I know that most chinese food is a no no. I love take out and lately, I've been ordering the diet dish steamed chicken with stringbeans...no sauce. I order soy sauce and mustard sauce on the side and mix it in. I can consume a quart in a sitting. I've been thinking that perhaps I don't need to always get the diet dish in order to eat low carb. I love hot and sour soup and I wonder how bad that is....also, chicken chow mein doesn't seem like it would be so bad...and what about moo goo guy pan? I know that I could probably just cook it and buy low carb sauce but when I come home at eight at night, the last thing on my mind is cooking. If I cook that late, it's usuially a burger with microwaved okra or those gorden fisherman grilled salmon steaks. Anyway, I digress

are there any links to carb counts on chinese food? btw, I know egg drop is low carb but I can't stand the stuff.

Foo Yong (with Pork, chicken, shrimp, or beef)

Crispy aromatic duck or lamb (no pancake and no plum(hoisin) sauce.

Bean sprouts are ok

water chestnuts are OK

Most stir fry material is Ok

hey, silly question...what exactly is foo yong? thanks!

Hey Further,

I just went through this same thing myself. All of the sauces are going to be made with cornstarch, MSG or an MSG lookalike with a different name. I've learned never to trust the "no MSG" signs b/c they just throw in some other starchy thickener. I have asked my favorite Chinese place to make a dish with no thickeners or starch, just a plain brown (thin) sauce. Unless you specifically request it, sauce is going to equal starch. I like my little brown sauce dish --- has beef, chicken, pork, scallops, shrimp, broccoli and Chinese celery.

I found all this out b/c I had gained a whopping 4.5 lbs after eating stuff from the buffet that was meat, but loaded with starch b/c of the sauce. I was not happy. And I did what you did and asked what's up with that. Live and learn.

I love this board.

badgoat

Foo Yong = omlette

I usually order meat and veggies with garlic sauce and request it to made with no cornstarch. Most places are more than happy to oblige.

Egg foo young is like a chinese omelette. Just make sure to order without the gravy. Use soy or hot chili sauce on top.

tomorrow, ill try the foo young...sounds good. thank you

How about trying to do a couple of your favorite Chinese dishes yourself? From your local library you can borrow basic Chinese cook books, and you will see, most of those dishes can be done in less than 15 minutes, and by skipping the starch, MSG, etc. Now in any grocery store you can find the basic ingredients, and they are very cheap.

Good luck:-)

(The reason you can hardly find any accurate carb chart for Chinese foods: there are so many ways to do them. For example I know dozen different recipes for Kung Pao chicken - with very different ingredients - based on what part of China - or the world - the recipe is from.)

Bumping for Bess .