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.

1. 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…

2. 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.

Dear Patrons,

I post my letter to one of our customers at 7ave location whose first name is Jay and who got serious allergy after eating at our restaurant due to some dishes that contained MSG. I express my sorry here, and also want to listen to your comments, criticism. But, most importantly, I need your help: the suggestions and recommendations: what we do next, what kind of chicken base or other ingredients we will adopt, if we could continue using MSG in some particular dishes?   (more…)

Here’s the message from our customer Dan:

We have been to your Seventh Ave. restaurant a number of times and greatly enjoyed our meals there. A few weeks ago my companion and I came to the Seventh Ave. restaurant and brought a bottle of wine with us. We were informed that there would be a $5 service charge to open the bottle of wine (a fee usually called corkage). A corkage fee is understandable if the restaurant already has a wine and beer license. But this is the first instance we’ve ever encountered in which a restaurant without a liquor license tried to charge corkage. We refused, and left the restaurant to dine elsewhere.

Today, as my companion and I will be going to a movie at Film Forum, I called the restaurant and asked if a corkage fee is still being charged, and it is. So we will not be dining there tonight. And it’s unlikely we’ll ever return. –Dan

Dear Dan:

First of all, I thank you for your support and love for the food at 7ave. location, and appreciate your continual of coming back to enjoy meals here. Second, I am so sorry to hear you have been hurt by the corkage fee. I will express my opinion here very frankly to exchange it with you, also appreciate other customers will participate in our discussion, and finally we will adopt customers’ suggestions to make decision about corkage fee.

My opinion to corkage fee is a both yes and no answer. I say yes because it is a common practice for restaurants. We applied for a wine and beer license in Jan. this year and have been waiting up to 10 months. Usually, it takes three to five months to get a formal liquor license. I have no idea why it is so long this time. I do believe that, early or late, we will have our liquor license and serve customer beer and wine. On the other hand, I say no because even the corkage policy is right, if it hurts our customers, I believe it is a bad one. So I consider your suggestion, also listen to other customers’ opinion, and then make a decision to charge or not charge a corkage fee.

Tell you the truth, I think something further. I watched New York Times’ online video about interviewing ordinary people talking about the American economy. A waitress from Florida says that people don’t come to eat much and pay half of tips they paid before because of the bad economy. People care of a small amount of corkage fee due to the bad economy. I try to be bold to assume that if a certain amount of money had been spent on economy for the last few years that is similar to an amount spent on Iraq war, our economy would be much and much better, no one would complain the corkage fee. Thinking of the difficulty of economy, we will try our best to cut the cost of eating at our restaurants. Comparing to other Grand Sichuan, the rent at 7th Ave. is the highest, the wage is the highest because we hire more good cooks to cook more times for the small plates, and the food cost is the highest because we buy the best ingredients and keep almost everything fresh. For example, we are going to adopt a new chicken base that does not contain MSG, which will cost us 1500 dollars more than average Chinese restaurants. Chicken base is one of the items that charge us more. Actually, we have made many improvements for the basics that cost us a lot but customers even cannot see and feel. From this point of view, it is worth coming back to eat at the 7th Ave. restaurant!

Thank you for your criticizing and all comments are welcome, and I am looking forward to your response.

John

1. on October 27, 2008 at 12:59 pm david repp wrote:

   $5.00 is very reasonable for corkage regardless if the restaurant serves wine or not

2. on October 31, 2008 at 12:02 am admin wrote:

   Dear David,
   Thank you for your comment. Fortunately we have gotten our liquor license recently, and will serve wine and beer very soon.

   John

3. on December 6, 2008 at 9:11 am Ken wrote:

   John we are coming from England to New York at Christmas and in order to cut down the time spent arguing the ‘where are we eating tonight’ scenario we are trying to get a few restaurants together within walking distance of the apartment we are staying in. There will be six adults and one 2 year old, (well behaved, who likes her food). Your 7th Ave place falls in the walking distance of our 6th Ave partment and so when I was looking at your website I saw this thread about corkage and was interested.

   I have a pet hate about the cost of wine charged by the restaurants in the UK (and the US). Everybody who shops at a decent supermarket knows what the price of wine is and to be asked to pay four five or six times the cost really does get on my nerves.

