General Tso's vs. Sesame Chicken

[BottlesOf]

For NYC: Shun Lee West is very good, but more pricey than typical Chinese. For casual Chinese takeout, Ollies is very good. Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown has awesome dumplings.

[Luzion]

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Luzion,

Do you have favorite SF or NYC Chinese places? I like Yuet Lee in SF a lot.

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I think we talked about this before on irc, when I asked you what were the best Indian/Pakistani places in SF, and you asked me what were the good dim sum places.

Ive only eaten at Yuet Lee once, since it was pretty much the only place open after a night at Centerfolds. We ate some fried rice with beef and some tang jai jook (rice porridge with assorted stuff )I think. Cant really know how good they are eating stuff like that.

If I am in that area, I like going to V.I.P.'s across the street from Yuet Lee. It's this Hong Kong style cafe. I like eating their curry chicken and their baked pork chop over rice with a cold HK style milk tea.

My favorite dim sum (yum cha) place is Koi Palace in Daly City. My family goes to Parc Hong Kong in the city a lot though because supposedly its very authentic; its on 1718 Geary St. Both places are very popular.

I am very bored of Cantonese food nowadays. Right now my favorite chinese place in SF is the Shanghai Dumpling shop on Balboa and 34th. Even better would be goto Oakland or San Mateo for even better xiao long bao, but thats not in SF of course. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[manpower]

I know the owner personally at my local chinese restaurant, and he says he americanizes everything pretty heavily. But there the sesame chicken is the same dish as the sweet and sour chicken except for the seeds. The gen. tso is battered differently and has a spicier sauce.

General Tso was a formidable enemy, but his chicken is delectable.

[Slow Play Ray]

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Sesame is sweeter, tso's is spicy and better .

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I went with the Sesame last night. I am sorry I did - never again.

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ehh, depends on mood and person, well done, either can be phenomenal. for me, the general owns but some don't like the spicy. besides which sesame beef is much better than the chicken version. never seen tso's beef however.

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it was just funny to see this thread because the woman and i went to pick up chinese on saturday, and we agonized over the decision between sesame and tso for like 5 minutes while we were having drinks at the bar. we finally decided on sesame because we always get tso. When we got it home and started eating it, we looked at each other and said almost simultaneously "we should have went with the tso". Then I log on here and see this the following morning - it made me laugh.

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can anyone elaborate on the "not real dishes". i worked with a chinese woman who remarked on how certain places didn't serve real chinese food but never got an elaboration. i suspect, from dining in really good chinese restaurants, that i may know but am not sure.

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I am not sure but I suspect saying most American Chinese restaurants serve real Chinese food would be like saying Taco Bell served real Mexican food.

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Absolutely correct. I've been to mainland China 3 times (Beijing 2x and Shanghai 1x).

(Unfortunately) You will not find General Tso's or Sesame chicken or similar American dishes. The dishes are more simple: fish, beef, chicken, pork in simple sauces and spices. Not a lot of fried foods - sauteed, boiled, steamed only mostly.