Chinese Restaurant Help needed QUICK

[MochaMnM]

I have been invited to dinner at a chinese restaurant... I've been told that Mu Shu Pork is a good way to go, since it is only veggies and meat, if you don't eat the pancakes. Any opinions about that?? If it's worse than i've been told, then what's ok?

Sometimes i get so FRUSTRATED!! :anger

Atkins can be really hard for someone who's typically on the go from 7a til about 10p, and has lots of lunch and dinner meetings. AAAAHHH :yikes

Sometimes i wonder if Executives can EVER have a meeting without having to go to a restaurant!! :confused

[Desertthorn]

Wish I could help. Chinese food is very hard as they use a lot of gravies and thinkeners and Mu Shu has a sauce over it, oyster I think, and its loaded with sugar.

[Heidi3]

order a hot pot!!!! easy to deal with you are just boiliing meats or seafood and veggies in broth and yum!!!

[NulloModo]

Chinese is one of the toughest, every sauce they use is almost gauranteed to be loaded with starch or sugar. If they have a steamed chicken and veggie 'dieters plate' that is one option, although not very appealing taste-wise. You could request your stirfry be made with only soy sauce, and not the carby ones, but then you are at the mercy of a waitstaff and kitchenstaff that might not entirely understand english....

Egg foo young is safe, but the gravey that tops it isn't, andthat is where most of the flavor lies.

[MotherOfGizmo]

I just order a dish with meat or seafood and veggies, tell them to leave off the sauce and make my own sauce out of the hotmustard and soy. Just make sure you don't get a dish where the meat is fried like the hot and sour ones, that would be a no no. I usually get a dish called Happy Family or Hawaii Five-O

[Grillmaster]

Chinese food varies from place to place... there is no set recipe for anything really. That said, mooshoo is usually a good bet. It does not traditionally have any sauce but a plum sauce for dipping on the side. It contains (usually) unbreaded meat, eggs, and "legal" vegetables. You can get sides of soy sauce, mustard sauce or hot sesame oil if you want to add some flavor to your meal, but naturally you should avoid sweet and sour, plum, and oyster sauces.

I also like to order Kung Pao, Hunan (like cashew chicken) and Mongolian dishes as they usually only have a soy sauce with no corn starch or molasses thickener added. Watch out for pork dishes because often they add cornstarch to it before cooking it to add some texture. Beef and chicken are usually not prepared that way because they aren't as tough.

Chinese buffets are the best way to go because you can inspect the food before eating it. I love sauteed green beans and egg drop soup!

[not2late]

I have to disagree with you Grillmaster.

Many Chinese recipes use a "master sauce" and/or a "master broth". Master sauces are usually made by combining prepared sauces, like Hoisin, with other ingredients, so while the cooks might not add sugar, the ingredients they use are loaded with sugar. The broths can have sugar added too---particularly if they use the canned or bouillon because they use sugar to balance the flavors of these prepared broths.

[KATZIIZ]

I soooo understand your dilemma!!! :sadblinky Oriental food was my favorite dining out food!!!! Sadly...I have resolved that I will never really be able to enjoy a typical oriental meal again...not while knowing what all those scrumptious sugar laden morsels are doing to my body! Oh, ignorance was bliss! LOL

But, oh well....I'd rather have the body of a sexy geisha girl instead of the sumo butt I am whittling away! LOL :nod

[NulloModo]

Chinese buffets are the best way to go because you can inspect the food before eating it. I love sauteed green beans and egg drop soup!

The buffets can be some of the worst for adding extra starch though. I queries my local chinese buffet, and they admit to adding starch to the egg-drop soup, I wouldn't be surprised if other did this as well. Sauteed greens sometimes don't look like they have starch added, but again, a lot of times a tablespoon of cornstarch gets tossed in during the frying process.

Another safe bet though is the Chinese places that have the 'Mongolian Grill' setup, where you load up a plate with whatever raw meats, veggies, and sauces you want, then it is cooked in front of you. As long as you pick all legal things, you can't go wrong.

[MochaMnM]

:hug
This is why i love this forum. you all are so helpful. I happen to love the Mongolian grill place (maybe i'll suggest we go there for our meeting)...
Now that i think about it, the restaurant does advertise that it is "atkins" friendly. Thanks everyone for such thoughtful input. I SOOO appreciate it.

P.S. Ignorance TRULY WAS bliss!!!! :eating

[shawnee]

I've lived in Chinese parts of Asia for close to twenty years & I find Chinese restaurants actually lend themselves to Atkins more than any other type.

