All you can eat chinese

hobbesy

Full Member
I know we have a similar thread on Indian food, but I've been invited out to dinner with friends at the weekend. They're going to an all you can eat Chinese. I will want to eat everything in sight, so what am I better off aiming for? Or at worst, what are the worst things that I should try and totally avoid?

Please tell me sweet and sour sauce isn't too naughty as I love the stuff!
 
seriously?! S&S is FULL of sugar! Don't have anything in batter, gloopy sauces etc...

I said in the last thread, fill up with salad and dry meats/fish (dry as in, no gloopy sauces) and if you do go for something saucy, go clear.

To be honest, so long as you restrict yourself to a sensible sized portion, it should be OK. Have a plate of salad then a sensible amount of other stuff.

Good luck! The most important thing is not to binge !! :D
 
Chinese is my favourite but I really struggle to be sensible!

I know clear soups are fine - as is bolied rice. I would tend to stick to very basic stir fries with no sauces, especially veggie ones. The duck in pancakes is not too bad but try and grab the super lean meat with no fatty bits! Avoid all the deep fried starters like prawn toasties and spring rolls like the plague! Sadly your sweet and sour is completely out unless you are having a treat day!
 
Boiled rice isn't as "fine" as it sounds. Plain white boiled rice is about 150 calories per 100g, and 100g isn't as much as it sounds. 100g is about 28 1p coins (that's 28 one pence pieces), is exactly 20 20p coins, and is roughly 10 £1 coins. So a plateful of rice could easily come to 300 calories before you even add anything else.

Believe it or not, it's far easier to eat a healthy Indian meal than it is a healthy chinese one, because the majority of chinese food we know in this country is fried, and has such a massive surface area (all those tiny grains of rice, for instance) that the oil has plenty of places to go.

Try to stick to foods which:
- Are not in batter or breadcrumbs
- Have not been fried
- Are not sweet
- Are not in thick sauce
- Are mostly vegetables
- Don't contain duck

If it's a buffet-style place there are hopefully going to be options such as pak choi in garlic sauce, mushrooms in oyster sauce, and other such vegetable dishes. Fill yourself up on these, leaving as much sauce behind as possible, and then you can add protein without going too mad.

For protein, I'd suggest things like:
- Satay chicken (WITHOUT the peanut sauce)
- Steamed fish (of whichever variety they offer)

My, that was a short list :D

Sorry. It's the nature of chinese food. Most of what we know as "chinese food" in the UK comes by way of Hong Kong, where frying is the main means of preparation, and the idea of healthy food is near-laughable.

The calories in the soups will be highly variable depending on what your restaurant puts in them. I tend toward hot and sour soup, but some restaurants will dump extremely fatty pork in their hot and sour soup.

Basically you're just going to have to bite the bullet and be damn careful. If you know chinese is a serious weakness, eat before you go. Have a meal-sized salad, not a snack. Avoid having sauces or meat with it, as you want to allow yourself something to eat when you get to the restaurant. But if you're already mostly full you'll do far less damage.

Finally if it's a buffet place, they'll likely have lots of fresh fruit for dessert. If you're hungry after a plate of food, head there and start filling up on the fruit instead.
 
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