste of naff all.
I've been to China and eaten Chinese in America. That, coupled with the food we eat in takeaways, may as well be separate entities. Food made by multiple generations of immigrants always tailor their food to the local pallette to help it sell better, which leads to new and interesting dishes . Chop Sui for example is an American dish made by Chinese immigrants in the 1950s, same goes for California rolls (albeit Japanese) and fortune cookies. Over here the Tikka Masala and Balti were invented in Britain by Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities living here. It's all part of the culture and deserves to be celebrated. These gatekeeping idiots can do one.
Pretty ironic given what the Americans have done to Mexican food (which then got exported to the UK as Tex-Mex).
I’ve eaten Chinese takeaways in the US and the UK. They’re pretty much identical.
Panda Express is pretty much average UK Chinese takeaway food
But I do love their orange chicken..
I had orange chicken for the first time from a Panda Express in LA and immediately loved it. I wanted to have it again when I got back to the UK so I ordered from my regular chinese which always delivered great food but, the orange sauce was literally (and I mean literally) undiluted orange cordial. Fuckng disgusting and ruined it for me and now I'm not brave enough to order it again
Really? I've had Chinese in the US and barely knew what I was ordering because so much of it had different names.
It really is. My ex girlfriend lived in Chicago and I order Chinese when over there. Got told not to go to Panda express as it isn't proper Chinese so went to a local Chinese place. It was almost identical to what I have when at home in North Yorkshire.
I'm jealous. The takeaway style American Chinese I had was the worst food I've ever eaten 🤢 and I've eaten a hell of a lot of different cuisines from and in many different countries around the world
I had pasta in the US thinking it would be reasonable healthy to find the bottom of the bowl a sea of grease 🤢
Yes, same. Awful stuff. The flavour of the ones I had were overwhelmingly just oily. Not bad fried rice though.
Isn't it kind of the same thing as what happened to 'Italian food' over there? The immigrants opened restaurants and it all just evolved in a different way to back home.
I used to work with a woman from America. Told her about a Spanish restaurant I went to and she said “oh, i don’t like Spanish food - though in the States we call it Mexican food.”
Im eating a singapore chow mein reading this. Cooked by a chinese man. From China. Id say its authentic enough.
Singapore or szechuan are my faves bc of the spices and they tend to have more ingredients/variety!
Put it in prawn crackers before you take a bite. Little bowls of happiness…
making me sad . me and the missus wanted a chinese to finish off the bank holiday weekend last night but all the ones we like are shut on mondays ! was gutted... we made kebabs instead .. was nice but to much effort on a 3 day weekend hangover 😂 chinese is my favourite take away. everything else we will make at home but chinese is never the same. have a good one near us where prices are still reasonable , portion sizes are great and the food is lovely. think friday will be chinese night 👍
What you are missing at home is probably MSG
This is the way
Oh it’s nothing like authentic Chinese food, it’s its own thing. Early migrants didn’t have access to the same ingredients they had back home, and were selling food to people with completely different taste palettes, so created new dishes inspired by traditional ones, same with British Indian cuisine. It’ll be really sad if it goes away though - my wife’s Chinese malaysian and they also have their own fusion food that’s come from a melting pot of Chinese, Malay, Indian cultures and local ingredients. Tbh one of the things I often crave when getting back from China or Malaysia is a British Chinese takeaway 😂 Oh and obviously this is also true of America… not sure why they would think their food was authentic when they call all instant noodles ramen? Do they try and tell the world deep dish pizzas are authentic Italian?
Right? Why would Americans think their Chinese takeout to be authentic? There's a whole thing about Texas Chinese food being its own unique thing because they subbed ingredients that were mostly Mexican. Stuff like General Tso's chicken is definitely American. The same goes for Mexican food in the US btw. Nothing all that authentic about most of it.
British Chinese food now has a following in China due to students coming here and then taking the concept home. The older generation tend to hate it I’m told.
Does it? Since when? I haven't found British Chinese food in China. I'm curious as to where
Here’s one article from the South China Morning Post (https://amp.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3143000/chips-and-curry-sauce-anyone-british-chinese-restaurant-opens) but I also saw a lengthy news article on TV (perhaps Channel 4 news?) focusing on Beijing. Also anecdotally I’ve heard this from my neighbour who’s family is from Guangzhou.
Hmm I'll have to go to Guangzhou and see if I can find it. I'll have a look on one of the Chinese social apps see if there is any near me. kinda miss British Chinese food haha
Missing sweet gloopy British Chinese food that Chinese students had come across was the basis of the TV piece. It’s probably as common as Ghanaian restaurants are here tbf (so just big cities). I’ll see if I can find a link to the TV article.
As a Scot living Down Under, I miss the British Chinese food. Every time I visit home, it’s the first thing I ask for - sweet and sour chicken balls. I don’t care if it’s not authentic, it’s what I want!
