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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4040 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 17, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Hate to put out the AskReddit tier question. But what did you find to be grossly overrated?

I'm a Chinese food enthusiast and shop far and wide for authentic ingredients to recreate dishes at home. Once I found out that a 'chili oil with beef 'is a thing that exists and is apparently delicious, I immediately hit the Asian grocery store and got some. It was even more enticing to me because said product is not available in North America, well I don't live in a communist country (joke) so I got my hands on some fairly easily.

It was meh. Really did not live up to the hype from the linked video. Regular chili oil with fried minced beef, that's it. Maybe the American who made the video just finds it to be better because he knows there is a forbidden quality to it and his subconscious mind does the work. Obviously, not everyone's tastes are the same. Mildly regretting driving 45 minutes each way to the Asian market for one product.

I actually find authentic Chinese food to be overrated. Particularly wheat dishes.

A lot of people I know just love Bao and dumplings, but I find them meh. And eating wet dumplings with plastic chop sticks is just not worth it.

China is a big country so I wouldn't just blanket dismiss all "authentic Chinese food".

I am partial to Xi'an cuisine. Very beef and lamb heavy, spicy (chili and other silk route spices), and not as oily. They also tend to have the best wheat dishes. I recommend you try out 'Lamb cumin noodles'. Or try out any Xi'an "hand pulled" noodles, the texture is much much superior to the ubiquitous chowmein egg noodles noodles.

I had xi’an chili noodles from a hand/pulled shop once, and it was great. I remember it being oily but in a good way. Maybe I can find a decent place near me…

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