Rant Question- Why do Chinese restaurants around Rochester NY suck? They've all gotten worse.

[Hayabusa Rider]

Even the standard General Tso's Chicken is more gloopy and there's no heat like there used to be. I'd chomp on those hot pepper till they were all gone. Fried rice sucks in texture and has this florescent yellow color that one could use in place of tritium night-sights.

It's all pretty bland and identical in flavor unless we're going with an orange sauce which is just overly sweet with very little orange.

WTF is this crap? BTW, this is the same down to MD

Did all the old chefs die or something?

 

[pcgeek11]

They all died from eating Bat Soup. LOL

 

[lxskllr]

Aside from some standouts, that's the way it's always been around here(MD).

 

[mxnerd]

Maybe the chefs are from Mexico?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I was last from Quincy, MA there was a growing Chinese population. They are now the largest demographic so maybe I was spoiled.

 

[Captante]

I was last from Quincy, MA there was a growing Chinese population. They are now the largest demographic so maybe I was spoiled.

Still in the Boston area? If not then underwhelmed may be what you'll need to get used to in terms of Gen Tso's. Aside from one place in Stamford CT (now closed) and a couple in NYC I've never had it anywhere close to as good as in Boston's Chinatown area.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Still in the Boston area? If not then underwhelmed may be what you'll need to get used to in terms of Gen Tso's. Aside from one place in Stamford CT (now closed) and a couple in NYC I've never had it anywhere close to as good as in Boston's Chinatown area.

I went there a few times when I lived in Quincy but I always went with friends who were Chinese. We wound up in basements where we weren't the only Asians and no one spoke English. It was like a foreign land and the food was superb.

 

[OccamsToothbrush]

It's hard to find decent General Tso's, its 99% de-fanged generic Panda Express shit that's meant to appeal to the masses who like Chicken McNuggets. Look around for sauce recipes and make your own, it's not hard and it doesn't require any difficult to source ingredients. Order takeout, then spoon some decent sauce over it. Or learn to make it from scratch. It's a little labor intensive at first, but gets easier with practice.

 

[Captante]

It's hard to find decent General Tso's, its 99% de-fanged generic Panda Express shit that's meant to appeal to the masses who like Chicken McNuggets. Look around for sauce recipes and make your own, it's not hard and it doesn't require any difficult to source ingredients. Order takeout, then spoon some decent sauce over it. Or learn to make it from scratch. It's a little labor intensive at first, but gets easier with practice.

The issue is re-creating the overall joy of the crunchy sweet/spicy/chicken fat explosion of flavor in each nugget... good sauce is only half the battle!

I've had mine come out pretty tasty at home but have never quite been able to match the best I've had out.

 

[OccamsToothbrush]

The issue is re-creating the overall joy of the crunchy sweet/spicy/chicken fat explosion of flavor in each nugget... good sauce is only half the battle!

I've had mine come out pretty tasty at home but have never quite been able to match the best I've had out.

I'm with you there, it's tough to get the batter and the cooking right. It's just that I don't want weak, tepid, overly sweet General Tso's no matter how good the texture is. On the other hand, you can take a really tasty homemade G.T. sauce and just serve it over a chicken leg or thigh and it's pretty damn good. To me good sauce is like 4/5ths of the battle.

 

[lxskllr]

Hot sauce covers a lot of sins. I usually add a bunch to any I get out.