   However your response to Dan was so greatly refreshing as in the UK we would never get a restaurant owner responding so well. It struck me that while you are in business to make a profit you appear to care about your food and your customers and it makes me want to come and eat there. We have talked about eating a good Chinese meal on Christmas Eve and I hope it will be at your place. By the way can we still bring our own wine and pay the corkage?

   Regards Ken and one again an excellent response. (I agree about the Iraq war and the economy, it is the same here).

4. on December 9, 2008 at 1:29 pm admin wrote:

   Dear Ken,

   Thank you for your comments and you are welcome to New York, and to our restaurant! You may bring your own wine and pay some corkage if your wine is not on our wine list since we have already had a license to sell wine and beer. In case I will tell the manager Steve or Jenny to make sure that you can bring your wine in. Enjoy your stay and Marry Christmas!

   John

5. on January 18, 2009 at 10:18 am Joe Clements wrote:

   I own a moving company in Brooklyn, New York. Many times I hear “you charge for that?”
   I have been to your restaurant, I love your food and I will pay for corkage. It is a shame Dan is willing to give up your great food because of his ideas on how you should run your business. If Dan does not bring his own glasses for his wine then I assume that your restaurant must supply the glasses, bring them to and from the table, uncork the bottle (I am sure Dan would want you to do the first pour) and then clean the glasses and dispose of the bottle. If Dan thinks all this should be free then let Dan service all your customers that ask for corkage, clean the glasses when they are done and dispose of the bottle. I would love to be there to see Dan at his first day of work. I will gladly give Dan five dollars for corkage and will even give him an extra five if he can muster up a smile.

   Joe Clements
   Big Apple Moving

6. on January 20, 2009 at 1:38 pm michael wheeler wrote:

   John, I am an old friend of yours / GSI and have eaten with you 100’s of times.
   First its so refreshing to just see you publish Dans comments, many I think would just let it slide under the rug.
   Now as for Dan, please you have got to be kidding me, even if unemployed and near broke your busting up one of the finest Chinese places over $5, I cant believe my eyes!!
   John thank you for letting us bring wine and pay corkage, as your food goes so well with top wines of the Rhone (tea smoked duck!!!) and German Spatlese (the fresh chicken in a few ways) etc etc
   I am with Joe lets help dan out here as he needs it!!
   Long live GSI!!

7. on January 21, 2009 at 11:05 am admin wrote:

   Dear Joe,

   Thank you for your support and understanding and we will try our best to serve all of you. On the other hand, we are always taught that customers have the right to express their opinion freely, customers are always correct, and we have to think from the point of view of customers. The good news is that we have gotten our liquor licence and serve wine and beer. Even before we got our licence, we didn’t “implement” our “corkage policy” very tough. I remembered in the 24 street location, some regular customers came in with their own wine bottles, we very often did not charge them corkage that we were supposed to do. Since customers are always correct, Dan raised an important issue for our restaurant: how do we provide good food and service, and the same time to save customers’ money? In today’s bad economy, we have to think this issue seriously and put it into practice. Thank you again and welcome to give us more comments.

   John

8. on January 22, 2009 at 9:28 am admin wrote:

   Dear Michael,

   It is my pleasure to meet you here as our best friend and patron, and our happiness and enjoyment are really rely on patrons’ needs and satisfaction. Since Grand Sichuan has been here for more than 10 years, I have to think how to do better, better food, better service, better communication, and more betters. I have told my employees that the secret of success is that we are always know what customers think and need, and do what customers want us to do. To do better is a long journey. With all information and feedback from you, we will definitely do our best. Thank you again and welcome to send your comments.

   John

9. on July 26, 2009 at 4:29 pm JD wrote:

   Dear All,

   I have seen corkage fees in the past at places that do not serve wine or beer so I do not see it as an issue.

   Dan, I respect your stand. If you feel strongly about something and you make decisions based on your principals that is worthy of respect. I am sorry for those that do not understand sticking by ones principles enough to respect that.

   John I find your mention of the $5 fee in relation to the broader economy to be comical. Your statement, if “they” spent money on the economy instead of the war the world would be a better place. While I disagree with the war and am also suffering in this economy, you reference to this topic is a fallacy and has nothing to do with the issue of the corkage fee.