Every traditional Chinese meal includes a stir fried Green vegetable as one of the dishes, just ask them what kinds of Greens they have today & get it stir fried in garlic w/o oyster sauce.

Lots of dishes are fine, some of my favourites are Tofu/Vegetable/Seafood Soup, Bean Sprouts w/Salted Fish, Beef fried w/Spring Onion, Black Pepper shrimp, Steamed Fish, the list is truely amost endless. Just eat the dishes w/no rice & drink Chinese Tea.

Stay way from the Americanized Chinese Menus w/stuff like chop suey, fried rice, sweet & sour & all the other dishes designed primarily for Americans. Try to find a real Chinese restaurant & you will find a wide variety of the dishes permitted under Atkins on the menu

Also in a true Chinese restaurant the interplay when ordering allow you to tell the staff how you want the dish cooked, w/or w/o what sauce etc so its much easier than in the typical Western restaurant to get them to 'customize' what they cook for you. Easiest was is ask in a friendly way w/o demanding anything, just tell them doctor wont allow you to eat anything w/any kind of sugar in it for health reasons & they usually are very flexible in adapting what goes in the wok for your table.

By the way if you're not doing Induction a spoonful of corn starch mixed in the sauce is not going to have the much effect, especially if you use your chopsticks to pick out the main ingredients & don't spoon up the sauce.

[not2late]

Stay way from the Americanized Chinese Menus w/stuff like chop suey, fried rice, sweet & sour & all the other dishes designed primarily for Americans. Try to find a real Chinese restaurant & you will find a wide variety of the dishes permitted under Atkins on the menu

"Real" Chinese restaurants are hard to find in the US--unless you are in a large city. And even then, you have to ask for your food to be "chinese style" otherwise, they'll americanize it.

The little carry-outs have very Americanized menus---lots of sugar, lots of starch.

[Grillmaster]

Many Chinese recipes use a "master sauce" and/or a "master broth".
Master sauces are usually made by combining prepared sauces, like Hoisin, with other ingredients

Depends on what you order. Like I said, it varies from place to place so you have to know what you are ordering and how they prepare it. I go to a place that has an open kitchen so I can see how they prepare the food, and because I have experience cooking chinese food, I can tell if there is Hoisin or even sugar in the preparation. I never said it would be carb-free eating, but there are low carb dishes you can order.

As I also said, there are no set recipes, so the MooShu or Mongolian chicken at my favorite place may not be prepared the same way as at yours, but I can guarantee that it is not sticky and sweet like Orange Chicken, for instance. The "typical" preparation does not use Hoisin, molasses or other such sauces, and the chicken is not breaded or even starched for texture. But yes, check first.

Wow Nullo, I don't know where you go, but it sounds like they have stock in Argo or something! haha As for starch in egg drop soup, I would imagine that would make it egg GLOP soup, so if the broth looks thick and congealed, I'd avoid it anyway. Good egg drop soup should be thin with hearty egg whites and yolk in it. Again, inspect the food at the buffet before paying. I would imagine that if the green beans are coated with some substance that it would be obvious and you could pass on them or the whole buffet and go elsewhere.

Education is the key. As Dr A says: "know what you are going to order before you walk in. ...You could safely eat all your weekly meals in a restaurant, as long as you become familiar with the possibilities of the menu and be alert for hidden pitfalls. If the eating establishment is one you patronize often, talk to the waiter or the maitre d' and make it crystal clear that you're on a plan that permits no sugar in any manner, shape or form." (DANDR 19)

Bon appetit!

[not2late]

Very true, knowing what you are eating is very important to this diet. Knowing the tricks of the restaurant trade is equally important when you eat out, as is knowing the basics of a cuisine.

You're lucky to have a Chinese restaurant that has an open kitchen so you can see if they are putting a sauce/broth/ or some sugar or starch containing spice mixture on your foods. Unfortunately, many restaurants don't have that feature and you have to trust the chef will respect your order and not add starches, sugars or use prepared ingredients that contain starches or sugars.

[NulloModo]

Grillmaster - as far as I could tell, the texture was accurate to egg drop soup. I don't know if it was a lot of starch, but the guy said there was some in it. Of course, his English was less than stellar, so perhaps he was just used to saying yes to anything people asked. That is honestly my biggest problem with getting Chinese on this plan. If I spoke Chinese, or I could find a Chinese place where the cooks or owner spoke fluent english or count translate, I wouldn't worry. As it is, it always seems a crap shoot over if they are just nodding and saying yes to anything that anyone asks, or if they really understand or care.