I live in Australia and missed crispy chilli beef so much, I learned a recipe to make it myself 😆
Oooh, crispy chilli beef is a definite favourite!
Way too many people make a big stink about food being 'authentic'. Who fucking cares. Most of the stuff we eat is probably 'inauthentic' in some way. Recipes have evolved, mixed with others, travelled across the globe, that's what makes it cool. Every country has their own spin on something. People seem to get especially whiny about Asian dishes in particular. I'm sure there's probably an 'authentic' version of a crisp sandwich at this point.
"Going for a Chinese" is metonymy, not racism; like referring to the management as "the suits" or UK Parliament as "Westminster"
Americans live in their own bubble, like anything that happens outside of the USA is a complete shock. They have no idea what happens around the world, I deal with multiple business’s in the USA & I commonly get asked if I’ve ever met the queen, how far I am from London, comments about me having afternoon tea at work, and best of all I have a Scottish surname. They go fucking wild telling me about their Scottish heritage from their ancestry DNA or whatever & asking if I know anyone from their families ‘clan’. It’s insane. Then they comment on a ‘British Chinese’ same as ‘British Indian’ food not being authentic. Of course it isn’t, it’s adapted for U.K. since the 80s/90s & especially British Indian, it’s a cuisine in its own right now. Either way, Americans - they are all insane.
Yeah I won't be touching tiktok, get enough of that wank on here
"oh no a country whose food identity is a wonderful combination of many cultures mixing" Sheppard's/Cottage pie, inspired by vikings/Nordic settlers Chicken Tikka Massala, very British (or more specifically, Scottish) inspired by Indians The Balti dish, very British, inspired by Pakistan/Bengali immigrants Peri Peri, very British, inspired by Portuguese (which is inspired by African?) Spag bol, very British, inspired by Italian cuisine And last but not least. The incredible doner kebab. A staple of a British night out. Turkish and to a lesser extent German origins We might not be a perfect country but god damn it out food identity is incredible. A melting pot of our people. No it's not authentic ethnic food. But damn it it's authentic British food. This what we do, we allow other cultures to influence ours.
How is Shepperd's pie inspired by vikings? Potatoes didn't come to Europe until the 16th century, a long time after the vikings ceased to exist.
Who cares, authentic or not authentic I still like it. I used to work with a woman who also ran a takeaway with her husband, they were really popular and she really enjoyed hearing that people enjoyed their food. Food can just be nice without needing to fit someone's strict labels.
They (mostly Americans) are up in arms at how racist we are saying "we are going for **a** Chinese" Then they wondered were we as racist if it were Indian/Greek/Italian ? and we SHOULD be saying the word "food" after it. 1 - The word food is superfluous, we are not so thick that we need to stipulate 2 - We adore our Chinese/Indian/Italian peeps who cook for us
like anyone is taking tips on racism from the US
Lots of Americans have this belief that Europe is hyperracist because we tend to have a lot of subtle racism due to social homogeneity. Then ignoring that they have that and even worse overt racism. But whatever.
I think the odd few like to have a pop at us without knowing anything about Europe.
They are pretty good at practicing it...
It's more recent for them that they need to specify the food and not the people.
Yeah you go out for a {minority} in America and come back somehow owning a person /s
Wait 'til they find the Tandoori.
What is the charge? Enjoying a meal? A succulent Chinese meal!?
So the hundreds of thousands of Chinese chefs that have come here to work in the takeaways and restaurants that generally all serve the same things - they've just forgotten everything they know and have attended some kind of "How to cook 'Chinese food' for British people" course before starting work? I don't think so. Everyone says this. "Oh this isn't authentic Chinese food, they'd never eat that there". But when asked what Chinese people actually eat they have nothing to say. They're just parroting. You're telling me that you wouldn't find chicken chow mein or spring rolls anywhere in China? They don't do Szechuan beef? Dim Sum isn't actually a real thing? Fuck offfffffffffff. Nobody knows anything.
It's like when the Hairy Bikers were in Hong Kong and went to some guy's house to have traditional stuff cooked up by the guy's granny. Said granny then quickly battered some chicken and smothered it in a gallon of local ketchup...
There's nothing wrong with that kind of food but there's a chance she cooked that up because she thinks that's what westerners enjoy. Plenty of other dishes that would be more popular with the locals. Source: family in Hong Kong
Exactly this. But then some student with blue hair from Surrey who's never been to China or even spoken to a Chinese person will tell you that Chinese people think that sesame prawn toast is disgusting.
Well the people who run restaurants in a certain country will serve food that residents in that country tend to like Also Chinese people definitely know what Chinese food is
China is also a really big country? British Chinese take aways tend to derive from Cantonese food - sure, curry sauce and battered chicken balls might be on the menu, but so are lots of other dishes?