   Best regards,
   JD

10. on July 27, 2009 at 10:38 pm admin wrote:

    Dear John,

    Thank you for the comments and I am still thinking and believe that you are right. Yesterday I read an article written by a Harvard professor that says the personal influence is a relatively short range phenomenon, dissipating entirely at three degrees of remove from the person who exercises it. For example, the smoke of your best friend will influence you, but the smoke of your friend’s friend’s friend (the third degree) will not have some influence on your health. Although the war and the economy are not a direct personal influence to our restaurant, the scenario is similar, because there are so many processes and steps in the middle between these and the corkage fee. What I say is the feeling (no matter wrong or right) that occurs in my restaurant that some people including me attribute the bad economy to the war, and attribute the corkage fee to the bad economy.Your comments will encourage us to understand more and deeper about the war and the economy and business, and welcome your future postings.

    John

11. on August 10, 2009 at 11:44 am Dave wrote:

    I have to agree with JD in saying that there is no direct relationship between dollars spent on the war versus the state of our economy but I do understand what you are trying to communicate – that our current environment plays greatly into our willingness or unwillingness to spend an extra dollar…something that you have to consider when running your business. The fact is that it was a lack over regulatory oversight and speculation that caused our economic problems. No amount of money could have solved this as it was not a lack of resources but a lack of discipline that hurt us.

    Anyways… $5 is not much to pay in NYC. I’ve paid $4 a person for a restaurant to serve birthday cake…which ended up costing almost twice the price of the cake itself! I often go to your 24th street location. Its great!

12. on August 10, 2009 at 1:47 pm eichen wrote:

    So do you still charge corkage fee or do you have wine/beer license?
    Thank you.

13. on October 5, 2009 at 8:29 pm admin wrote:

    Dear Eichen, we have our beer/wine license now. There’s a corkage fee if you bring your own wine.

This Evening, Feb 9 2009, one customer came to our Jersey City restaurant and ordered barbecue spareribs take out. The new female cook we recently hired touched his spare rib using her bare hands and then used the same hand to touch her own mouth while preparing the spare ribs. This was very wrong. She might just want to check the temperature of the spare rib or to see if the spare rib was well done enough. But under any circumstance, she should not use bare hands to touch food. And whatever her reason was, this wrong thing is fully our restaurant’s responsibility. This employee has quit her job tonight after what happened.

We feel terrible sorry to our customers. We want to publish this story here and express our sincerely apology to our customers. We promise this kind of thing won’t happen again. And we’ll continue keep our kitchen window open. We appreciate all the criticizing and suggestions from our customers. We’ll improve our service, cleanness of the restaurant to make a better Grand Sichuan.

Grand Sichuan Jersey City

1. on February 10, 2009 at 9:27 am John wrote:

   I am shocked badly and feel very sorry when I heard that the lady cook used her hand to touch the spare rib and then sent her hand into her mouth for four times to test the food. It is absolutely wrongdoing. First of all, the management team including me must take the responsibility, and we have to apology and say sorry to our customers publicly and promise this kind of things would not happen again.

   After the wrongdoing, the lady cook quit her job immediately, and the management held an emerging meeting to adopt actions to guarantee a clean kitchen and the healthy food. Starting now, we will pay double attention to take care of and solve sanitary problems. We are confident that we will maintain a clean and sanitary kitchen and provide the healthy food.

   Still, we continue keeping our open kitchen and let all customers watch our kitchen operation, giving their feedback and criticism immediately. Now that we serve our customers, customers have a right to see how and what they are served.

   We also ask all customers to inform us about their feeling, ideas, and suggestions about maintaining a clean and sanitary kitchen. We also start looking for an interior designer to design our kitchen layout, which will make the kitchen cleaner, neat, and attractive.

   The lady cook was the first time to work independently to handle the spare ribs. Her job was to make soup dumpling, not to make spare ribs. Yesterday the male cook who works at the oil stove station was off, and she temporarily worked there. And more, the chef just changed the way to cook the spare ribs recently, which she was not familiar with and without experience on it. It is a pity for a wrong decision of sending her to work there for a day. She was not sure whether the ribs had been cooked. Without any help, she tasted by herself to decide if the ribs was ready. Our management should not send her to work at that station, even just for one day.

