5 ways to make Chinese take-out healthier

If you're like me, I get Chinese take out often because 1. I love Chinese food but can't cook it like the restaurant, and 2. Sometimes I just want to eat out of the box in front of the tube watching Grey's Anatomy and CSI. Takeout can get real fattening and artery clogging so, here are some tips to order Chinese food so that it is healthier for you.

• Order the Sweet & Sour Pork/Chicken or any other meat dish without the fried breading. Without the breading, you get the taste minus the extra calories and fat.

• Eliminate the soy sauce or ask for low sodium sauce. Order Fried Rice without soy sauce. In dishes that are cooked with soy sauce, ask if they can cook with low sodium soy sauce. Cutting out or minimizing the soy sauce will help cut down your sodium intake since Chinese food is known for being high in sodium in general.

• Ask for brown rice instead of white rice. More and more Chinese restaurants are offering brown rice as an alternative. Fried Rice made with brown rice is pretty yummy too.

• Order Rice or Chow Mein/Chow Fun but not both. When eat you both rice and Chow Mein/Fun in one sitting you are carb over loading and will end up feeling really heavy. Instead order another vegetable or meat dish. Better to have more protein or veggies.

• Order Wonton soup instead of the Wonton appetizer. Yes they are really crunchy and yummy, but fried Wontons are loaded with fat and calories, and so is the sweet & sour sauce you dip them in. With Wonton soup, you can eat the Wontons minus all the fried fat calories, and get that nice warm cozy soup feeling.

Comments

[Tanya]

There is practically no way to make Chinese food 'healthier' - maybe less bad, but it's one of those things I accept.

[Ying]

Or maybe you should start eating real Chinese food. To call the stuff you people order Chinese food is an insult. Fried wanton? Soy sauce in fried rice? Come on! Please stop, we Chinese people really don't eat this crap! Next time you go to your favorite "Chinese" restaurant, please look around and count how many Chinese do you actually see there? These restaurants cook these bad food because YOU like them that way, not because we eat that.

[Stephanie Quilao]

I agree Ying. What most people know as Chinese food here is really Americanized to be sweeter, more fattening, and taste like fast food. Panda Express pretty much sums it up.

I live in the Bay Area so I can go to Chinatown in San Francisco, a place where you can get more authentic Chinese food.

Actually, you know a good post would be, "How to tell the difference between authentic Chinese food and Americanized Chinese food."

[pinkmohair]

Great tips! Unfortunately, it's 1111pm and I am now craaaaving wonton soup, darnit.

[Manola Blablablanik]

Also, Americanized Chinese food uses way too much cornstarch. I always ask w/o to save on those carbs.

[David]

Maybe you mean "Westernized", we have it the same here in the United Kingdom.

However, I live with 5 Chinese guys and they pour on the sunflower oil and soy sauce in bucket loads, this way too much for my taste and so from my impression of "authentic" Chinese food it doesn't seem that healthy at all. Although they are all 20 year old students.

[hairylunch]

There's something to be said for both the westernized Chinese food and authentic Chinese.

The reason I really like the westernized version is specifically for the unhealthy aspects. At 2 AM after a night out, you want that heavy, deep fried, breaded goodness.

Of course, I love authentic Chinese - a nice fresh steamed fish, cooked so it practically falls apart when you take your chopsticks to it with the eyeball staring up at you, mapu (spell it how you want) tofu, etc etc - definitely good, but the comfort food that Stephanie's talking about in her post . . . .

[nan]

Tanya, I couldn't tell you how to make the dog food being passed off as "chinese" food taste better anymore than you could tell me how to love American's precious frank and beans or macaroni (or, for the British, any kind of "pie". ;P

Ying, and Stephanie, I completely agree! You're hereby invited for authentic dim sum at my place.

[Richard W]

Another way: For take-out, bring your own olive oil, and ask that your food be cooked with that. I've done that for a long time, and the take-out place is happy to do it.

[aspearce]

Living in Toronto I have the best (or worst) of both worlds. We have the junk "based on chinese" fast food and the real deal - Yam Cha anyone?

But If you really want to cut the calories order a plate centred around a veggie - I'm a big fan of Bok-Choy in all its forms. 15 calories per half-cup and all those vitamins! And follow the advice of the earlier commentators: if you are the only guai-lo in the joint - you've probably found the right place. :)

[Gwen >> My Relationship Resume]

Chinese take-out places are NOT happy to make the substitutions you are looking suggesting. There is not yet a push to healthy-fy that Chinese-American fare that your requests are most frowned upon. Since it is a comfort food (because, gosh, it's not REAL food), make the healthiest choices off the menu as you can and don't over-indulge!