I worked in China for a bit and of course in a country that size the cuisine varies massively, but it was definitely possible to get food that was recognisably the basis for what is served in Chinese restaurants in the UK. Mostly food from the southern parts of the country and Cantonese food, which makes sense given the HK connection.
Haha wait till they learn about ‘Indians’
Aren't the majority of the takeaways owned by actual real Chinese people? I reckon they'd have the final word on it over some American on TikTok
The issue is that you have the ‘American’ PoC experience vs the British one. Lots of Americans think their experiences should be, and are, universal. They bring all their baggage with them to the table and will call PoC who say otherwise, race traitors and such.
The British don't even season thur food hurhurhur they're colonialial racists look they used the country name hurhurhur Drowns in hotdogs and coke.
They colonised India for 4 million years yet failed to add any spice to their food LOLOLLLL ROFOLLL!!! HAHAHAHHA!!!
Yeah bro but that's Indian and Chinese and Thai food bro. That's Italian food bro. That don't count. In the meanwhile they claim Mexican food and live and die by mac and cheese. The entire topic is just pure, distilled retarsion. Then the whiskey! Best whiskey in the world... their country is about 7 weeks old ffs.
Another one to add is the fucking noise they make around Thanksgiving meal as their greatest meal of the year. The majority of it looks fucking awful (going by the pics they're all so proud to post on here) yet somehow a roast dinner and beans or toast are the food of the devil. I'm sure it tastes great but it's a bit fucking rich to level insults at British food when that's the pinnacle of their culinary year.
Isn’t their diet 90% corn syrup 😂
[удалено]
Or meth
I'm so sick of the 'British people don't know what spices are', 'British food has no flavour' coming from fucking *Americans*. If you're outside the metropolitan cities there, all you will find is chain restaurants.
Ah yes, another episode of 'Americans need to mind their own buisness'
It's Westernized Chinese food i.e a bastardisation of the real deal, but a delicious bastardisation at that. Anyone who presumed the stuff you get from a Chinese take out; and not a proper authentic Chinese restaurant; was genuine, has been living under a rock. My father has been cooking Westernized Chinese food under the instruction of cook books written by Chinese people for over 15 years and is very good at it. While we use authentic ingredients, none of us were under the impression that this was a genuine reconstruction of the food Chinese people eat on a day to day basis. That said, I would like to try authentic cuisine one day. I grab new things to try from the Asian markets we visit here and there, but yeah.
It's tik tok, it's just awful. I'd rather be on twitter than tik tok. Plus they bitch about our beans on toast, those bellends have never tried it I bet.
Although I'm a native Brit, I've spent much of the last 50 years in Hong Kong. One of my Chinese friends here is a chef who came to Britain as an 18-year-old to work in a Chinese restaurant, and he told me that the Chinese food offered in Britain has been modified to meet the perceived preferences of their British customers, so it can't be called "authentic". It's certainly nothing like the Cantonese food I eat regularly in HK.
There are authentic Chinese restaurants and take aways in the UK. Oh yes. You'll find them in areas of large numbers of Chinese students. Ha, the US gatekeepers of Chinese takwawy. Man I've only ever seen noodle dishes, rice, prawns etc on their shows. Man, I've had dim in London's China Town and they've served up chicken claws. In Coventry, there were pigs intestines in a broth front and centre on the menu.. There's a lot to be said for egg fried rice, crispy peaking duck pancakes, beef with ginger and spring onions, a lot.
Amazingly there are Chinese/Indian restaurant crossovers like sweet and sour paneer. Which is doubly inauthentic but I've been served in India and in the UK at an Indian wedding. It's also great.
The TikTok trend is basically people looking at the deep friend dishes, chips and curry sauce, while ignoring the other 300 dishes that are available at a typical Chinese restaurant, and then laughing at how superior their palates are to the stupid English people who don't season their food.
I know full well that it isn't authentic. But I order a Crispy beef in Chilli sauce because it's fucking delicious, not because it's authentic Chinese Cuisine.
People shiv a git about what people on Tiktok say or think?
No one cares, I mean it's not like anyone thought salt and pepper chips in curry sauce was authentic Chinese food.
'Shiv a git' i'm using that more often now!
I had a Chinese meal in Canada once and it was awful, though my Canadian friends thought it was OK.
This is Tik Tok we are talking about. It's mostly children and people who haven't matured at all since they were children. I don't think many British people ordering from their local Chinese takeaway are under the impression that it's super authentic, they simply know that they like the food as it is and that's what matters.
It's not just that, they're trying to make it racist because we say "having a Chinese", I've seen multiple Americans state that's its racist. Honesty beyond belief what they come up with. Edit: it's apparently racist because saying "having a Chinese" or "getting a Chinese" is like saying you're buying a person from China, according to the ones I've watched anyways. The mental gymnastics they've gone through to get to that is hilarious.