   However, after changing the way of cooking the spare ribs, the ribs are superb, very fresh, tender, and tasteful. I strongly recommend this dish if you, the dear customers, could give me an excuse. Since the opening of this restaurant, we have trying all the way to improve our cooking to make better dishes. We try to use all fresh ingredients, we don’t use frozen food or freeze fresh food, we have not used any ingredient that contains MSG element since two months ago, but broth and pure chicken base, and more. All of us can tell you this is a Chinese restaurant you can trust.

   John

2. on February 20, 2009 at 1:33 pm s wrote:

   no warning. just fired like that? that sucks. i like restaurants that treat there employess w. respect too. i understand the cleanliness thing and of course what she did was wrong, but dont over react.
   you know far worst things happen in the back of your kitchen. the customer just happened to see this one right?

3. on February 21, 2009 at 1:00 pm keith wrote:

   see -
   i gotta agree with s.
   a perfect example of why people actually hire a PR person.
   kitchens in new york (my local) and around the world (jersey city) are pretty dirty
   No big deal – dont fire the girl
   keith

4. on February 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm MC wrote:

   I am trying to find a good Chinese source in my new hood. I am big on cleanliness and quality, but am also sure that this was probably not a big deal compared to what goes on in kitchens. I hope she was warned before she was “fired”. I am impressed though that you apologized. I hope that these standards of your are practiced behind closed doors as well.

5. on February 27, 2009 at 12:22 pm jorge larios wrote:

   “she quit” this is a mayor problem these days , the employes they feel like a number in the company and very easy replaceable , work under preassure to loose they job therefore they dont feel happy and work careless , they dont feel passion or belongingness to the place they work, (nobody cleans a rented car cause u know its not yours ) , and thats why bussines start loosing money .
   or maybe you guys are liying and telling us what some people want to ear and she got transfer to another store , which i doubt.

6. on March 24, 2009 at 6:10 pm EM wrote:

   The restaurant management gets trained and certified in safe food handling practices and is supposed to subsequently train their employees. I don’t think this girl would have done what she did if she had been taught properly. Management needs to ensure their patrons that it won’t happen again because management will do a better job of preparing employees on how to do their job correctly and safely.

7. on March 27, 2009 at 12:13 pm Daniel wrote:

   This is really strange. You fired someone for this and then made such a big deal. Looks like a P.R. move. And being that you are a chinese restaurant, I am sure a lot more gross shit happens.

8. on March 29, 2009 at 12:57 pm KZ wrote:

   You and your manager repeatedly keep mentioning that the cook is female, would you do the same if it was a man? The “Lady Cook”? The “Female Cook”? What does that have to do with anything? Maybe you should stop focusing on the sex of your employees when referring or judging them (which is a violation of the law, as well), and focus instead on properly training them.

9. on March 29, 2009 at 7:33 pm what? wrote:

   what? are you all kidding? you actually are sad that this cook with poor sanitary training quit or got fired? i applaud grand sichuan – thank you for putting your customers first

10. on April 3, 2009 at 11:18 am crizz wrote:

    cut the dude a break. its pretty ballsy to publish this. plus cultural and language differences. maybe hasty message, but take a breath. wait, why am i typing this?

11. on April 5, 2009 at 9:51 pm admin wrote:

    Dear S, Keith, Mc. Jorge, Em, Daniel, Kz, and Crizz

    Thank you all for your opinions and suggestions, and it is really grateful for what you have said. Eight of you have expressed the same idea and I have to listen to it. I have called her back, but she is currently working for a big company down Florida and feels satisfactory. We have told her that she is always welcome to be back whenever she comes back to work in New York area, where her family is. To be honest, I have made decision to let her go. If it is wrong, you everybody knows, and I will not do the same thing again. I asked her to leave because I was a little bit of scare and what she had done was photographied competely with a cellphones, which might hurt her. My restaurant stands here, cannot move, and will take any whatever punishment, but she can go to avoid it in case. Anyway, she is an excellent Shanghai dim sim chef and used to working at the five star “Peace Hotel” that next to Bond street in Shanghai, and attended international food events represented China when she was in China. With this background, she should not use her hand to taste the food. We will continue educating employees to keep kitchen open and clean. Since she cannot be back soon, we hire another Shanghai dim sim chef now to make soup dumpling and other stuff. Thank you all for your opinion, and I will learn from you to improve my leadership and management.
    John

