orange chicken isn't chinese food, it's american food along with moo goo gai pan and chop suey

 

and yes, food at most chinese buffets is extremely nasty. take the nastiness of food at your typical american buffet, times it by 100000, and consider that it's mostly being eaten by folks who don't know and don't care about the crappiness, and there ya go.

 

well it all depends which one u go to

 

some stats to consider:

san francisco ~31% asian
rest of america ~5% asian

quality in bay or in cali may be different from quality in rest of america.

so for SC i am sure the chinese buffet is fine compared to a sit down in SC.

i went to a canadian chinese buffet once. once. there were a bunch of people chowing down and loving the food, which i thought was strange.

for those that live in the bay i will lay out this claim: chef chu's and saigon seafood are the best. period. please don't try to bring up Mings coy palace or wutever.

 

If wantone agrees with you, then I'll agree with you.

 

But they're CHINESE!

 

i've worked at restaurants before while in college and even though you may be sick of the food, more often than not, you eat it anyway, cuz it's free food. my not having to spend $5-$10 on lunch or dinner that day means it's an extra $5-$10 i earn that day. at least that was my mentality when i was a poor student.

 

Let's have an Asian step in. Quality at Chinese buffets are mediocre at best. In order to get their customers full, they use extra starch. In order to get their customers full from liquids, they use msg, which also makes the food taste great. They also use a lot of oil to extract as much flavor out as possible.

If you look closely as what the workers and chefs eat, you'll notice that the food is very different. It's a completely different taste. What they eat is stuff they cook at home for their families (a bit healthier and traditional). This isn't true for just Chinese buffets but all Chinese restaurants in general. The materials used is to extract the most flavor out of everything, though most are poor nutrient supplements.

My mom's home cooking is completely different, and thus is why the people at the restaurants don't eat their own food. Many non-American Asians find the taste of orange chicken very pungent, but it is what sells to the Chinese food eating Americans, so they go with it.

Don't forget that many Asian places are stingy towards food. It's not the portions that's the problem, but them not wanting to waste food. They will violate regulations to not throw away old rice or meat that seems okay, but should be thrown away according to codes.

I enjoy my Panda Express every now and then, but Asian tongues require tastes from the home country as well. Hence, don't you worry about eating at Chinese buffets. Do worry about cholesterol levels though.

Side story:
Funny things happen @ Chinese restaurants. My family is a fish eating afficionado. He always orders fish straight from the tank, which usually run at pretty high prices. When you pick out a fish, they'll take it out, show it to you, and weigh it, then take it to the kitchen. One time when we ordered the fish, they showed it to us and weighed it in @ 3 pounds. When the fish was served, it looked like a filet-o-fish. It was very obvious that they took the big fish to back, whiched it with a small one they had in the freezer and served that to us while charging us the 3 pound price. No question, my dad had a very serious argument with them. We never went back. Good people those chinese.

 

These days, they might be Mexican!

 

Some places are clean, some are not, and it's the same for restaurants of all types. I've eaten all types of food and am still alive and kicking.