Describe your first encounter with Chinese food
@bagarad (14283)
Paso Robles, California
September 12, 2011 3:42am CST
How old were you? Was your encounter at a restaurant, a home, or somewhere else? What were you offered? Did you eat it? Why or why not? Did you enjoy it ? Anything else you remember about it?
My own first experience was at a Chinese restaruant call Ding How in Sacramento a good sixty years ago. I was but a little girl. My parents liked Chinese food, but did not really expect me to like it much. They ordered me some chow mein (but with American type fried noodles -- the kind that come in a can. ) To my parent's amazement, I liked it and ate everything on my plate. After the meal was finished, they brought the customary fortune and almond cookies. I really loved the fortune cookies. The waiter or owner of the restaurant got a kick out of my being so fond of his food, so when they saw I liked the fortune cookies they brought a barrel of them from the kitchen and let me pick out some more to eat. I have never forgotten that experience.
It was about thirty years later that I was introduced to my first authentic Chinese restarant in Los Angeles Chinatown. That means I ate with the Chinese who were born in China and ate where the menus were in Chinese instead of English. Or maybe they had two versions. I suspect the Chinese menu had lower prices. That's where I tasted real chow mein with soft noodles for the first time. In the nine years we went to that Chinese church I ate lots of Chinese food in restaurants and in homes. I liked anything that wasn't spicy, but didn't, of course, try every possible item on the menu. The only thing I remember not liking was a soup with tiny squid in it, which was served in a home.
Now we have a favorite Chinese restaurant in our own area with very good food. The chef is from Hong Kong, and they cook everything fresh and do not use MSG.
Now it's your turn. Tell us about your own first experience with Chinese food -- at least the first one you remember.
6 people like this
27 responses
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
12 Sep 11
My parents always enjoyed Chinese food, with the consequence that I was introduced to it early on. I can't remember when, but I remember Chinese food being a treat all through my childhood. I still enjoy it today and have introduced my own children to it too.
2 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
I think we learn to like most of the foods that we are introduced to at home -- if they are cooked properly enough to be tasty. In America we can grow up thinking Chinese food is the stuff that comes in cans, and they don't taste anything like Chinese food cooked fresh.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
12 Sep 11
I read your discussion with keen interest about Chinese food. Well, I am Chinese and ever since I was born, I have been eating Chinese food and I like it for no reason. In China, we have different kinds of food and different kinds of cooking style in each province. Some kinds of food are spicy, some are sweet and some are spicy and sour and such. In a word, there are different flavors from one place to another. If you come to China for a visit at a different place, you will find some differences yourself. Enjoy yourself, bagarad.
2 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
William, I've only sampled a few styles thus far,since I don't eat the spicy. I love Canonese, but so far not so much the Mandarin I have tasted, but I only tasted it once and not much of it -- mostly soup with tofu. Most people I know who have tried Chinese food think it's one of the best cuisines in the world. How lucky for you that you get it all the time!
@secretbear (19448)
• Philippines
12 Sep 11
Hi Barb!
I can't really remember my first encounter with Chinese food because for as long as I can remember, we've been eating Chinese food all the time at home! We are not Chinese, though. I'm talking about fried noodles which is an original dish of the Chinese and we just learned how to cook it. It has been since part of any kind celebration and there's even a saying that noodles is equal to long life that's why it's a popular dish during birthday parties. 
Siopao also is a popular snack here.
Our race has a close tie with the Chinese. Chinese have been living here in our country since time immemorial so some of their cultures and traditions have been embedded with ours. Our own cooking does not differ much with that of the Chinese so it was easy for us to eat their food.
If we're talking about first time in a Chinese restaurant, my first time would be so long ago when a Chinese fast food chain opened here in our town. But the most memorable experience I have in a Chinese restaurant was back in Singapore where we ate lunch in a popular Chinese restaurant that I don't know the name because it was in Chinese. I ordered a large bowl of noodles (with soup) and it was so chili that I asked for water for many times. 
The waitress pitied me and told me to separate the soup from the noodles so the chili-ness would lessen. Still, I emptied the bowl and "won".
Siopao also is a popular snack here.
Our race has a close tie with the Chinese. Chinese have been living here in our country since time immemorial so some of their cultures and traditions have been embedded with ours. Our own cooking does not differ much with that of the Chinese so it was easy for us to eat their food.