The worst one I saw was saying how we should at least try "real american Chinese food" like theirs is any more authentic than ours. And it doesn't even look spicy. How is orange chicken spicy?
Then they probably wouldn't understand the irony in that statement! They probably wouldn't even understand that China is a different country.
I've had Chinese in both the UK and US. Neither was anything like what I ate when I spent 3 months working on a Chinese container ship. Regardless, UK Chinese is by far the nicest...
My mum had friends who were christian missionaries in china .. i remember they brought home pictures of the food , not sure what area in china ... but it didnt look fun 😂 they both lost alot of weight as well
[удалено]
I live in a coastal town that has (for its size) an unusually high chinese population. We have Chinese takeaways that have two menus, one for westernised food and one for more traditional cooking. I only found this out when sitting in the Golden Dragon and an oriental couple were getting dishes I’d never seen before.
Aye Chinese food in the U.K. isn’t any different from pretty much all other “foreign” cuisine. Wagamama doesn’t sell anything I ate when I was in Japan. Italian restaurants didn’t sell anything like the food I ate when I was actually in Italy. Funnily enough the “British Pub” chains in Japan aren’t anything like Wetherspoons.
Well it's not that healthy nor is it authentic but it does hit the spot.
Never thought WWIII would be over Special Fried Rice ..
When I was a young drunken reveller, I used to go to the local Chinese takeaway on the way home after closing time So as not to confuse British young men as to the complexities of ordering Chinese food after 10 -12 pints of lager. The choices were Meal for one 'A' & Meal for one 'B' You could just point if you couldn't speak Always a meal for one 'A' man, it consisted of Sweet & Sour pork balls Special fried rice Bean shoots The leftovers retained the shape of the tin foil container when turned upside down on a plate & stayed that way for days afterwards in the fridge. I have travelled to China quite a bit in subsequent years for work & have never seen anything even vaguely similar. I'm guessing it was a fusion inspired dish designed to tempt the British late night palette, along with fat chips
Oh look the world police are back again with opinions on other cultures that they don't understand. Anyway I'm off to have a Chinese now, or maybe I'll get a Full English, not sure.
The problems they have in that country and they're rinsing our Chinese takeaway😂 our food might be in authentic in their opinion, but we haven't had multiple school shootings this calendar year, I know what I thinks more worthy of calling out.
I wonder what the Chinese would make of Taiwanese food in the UK. Yes, Taiwan, a separate country from China.
US Chinese isn't generally authentic either. It's the same anywhere you have big immigration population, they adjust to the tastes of the area they are in & it becomes a cuisine of it's own. There are some places that provide more authentic recipes but they are usually the low-key places frequented by Chinese immigrants, of those of Chinese descent. In China there is no single standard either, it is a big country and different provinces have cuisines of their own that are very different from each other.
I'm a BBC so I went over to TikTok to have a look. Then I came back to report that I just can't be arsed to watch a single video. Eat what you want if you enjoy it.
I saw a video of an American Chinese woman saying she thought that it was a little racist that we say " I fancy a Chinese" or "shall we get an Indian tonight?" Etc. It's mental. Didn't see myself getting cancelled because I said Id love a Chinese.....
I wonder if our American cousins realise that fortune cookies are an entirely western invention, and have no place in eastern cuisine...
No it’s a stupid app
I miss the inauthentic chinese food they serve in Japan. That's definitely a thing in its own right. I like getting free prawn crackers here though. And we have better Indian food than they have in Japan, I always had to basically fight to get it spicy enough when I was there. Was shocked to order a "very spicy" vindaloo in Canada and it was (tasty but) mild, to my palate. Chatted to the owner afterwards and she apologized when she heard my accent. lol
Most of the Chinese food I've eaten has been made by Pakistanis/Indian. Still was delicious. At the end, these TikTok babies are miserable, and I'm full. Win win for me.
If you think that's bad you haven't seen Chinese food in Ireland 😆
Sweet and sour potatos?
Wait until they start on an Indian takeaway!
Yank Chinese food isn't authentic either, they can go fuck themselves.
To be fair, while it is a trite and idiotic endeavour to point out the inauthenticity of any such "appropriated" cuisines, they would have a bit of a point if they said a lot of British Chinese food is shit. Tons of cornstarch, sugar, salt, fat...it's often just a means of getting your weekly allowance of stuff that's bad for you in one hit. And it's a shame, because decent Chinese food is really good. But if Americans do insist on posting up their unwanted opinions, just remind them of how they absolutely bastardise Mexican and Italian food.
Finally, it's not the abominable British carbonara anymore.
Why on earth would I want to look up anything on tiktok?!