A work discussion recently turned to guilty secret comfort food, the food you get when no one is watching you.
"Captain D's hush puppies" I said, and I should have shut up then, but I did not. I did not because someone else said their super-secret sin was Chinese food.
"But Chinese food is healthy," I said. "It has vegetables." Beef with Broccoli, Chicken with Vegetables. Mu shu Pork.
"No," they said, "Chinese food is deep fried chicken submerged in sweet and sour jelly."
And then someone said Lion's Choice was their favorite, because it was made of roast lion, and that's where the conversation went then, but, tell me what you think, people.
Does Chinese qualify as a guilty pleasure comfort food?
Depends what you get, in my opinion, and whether one of the definitions of guilty pleasure includes "I didn't have to cook it" (or do dishes). Because yes, you can get steamed veggies with tofu and brown rice and just... no... on that being a guilty pleasure food otherwise.
That said, buying a full quart of won ton or egg flower or hot and sour soup and eating it all myself as a meal is one of my favorite things, which is possibly a guilty pleasure. But not really in the same league?
Posted by: KC | February 21, 2022 at 12:10 PM
KC - I am inclined to agree with you. I think back to the days when McDonald's has no salads or apples, no vegetation anywhere, but at a Chinese food place had actual green and orange vegetables.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 21, 2022 at 05:07 PM
Yes, when the closest thing you get to a vegetable is a garnish on a hamburger that you only get when you buy the fancy hamburger, there really isn't much of a nutritional comparison (unless you're looking for potassium, in which case fries have it in the bag, and ditto for salt)(actually, when I needed to gain weight and increase my salt intake about 10 years ago, McDonald's was the maximum salt and calories per unit of food consumed that I was able to find; I simply wasn't able to wedge that much salt and fat into anything homemade and still have it edible).
But the menus for Chinese food places: vegetables everywhere! And a wide variety, too!
But I'll also grant that Americanized sweet and sour pork is... not in accordance with general assumptions about health food, we'll say.
Posted by: KC | February 21, 2022 at 08:01 PM
KC - did you try adding MSG (sold as Accent)? That would do it.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 22, 2022 at 08:17 AM