[Joey Tactis]

If you are looking for something healthy, get what I eat: Steamed chicken and broccoli with brown rice, and some garlic sauce on the side. Tastes pretty good and not too bad for you either.

[sindhu]

if you can cut down on the oil and eat things baked than stir fried , that would make any cusine healthier.

[hominidx]

I don't really care if a restaurant doesn't like my special requests - if they don't do it, I'll take my business elsewhere. Fortunately, my preferred place will happily do it, and I'll have my "fake" food with brown rice anytime I wish.

If people are insulted by what we call Chinese food, then they really need thicker skin. Everyone knows "General Tso's" isn't "authentic", but if you like it, you like it, end of story.
Authenticity snobs add nothing to the discussion. These points are specifically if you're ordering from what's commonly known as a "Chinese restaurant" to a Western audience - so they will help - yes, it can even be made healthy.

[chinkytrolly]

"I don't really care if a restaurant doesn't like my special requests - if they don't do it, I'll take my business elsewhere...snobs add nothing to the discussion."

hominidx,

The "authenticity snobs" were merely pointing out that traditional Chinese cuisine is quite healthy already. There are a hell of a lot healthier and SLIMMER Chinese than Americans (might have something to do with our current pop. anyway HAHAHA) so don't be a hater. And "stop" putting "quotes" around "everything".

"You" crazy "."

Also, I think you're the snob! Ha!

[Paintbait]

I don't see the point in trying to make it more healthy. The problem with alot of us Americans (and...well people in general) we overdue EVERYTHING we possible can. That includes eating too much food that is, traditionally speaking, considered to be less than healthy. But quite frankly, what's the point if it tastes like garbage? Just eat the food and don't eat it twice in a row, and get off the couch and find time to run a mile. Moderation, at the very least, is a step in the right direction without annoying those humble chineese food people.

[chuck]

The tips are OK, but I agree with a number of others - order the great tasting Chinese dishes that are more authentic and/or are lighter by their very nature. Sweet and Sour Pork? Fried Wonton? Give me a break.

My girlfriend (who is northern Chinese) turned me on to a much healthier lifestyle including great Chinese food. I lost 55lbs from that diet change and a little exercise.

[Jersey Exile]

The NYT Magazine had a great piece (in early Feburary, but alas it's now behind a subscription wall) about the origins of that classic staple of Chinese take-out, General Tso's (also Zuo's, also Gao's) Chicken. Created by Peng Chang-kuei, a refugee of the Chinese Civil War who left his native Hunan province for Taiwan, this chicken dish came to the United States in the 1970's, where it was transmogrified from its origin Hunanese salty and sour taste to the sweet and spicy concoction that Americans couldn't get enough of... and still can't!

The really interesting footnote to this story is that in recent years General Tso's Chicken has returned to Hunan province, where it is now regarded as a traditional dish:

"In 1990, Peng returned to Changsha, where he opened a restaurant that included the creation on its menu. The restaurant did not last long, and the dish was never popular (“too sweet,” one local chef told me), but some leading figures in the culinary establishment learned how to make it. And when they began to travel abroad to give cooking demonstrations, it seems quite likely that their overseas audiences would have expected them to produce that famous “Hunanese” recipe. Perhaps it would have seemed senseless to refuse to acknowledge a dish upon which the international reputation of Hunanese cuisine was largely based. Maybe it would have been embarrassing to admit that the dish was a product of the exiled Nationalist society of Taiwan. Whatever their motivations, they began to include General Tso’s chicken in publications about Hunanese cooking, especially those aimed at a Taiwanese readership."

Food does this all the time, making the question of what is truly authentic or traditional cuisine extremely problematic.

[fireplacetv]

Being Chinese and living from the Bay Area, my initial reaction is to side with the "food snobs" and just reduce the whole post to: quit eating at Panda Express! But then I realized that Chinese food here is quite different from Chinese food in most places, where it doesn't actually get much better than Panda Express.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of brown rice just because I've always had my food with white jasmine rice, and because I like it better (and you don't get charged more for it). I like the won ton soup suggestion. But I've been eating won ton soup since I was a kid--I never even saw a fried won ton until I was 15.

As for bringing your own oil to the restaurant--that's just obnoxious. If you're going to bring your own ingredients, why don't you just make your own food at home? I would think that if a restaurant is worth going to in the first place, then the dishes should taste best the way THEY prepare it. If you aren't going there for their food, then why bother?

[ryan]

my favorite local chinese takeout place will substitue tofu in almost any recipe. Moo Goo Gai Pan, Cashew Chicken, and Mandarin Chicken are all excellent with Tofu.