If we're talking about first time in a Chinese restaurant, my first time would be so long ago when a Chinese fast food chain opened here in our town. But the most memorable experience I have in a Chinese restaurant was back in Singapore where we ate lunch in a popular Chinese restaurant that I don't know the name because it was in Chinese. I ordered a large bowl of noodles (with soup) and it was so chili that I asked for water for many times. The waitress pitied me and told me to separate the soup from the noodles so the chili-ness would lessen. Still, I emptied the bowl and "won". 2 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
My husband loves the hot and sour soup, but it's too hot for me. I just can't tolerate the "heat."
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
12 Sep 11
My first experience was at home and my mother introduced us to Chow Mein...the canned kind. After that I don't really remember. But I know it's been about 20 years since I have eaten any. I got horribly sick from Sweet and Sour Pork...so sick I threw up for two days and since then I can hardly look at it. I think now if I did eat some I might be able to handle something like stir fry..
2 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
Jill, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I also got sick once on Chinese food I'd eaten at a restauant in LA Chinatown. It was on Christmas Day, I think in the 1970's. It was the year of a big flu epidemic, and the elders of our church took all of us whose holiday celebrations had been canceled because of illness to one of those Chinese restaurants where normally only the Chinese eat. The food was delicious, but evidently one of the cooks was what we call here "fresh off the boat," and I caught a staph infection, which made me so sick I might have had to go the hospital to prevent dehydration if the medications hadn't worked. The elders came to pray over me and I responded to the medications and felt much better -- well enough to go back to work in a few days. My doctor had me calling him every morning to report my condition, which was quite unusual. When my tests finally showed the bug was gone, the doctor told me it could have been fatal.
As for the canned stuff, it's very disappointing after you've had the fresh stir frys.
@chiwasaki (4694)
• Philippines
12 Sep 11
Our family used to eat in a famous Chinese restaurant in Manila when I was a kid. I think we usually ordered noodles, siopao and siomai there. Two years ago, I visited this Chinese restaurant and it is still there. I love the food there but the place is quite far that's why I wasn't able to go there recently.
2 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
I'm glad we finally have a good Chinese restaurant close to home. They just lack one dish I really love that I tried first at a restaurant in Santa Barbara -- coconut shrimp, a stir fry dish.
@francesca5 (1344)
•
12 Sep 11
when i was a student there was a chinese takeaway just down the road, where we regularly went. i don't think i could have had any before that, unless it was from takeaway, as a teenager, as my parents were very conventional about food.
my best experience with chinese food, though, was with my ex mother-in-law, who always sad she didn't like it, because she was the same generation as my parents, and very conventional about food. but one day while babysitting at our house she tried some, and then, well into her seventies, discovered she actually liked it.
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
12 Sep 11
I do not know how old I was, but I think I was going either to elementary or to junior high. There were lots of Chinese food restaurants downtown in Vancouver. Anyway I have no sense of time, but I remember that had to do with a school trip and we were learning about Chinese food, showed how to use chopsticks, saw how they made the Cninese sausages, etc. We had the fortune cookies, but not the almond ones. The food was Cantonsee. Since then I have been to various Chjinese restaurants both in VAncouver, Saskatoon, Langley, Winnipeg, and any city were I was in. I did go to an authentic Chinese restaurant in my early 20 or teenage yearss, it was behind a Green Door. And ht was called the Green Door. It was hidden in an alley, and they had some black bean sauce hat no one else liked, and much of the food was not what we were used to. There was also a lot of Bittter Melon and believe it is bitter.
I later on bought some chinese cookbooks that continued the western and the authentic version.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
13 Sep 11
I used to listen it on radio so many shows. And I think I saw an act of it on TV. Do not whether it was on Ed Sullivan Show or ink one of the other shows. I could have been the REd Skelton show. It has been so long ago. Have no idea who sang it either.
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
12 Sep 11
I tried Chinese food about 5 years ago I assume. I tried chicken lo mein. And then a year later I tried Chicken fried rice and that is what I eat. Even chicken fried rice is a strength for me , I'm a picky eater.
1 person likes this
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
12 Sep 11
I like chicken fried rice. It is the only item I order at a Chinese Restaurant.It isn't too spicy or bland. I'm so picky that I hate to try new things only to find I don't like them. so once I find anything I like , I eat it only.
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
Does this mean you did or didn't like the chicken fried rice? Did you mean it's flavor was too strong for you or too hot for you? I myself usually order a mild cashew chicken or almond chicken stir fry with chow mein instead of rice. I know, that's weird if you are used to always eating rice with everything. Sometimes I will order something sweet and sour for contrast.
1 person likes this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
17 Mar 12
There was some canned food that people in the midwest used to eat called Chop Suey which I do not compare in my mind at all with Chinese Food, but that would have been my first experience, and as bad as that stuff was, as child I still always dreamed of being able to go to a real Chinese restaurant and eating someday. So I got a book out of the library and taught myself how to use chopsticks and practiced often so that when I grew up I would be able to use them.
