
A man who has eaten at more than 7,300 Chinese restaurants - rustcharm
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2169154/man-who-has-eaten-more-7300-chinese-restaurants
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stevenwoo
That has an interesting trivia tidbit revealed about real estate in there -
foreign investment in USA residential real estate has shifted from 10% Chinese
to 30% Chinese in ten years.

Also, I feel something is missing from the story. Just as a statement of fact
and not a criticism - his personal taste is pedestrian not adventurous - his
favorite dishes are noodles without sauce and rice with soy sauce. I would
have loved to have heard what his wife (if she is still around) thought about
their shared hobby.

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appleiigs
Customers who liked this article also liked:

[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/chop-
suey...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/chop-suey-
nation/article30539419/)

The above article was posted on HN awhile ago. Author goes to number of small
town chinese restaurants in Canada and tells their stories. Very long read.
Not sure why I liked it so much, but was a good relaxing read.

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_hardwaregeek
Yeah, maybe he does have some profound insights into Chinese food just by
virtue of volume, but the fact that he doesn't like spicy food and his
favorite dish is soy sauce and rice means that I'm probably not going to trust
him for food advice. Kind of a shame actually.

~~~
zawerf
Maybe soy sauce on rice can be done really well? A lot of my favorite rice
dishes are equally plain sounding (saffron with rice, coconut oil rice, and
even japanese donburi are mostly "just" soy sauce and rice).

If it's literally just plain soy sauce on plain rice though, it's probably
just nostalgia over childhood poverty meals. It's not bad but you don't do it
by choice!

~~~
stevenwoo
I am second generation Chinese from the same region as Chan, and I, too, did
not enjoy most of the regional dishes my parents gave me and actually chose to
eat soy sauce on plain rice when the dishes were unpalatable to me. I mean
actual poverty meals but my bias/ignorance is showing because it's actually
not clear from the article if that's what he meant or if he meant what you are
describing.

~~~
irrational
This is fascinating to me. When my kids don't want to eat what we are serving
they will often have carrots or broccoli with ranch dressing instead. I never
stopped to wonder what kids in other cultures eat in similar circumstances.

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generaltsos
> He cannot speak Chinese. He adheres strictly to a lifelong low-sugar, low-
> cholesterol diet.

I'm no expert on cholesterol, but does fried Chinese food not have the same
cholesterol level as other fried food?

~~~
the_clarence
Chinese food can be verryyyy oily, but cantonese food tend to be healthier I
find. It's possible that he sticks to vegetable dishes or steamed food.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Cantonese invented sweet and sour pork, which is very much fried. I think
you’ll find healthy and unhealthy options in most Chinese styles fairly
equally. Now the stuff they sell at restaurants in the states is another
story, but that is more about clientele.

~~~
moufestaphio
> but that is more about clientele.

Yeah, absolutely agreed. Most 'traditional cuisines' tend to be fairly
healthy. My pet theory on this is along the lines of an evolutionary
standpoint.. if it wasn't healthy, the people eating it would have been more
likely to die off.

Unfortunately North American's got all the delicious foods from all the
cultures that immigrated :)

~~~
bobthepanda
Traditional food for the average person is very healthy. Of course, the
average Cantonese person was very poor until decades ago. Most of the dishes
that have made it abroad usually consists of tastier fare for a more wealthy
population.

We know a wealthy Chinese woman as far back as 600BCE had high cholesterol and
a heart attack. [https://allthatsinteresting.com/xin-zhui-lady-
dai](https://allthatsinteresting.com/xin-zhui-lady-dai)

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faitswulff
Chan is also a friendly figure on Twitter and will chat about restaurants
(located almost anywhere) with anyone.

~~~
thewarpaint
If I'm not mistaken:
[https://twitter.com/chandavkl](https://twitter.com/chandavkl)

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chandavkl
Well this is David Chan and the article has some errors. Like soy sauce rice
was my favorite AS A KID, I do like food and do return to some restaurtants

