When I first started my venture working with WhereYouEat, I had a predetermined conclusion in min;, most Chinese Restaurants serve the same or very similar items, You have your similar lunch specials, appetizers such as Egg-Rolls, Lo Mein, Rice, Dumplings and all the other standard food that we believe makes up a Chinese Restaurant. At one point I was even questioning why should we put up local restaurant menus for Chinese Places if everything is so similar.
My discovery which has since starting, turned upside down as well as continues with every new restaurant we look deep into.
While many are very similar in their offerings, My conclusion now is that only about 20% are similar, although still very rarely on the same.
So what makes Chinese Restaurants and Take-Out places so different from one another?
My first discovery started with Asparagus, which I never knew could be found on a Chinese Restaurant Menu until looking through menus. Some restaurants offer the Chicken & Asparagus, Shrimp & Asparagus and other various servings of the vegetable. Some server skinny noodles, some offer various type of noodles for different type of soup specialties. We will list all the different and variously unique Chinese Food found across Staten Island menus which make each of these restaurant ‘Unique’ in their own style and taste.
Before we get into that let’s take a look at various cooking styles.
The majority we see on the average take-out place is Hunan, Szechuan and Cantonese. These three styles are seen across at least 30% of all restaurants serving Chinese Take-out. Hunan is known for using Chili Peppers, Shallots and Garlic, it is mostly known for being dry hot, spicy food. Szechuan is known being stir-fried, steamed or braised, it is often cooked until chewy. Items such as the Kung Pao Chicken or Twice Cooked Pork lives up to the spicy standards of Sichuan or Szechuan Cuisine. The flavors of the dish are supposed to be well balanced and not greasy, spices are used in moderate amounts to not overwhelm the natural flavors and ingredients. The major ingredients are onion, sugar, salt, soy sauce, cornstarch and vinegar. Therefore the Cantonese Cuisine is one of the least spicy, lo mein, mei fun and other rice noodles.
Other regional cuisine include Hong Kong, Fujian, Zejiang, Anhui and Xingjiang, all cooked with different various styles. The majority foods are Rice, Noodles, Soybeans, Wheat, Vegetables, Herbs, Seasonings with different types of meats. Tea is authentic part of Chinese Cuisines for beverage which is why many local Staten Island Restaurants provide a few tea bags with every order.
So across the island we have many of these cooking styles, ingredients and twists.
From the south shore we have a few standard take-out places, which don’t specify which cooking style they use, an example when you look at Chen’s Garden on Arthur Kill Road. Although they do specify they only use “White Meat Chicken”. You should always be able to contact them and ask which cooking style they use. A few Chinese Restaurants on Staten Island are setup as “All You Can Eat Buffet”, offering you to pay a single price while letting you select from a various of different Chinese Food Items, Staten Island only has two larger more popular restaurant known as King Buffet on Richmond Avenue and China Buffet on Hylan Blvd in the Hylan Shopping Center. Cheng’s on Forest Avenue is a great example of Hunan, Szechuan and Cantonese cooking styles as well as many others such as China King, China Taste and about 30% of all other restaurants.
Some local Chinese places decide to give a little feel of Japanese and incorporate the two together, Sushi and Standardized Chinese in one place, some other places decided to incorporate a few various Asian Cuisine, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Thai. Although our island has a few all in one Asian Places, we have 2, one is on Hylan Blvd at the address 2224 Hylan Blvd, Bay House.
Bay House serves up a great mix of Sushi, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Malaysian Cuisine. Offering items such as Pad Thai, Thai Basil, Teriyaki Chicken for Lunch. Sushi Menu includes Stripe Bass Cucumber Roll, Taro Tempura, Oshinko, Salmon, Asparagus, Avacado and other unique Japanese Items. Some Bay House Signature Dishes include all various type of Asian Cuisine such as China Crispy Dried Beef which is flank steak, Vietnamese Grill Pork Chop, Beijing Style Beef, Turmeric Chicken, Thai Red Snapper, Twin Soft Shel Crab, Steam Flounder Fillet, Mongolian Steak Cube, Saigon Jumbo Shrimp, Shredded Roast Duck. Appetizers, Various Noodle Soups like the Chicken Udon, Roast Duck Noodle, Tom Yum Kung are a rare find on standardized Chinese Menus. Appetizers like the Tom Kha Kai which is Thai Style Chicken soup cooked in coconut milk, mushrooms, lime and galangal. Salads feature items such as crispy smoke salmon skin salad, crab rangoon and roti canai is on the appetizer.
Bay House is one of the more unique Asian Cuisines on Staten Island, with a twist of all in one, but they do it good. They now even serve Live Lobster on the Menu for only $9.99, it’s a great find, the lobster is also cooked authentic.
Some various forms of the Japanese & Chinese cuisine started included deals, people love Sushi, especially us and restaurants like the Red Apple on Hylan Blvd, which is well established restaurant that was (to our knowledge) the first to introduce the term ‘All You Can Eat Sushi Buffet’, for a single price $15.95, a patron gets to sit and enjoy a huge variety of sushi without worrying of not being able to try them all. Sushi is actually supposed to be a term used for a single piece, but it is now converted to rolls and served with 6 pieces per roll.
Of course Staten Island is filled up with many good, great, delicious and some not-so-great Chinese Restaurants here. Maybe someday in the future we’ll go in and look at other ones.
If you are looking for it, here is a list of all Chinese Restaurants on Staten Island, so you can now go through and find the one’s you like, and make sure if you are dining out to remember to take some photos and share them on the site :), also write your review.