So when I was twenty-something and visited San Francisco, a friend from back home took me to a very nice place in the Chinese district. He was astounded when, knowing it was my first time, he saw me able to pick up the sticks and eat very comfortably with them. Back then every Chinese restaurant set the table with chopsticks and anyone who wanted to use a fork would have to ask for one. Now where I live it is the opposite. Sometimes I just carry my own.
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@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
17 Mar 12
Even though I went to a Chinese church for nine years and went to the real Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles, I never could master chopsticks. I don't seem to have the coordination for it. I've never been very hands-on about anything. I still ask for the fork if I go to a Chinese Chinese restaurant as opposed to one with a primarily non-Asian clientele. My Chinese friends know I'm American and accept me as such.
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
12 Sep 11
You were a cute little girl, bagarad..
I remember at my church how this girl; asked me if I like this restaurant I think was called "China Boy" and she seemed shocked that I never heard of it, let alone tried the food. Then about 10 years later, I met my husband and moved into the city where this place was located and he ordered food there he thought I would like...That is when I fell in love with their egg rolls and sweet and sour chicken..
Unfortunately, the place has been shut down for years and I have yet found "the sauce" that I dipped my egg roll in..:(
But that's okay, now I prefer to make my own, because I know what is in it. I know the meat is clean and there is no MSG..
I remember at my church how this girl; asked me if I like this restaurant I think was called "China Boy" and she seemed shocked that I never heard of it, let alone tried the food. Then about 10 years later, I met my husband and moved into the city where this place was located and he ordered food there he thought I would like...That is when I fell in love with their egg rolls and sweet and sour chicken.. Unfortunately, the place has been shut down for years and I have yet found "the sauce" that I dipped my egg roll in..:(
But that's okay, now I prefer to make my own, because I know what is in it. I know the meat is clean and there is no MSG..@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
12 Sep 11
Wow, I only do a little stir fry, you probably can probably cook a variety of dishes.. I tried making sweet and sour chicken a couple times, but couldn't get the correct texture they have in the restaurant.
I tried making sweet and sour chicken a couple times, but couldn't get the correct texture they have in the restaurant.@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
Ah, there's no place like home for knowing what's in food. I learned to cook Chinese at home from a friend from church whose aunt owned a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. She also gave me an authentic Chinese recipe book. On one side recipes are in English and on the other side in Chinese. I later took a Chinese cooking class through an adult education class and picked up some new Chinese recipes there.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (223720)
• Chile
21 Jan 12
I ate chinese food for the first time when I was 13 years old. We were in Washington D.C. with my parents on a cultural tour before returning to our country after living at the US for 1 1/2 years. My parent took us for chinese food and I don´t much remember what I ate except that I liked it. And I also loved to try to eat with chopsticks.
My first encounter with chinese food made me repeat the experience throughout the years and I am very fond of going to chinese restaurants. In my country there are two kinds, but I prefer the ones that are more sophisticated and have real chinese food.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (223720)
• Chile
22 Jan 12
Still, the best chinese food I have ever eaten was in San Francisco, in Chinatown. It was a place where you had to step down some stairs. The place was as if it was another country. Noone seemed to speak English and the people who were eating there were all chinese except us. It was a wonderful treat in every sense.
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
21 Jan 12
So, you got a later start than I, but the results were the same. You continued to eat Chinese food until now. Once you've tasted the real thing, the newer restaurants that serve the Americanized Chinese food just don't cut it.
@SIMPLYD (90721)
• Philippines
12 Sep 11
Oh, your picture when you were a kid, was so cute.
Actually, i can't remember when was the first time i tasted Chinese foods. My father has a Chinese blood, so at home, we are used to eating Chinese foods such as siopao, siomai , noodles and porridge with sauteed black beans as seasoning.
Chinese foods are well loved too by our family. We would always eat at Chinese restaurants.
Chinese foods is what i like, next to our own Filipino foods.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
I figured if you have someone at home who cooks Chinese you might not be able to remember your first experience with it.
@SIMPLYD (90721)
• Philippines
12 Sep 11
Actually, our father would take home Chinese foods for us whenever he arrives from work.
But our mother would also cook noodles , porridge and siopao sometimes.
