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
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.