People often complain that Chinese food is too oily. Is this true?
Chinese cooking use techniques as sauteed (stir-fry), steam, bake, stew, boil, preserve and others. However, the most important cooking technique, or core technique, is sauteed, or called stir-fry. This technique differentiates Chinese cooking from other cooking in the world. The oil protects the food from being burned and makes the food more tasty. Oil is the carrier, the media or the conductor to carry or convey the heat to the food. Until today, no other food could replace oil as a carrier or conductor to cook Chinese food. As a whole, Chinese eat much less oil than westerners.
Chinese eat 70 % rice and 30 % of meats, fish and vegetables for a meal. The rice is 100 % oil free. The oil only helps cook the 30 % others. How much oil do you think Chinese consume? This is why most Chinese are much slimmer than Westerners. You will be very hard pressed to find fat Chinese or even Chinese who seem to consume a lot of oil! You don’t seem satisfied with this theory. You still want to say: Why most Chinese food in America still looks oily to me? To find out the answer, we must know the difference between American Chinese cooking and Authentic Chinese cooking.
Maggie 
on January 29, 2009 at 9:14 pm Community Resource Exchange wrote:
Huh? Chinese-Americans are “much slimmer than Westerners”? Recent immigrants, but folks that live here even 10 years?? Nah…
on June 10, 2009 at 11:34 am Liana wrote:
Hello! I used to order Chopped Sour Long Beans with Minced Pork (from the Mao’s Home Cooking section) once or twice a week when I lived near your former Hell’s Kitchen location. I moved away from the city (to Georgia), and have been trying to re-create this dish for the last 4 years. Whenever I’m in New York, of course, I visit your restaurant (24th St.), but I’d love to be able to make something like this at home. Can you give me any tips? Are the long beans pickled in vinegar, or fermented, and if so, do you pickle or ferment your own? (I’ve tried pickling long beans, and also using the “sour long beans” sold in vaccum packs in Chinese grocery stores, but still my attempts have fallen short.) What else is in there besides the pork, beans, scallions, (lots of) oil, and chiles? You’d be doing me and everyone I pester about this dish an enormous service. Thank you so much for any help.