@Rick1950 (1575)
• Lima, Peru
12 Sep 11
In my home country there are a lot of China Restaurants. They are named 'Chifa'. Actually, Chinese food is different around the world. It tends to be mixed with native food. And there are dishes you can't find anywhere else in other countries. That's happened with Chinese food here. The result was that it was created a great variety of dishes –all of them delicious. My first experience with Chinese food was when I was a child. I ate a dish named 'Arroz Chaufa'. It's rice with vegetables and chicken, pork or cow meat. All seasoned with Chinese spices. Take a look on this link and you can see the many dishes: http://foktou.com/
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
12 Sep 11
Some, but not all of these dishes look familiar. Here's where I eat my Chinese food most often: http://www.thechinagourmet.net/
@pennywise25 (321)
• Mexico
14 Sep 11
My first experience with it was when I was a teen. A Chinese couple set a restaurant nearby my parents house. I had always liked foreigners so I tried to get to know them. They had a girl no older than 2 years. I just couldn't find a way to start talking to them, but to go every weekend having a meal in her restaurant. It was then when I first had a Chinese dish, and I gotta say I fell in love with it. Then she opened a course of Chinese language which I of course attended, and we ended up being big friends.
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@pennywise25 (321)
• Mexico
14 Sep 11
It didn't seem so for that time, now I look at those notes and I say: "How in the world could I learn this ! " And I can remember I actually had learnt that stuff and now it's just such a bunch of symbols :S
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
14 Sep 11
How did you do with the Chinese lessons? Chinese is a pretty hard language to learn.
@coffeesong (163)
• China
13 Sep 11
It's great to hear that you like Chinese food. As Chinese people, I'm proud of anybody like Chinese food. I raised with Chinese food, even I tasted many kinds of different country foods, Chinese food still is my favorite.
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@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Sep 11
We are not alone. Most people who have tried it like it, I believe.
@elitess (5070)
• Ipswich, England
14 Sep 11
Hello bagarad.
Well it actually wasn't that long ago for me as it happened this year. I bought some coupons from a discount site for bamboo chicken as it was really cheap, about 1,1$ instead of 5$ per meal and decided to try it out and we really liked it (both me and my girlfriend). I recently bought 2 meals at another restaurant with a chicken dish (with bamboo, onions and others) and I am planning to use them either on my birthday this week or on our anniversary next month.
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@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
17 Sep 11
Ah. Those coupons had the exact effect the restaurants desired. They hooked you on Chinese food when you had not tried it before. I hope you will keep enjoying it for a long time.
@OpinionatedLady (5965)
• United States
22 Oct 11
Well I don't remember not eating Chinese food as My parents were fond of it and we ate it all my life. I do remember going home with a friend from school I was maybe 10 and her parents had immigrated to the states with her and her brothers. I was amazed at the speed of which her father cooked. He made a stir fry of fish and noodles, lots of veggies. Through the years I not only ate there but learned to cook as well. I make a mean venison and broccoli Chinese style. Sadly when their green cards where up they went back to China and we where not able to stay in touch. I remember so much from them though and miss them all.
Her Grandmother made a soup much like hot and sour but with ginger slices and some other herbs that she called health soup. I swear it could cure anything!
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@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
22 Oct 11
How sad they could not get an extension on the green card.I've never heard of a broccoli / venison stirfry. I've never even tasted venison. I'll bet my husband would like that health soup. He loves hot and sour soup. It's too spicy for me, and I am fine skipping soup before dinner. So when we go out, I order it, too, and he eats both bowls. Our waitress gets a kick out of it.
@ankitbhat (269)
• India
13 Sep 11
my first encounter would be when i ate some momos ...but to be honest they were really tasty .....i loved them and had then when i was 15 ........i am not really into chinese food but there are few chinese dishes that i have affinity for ......
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Sep 11
I don't know what momos are, but I'm glad you enjoyed them. I doubt if anyone likes every kind of Chinese food or all of any other kind. I can think of a lot of American foods I don't like. The truth is, many cultures eat the same foods, they just prepare them differently. Some people like eggplant, for example, and some don't, and they might not like it whether it's cooked American style, Greek style, Italian style, or Chinese style.
@flowerfest08 (1677)
•
13 Sep 11
hi:)
Here in the Philippines cooking Chinese food is already normal for everyday meal, but my Favorite is the Pancit (saute noodles) it is mixed with veggies and chicken strips and some Squid balls and many more... we also serve it when there is a birthday celebration because they believe that it gives long life:D
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@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Sep 11
Does that mean you learned to use chopsticks? With all the years I've been in close association with Chinese and Japanese people, I have never learned. They accepted the fact I was American and had no problem with me using a fork. I tried to learn, but just couldn't get the hang of it. Many of them use a fork themselves most of the time, now.
