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this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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No Stupid Questions
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Chinese cakes, desserts, etc use less sugar and are generally more bland than western recipes. It is a matter of different cultures having different tastes.
I can see that.
However very little of what I've ever seen at a Chinese buffet in America has made me think of real Chinese cuisine.
I think the cakes OP is talking about are just shitty because every one of these cheap buffets gets them from Sysco.
I'll have to look into that idea! Honestly I never even imagined that these were even vaguely related to actual Chinese desserts; I entirely assumed they were just Western cake ideas, but impossibly cheap.
Like the pizza that's always on those burgers. Even less authentic than the rest of the stuff, and somehow cheaper tasting than even Cici's. (Not knocking the restaurants for that; gotta have something for the picky kids.)
In America in particular we use a ridiculous amount of sugar in everything. People used to eating Chinese food -- like, the kind they eat in China -- in my experience are typically unprepared for it. I worked for a Chinese restaurant for a while and my boss, who was Cantonese, tried and subsequently declared a wide array of American foodstuffs to be completely inedible due to being too sweet. Including stuff we don't think of as being "sweet," like ketchup.
I'd doubt the horrid sponge cake you find at the Chinese buffet is actually related to any imported Chinese confection, but it's probably made according to the sensibilities of whoever is running the place. Especially if they ever plan on eating it themselves. (You laugh at this prospect. And yet: one of my boss' favorite things to do on the rare holidays we were closed was to go to other Chinese restaurants that weren't.)
Had clients from CJK countries, can confirm. First complaint is everything being too sweet or salty, and second complaint is the rice being undercooked for their tastes... and also salty.
For the record, ketchup is sweet as fuck. Delicious. And sweet. So is bbq sauce.
But is shouldn't have to be, ketchup without any additional sweeteners, apart from the natural sugar from tomatoes, is really good.
Heck, even just plain tomato puree is really good if they're made with good tomatoes.
I just rub great tomatoes on my fries.
It’s all that corn syrup and (if you’re lucky,) molasses
You're almost certainly correct that it's just cheap cake. Is Betty Crocker cake really a traditional Chinese dessert? Furthermore, most buffets like this are Americanized ethnic food not traditional dishes.
Depends on where you go. American-chinese cuisine has its roots in authentic Chinese food, brought by immigrants; immigrants who came to a new place finding unfamiliar ingredients and adapting those ingredients to their old ways of cooking.
It’s a fascinating history; though the way they were treated was downright awful. (Story of our nation: “Exploit the new guy.”…)