They also will go light on sauce if I ask, and even add extra veggies for fibre.

[Stephanie Quilao]

Great thought provoking comments all. Thank you for sharing.

[Michael Chiu]

Interesting comments. Living in the Silicon Valley, there are the "authentic" Chinese restaurants I suppose, and those that are Americanized, but in the end, your food is all cooked by Mexicans anyway, so it's neither authentic Chinese, nor is it Americanized Chinese food.

As for healthy choices, I think the best choice is simply not going to a Chinese restaurant if you're going out to eat. Seriously, you can argue that fried wontons, sweet and sour pork, etc. is bad for you, just as much as kung pao chicken, mabo tofu, or vegetables that have been cooked in pork lard. Even the steamed fish usually has an excessive amount of soy sauce and oil around it.

As for bringing in your own ingredients and asking them to cook with that instead... that's just silly. Cook your own food at home. Also, how are you sure that they didn't just empty out the bottle a bit, and cooked with whatever they have anyway? Moreover, did you also bring some dishwash soap, so they could clean off the wok first, so not to have left-over fat and oil, before pouring your oil on it?

[Gal Josefsberg]

For me, the problem with these simple lists of rules is that I end up forgetting them. Then, when I do remember them, it’s always after I ordered, by which time I feel bad about calling the waiter back and changing something. I’d rather just stick to a healthy choice rather than taking something that’s inherently unhealthy and try to make it less unhealthy.

I usually get the hot and sour soup and then some kind of simple vegetarian dish when I’m at a Chinese place. Snow Peas in Garlic Sauce, Eggplant or something along those lines. That way I get food I enjoy without having to remember a bunch of rules about what to order and how to order it.

GJ
http://www.60in3.com

[jan]

I agree that the chinese food here is basically westernized.. but to be honest, I prefer that over traditional chinese food because traditional chinese food is SO nasty. I'm chinese, and I hate going to traditional chinese restaurants... the people are friggin loud and the food is actually just AS oily and nonhealthy looking. I mean at least the westernized chinese food looks good! :P
a tip to all who might go to HK.
go to the chinese restaurant in Stanford Hotel... it is SO good, it's traditional, healthy, and actually good!
and a tip to those who live in toronto.
go to the chinese restaurant in chinatown called lee's garden.. i think.. it's traditional too and extremely yummy

[miss]

what do chinese people eat for breakfast and lunch and dinner.Im the biggest fan of chinese food.it is healthy to.thanks for your web page.

[John]

Authentic chinese food is much better than americanized chinese food, but I still eat the americanized versions if I really need to.

Now for people (like hairylunch) who think that real chinese food is "dog food", then you're probably yet another one of those stereotype ignorant americans out there. Real chinese food can be much more expensive than american steak houses and isn't just dog meat with pork penis. Sure there might be some "specials" in china with unique and different kinds of food that may disgust lots of americans, most authentic chinese food are extremely delicious and way healthier than any expensive restaurant in the US.

I've been to some chinese hotels and restaurants and their food is not only clean and delicious, but look beautiful. No restaurant in the US or Canada, whether authentic or not, is comparable to real chinese restaurants in asia.

This is not to say that americanized chinese food is bad. Hey when you have the midnight cravings, american food is what you want.

[Johnny]

My apologies to hairylunch. I totally misread what you wrote. Welcome to the unstereotypical north american world. :]

[lauren]

When you live in a place where the population of asian americans is considerably low, you're not going to find authentic chinese ANYHTING. I live in Dothan, Alabama, and if you want chinese food, you've got to settle for the westernized version (I'm not complaining, though. I love it. more often than not I settle for chicken and brocolli. sweet and sour chicken reminds me too much of chicken nuggets..) I don't have the same privelage of having authentic asian food like, say, Californians or New Yorkers because we just don't have the same demographics going on for us. The only time I've ever had authentic Chinese was when my grandmother tutored a little girl in english and her mother brought us dim sum and Lo Mien. If I could have that kind of flavor from chinese food all the time, I could easily die happy. Then again, I wouldn't give up my oily, greasy Lo Mein and mixed veggies for anything. It's my comfort (favorite) food. We're lucky to have clean, delicious, and cheap westernized-chinese take out places in Dothan. The buffets... are a little disgusting, though.

[chinese boy]

your all stupid for thinking about this too much. Its just chinese food and you shouldnt fight like idiots about it. It might be better in asia but we live in america. i bet you that hamburgers taste better here than asia. and if u bring your own ingrediants to a restaruant thats ridiculaous