12. on April 6, 2009 at 4:10 pm admin wrote:

    Dear Crizz,

    Thank you for your thoughts. I agree with you that why I published this. I have written in another posting the reason is her behavior and whole process have been photographied and filmed. I was afraid of something would happen and we needed to deal with. I am just honest to talk about it, hoping that all customers could help us how to do the right thing and to do thing rightly. For a long time, Chinese restaurants were and are like isolated islands in American society. With the help of internet, I do wish we would establish a platform to communicate with customers closely and mix well with mainstream society. Chinese have their culture and language, but they stay in America and have to take American culture and system as the dominant one. And more, different cultures have something in common. For example, Christianity says that ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise (Luke 6:31, King James Version), while Confucianism says that do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you (Analect 15-23). I promise if we don’t like something not clean, we will not let our customers have it. Thank you again and look forward to your future comments.

    John

13. on April 6, 2009 at 10:45 pm admin wrote:

    Dear EM,

    I have written a letter to all who concern with the issue, please read that letter on our site. Probably I made a wrong decision to let her go. We have called her back but not too soon, because she is currently working at a restaurant in Florida, and we are looking forward to her back. I will take the responsibility for any wrong decision, and learn from all of you. Thank you very much.

    John

14. on May 21, 2009 at 10:33 pm Kristy wrote:

    Posted by Daniel:

    “This is really strange. You fired someone for this and then made such a big deal. Looks like a P.R. move. And being that you are a chinese restaurant, I am sure a lot more gross shit happens.”

    What the fuck is that supposed to mean? “being that you are a chinese restaurant”

    I guess wiping your ass with prepared food at Domino’s and spitting in people’s food at steakhouses/burger joints doesn’t count right?

    All he’s trying to do is be honest and prove to the customers that sanitation and cooking preparation is most important. If anything I feel safer eating at this place.

    Don’t be a racist and an asshole on top of that. Thanks.

    BTW your food is delicious!

15. on May 28, 2009 at 9:59 am Christina wrote:

    I think he made a right decision firing her. She needs to know her job comes with responsibility.
    That’s why union workers usually are so lay back thinking they wont get fired so easily.
    This is recession and people need to know that it is important to think before you act.
    She messed up, then of course she has to go.

16. on June 11, 2009 at 6:59 pm tee wrote:

    Hi John-

    I recently ordered from St Marks, Kung Bao Chicken, one of my favorite dishes. When it arrived ( for delivery) the flavor was okay, but the dish was about 75% celery. I’ve ordered this dish often and have never seen celery, or even that much. Is that traditionally how you would prepare the dish?

17. on June 16, 2009 at 8:39 am admin wrote:

    Dear Tee,

    I am sorry to hear you are not satisfactory with our dish, and I will check the kitchen, find the cause, and solve the problem. I promise to serve all our customers well. Thank you for your criticism and welcome your continuous comments.

    John

18. on June 24, 2009 at 5:25 pm Bill Singh wrote:

    You did the right thing. Your restaurant prides itself on cleanliness (which is a very good thing especially in NY/NJ). And yes, having the experience the chef had, she should have known better. Don’t take some of the squabbling above to heart – people will complain about everything. She was a female chef, so you mentioned it – big deal. Anyways, good job, and keep up the great work; and your dedication to cleanliness, and quality.

    - One very satisfied customer

19. on July 10, 2009 at 10:26 am Zk wrote:

    I for one am extremely pleased with the responsibility of the management of this restauraunt. I’ve never personally been to the Jersey City location, but I have been to the St. Marks one many a time and I’ve never had a problem.

    I can’t believe so many of you are complaining about this management; how many of you have seen managers take their time out to not only make a public apology, but numerous follow-ups to concerns on this board? I WISH many of the restaurants and stores in general had this kind of management dedicated to ensuring the highest of customer service.

    As for concerns over the cook being fired for being a woman (mainly KZ)…come on. Obviously John’s english isn’t perfect and it was more of a label to identify the cook rather than an insult…speaking a few languages myself I know I probably say the wrong damn thing many times too and for you to be picky with what is obviously his second language is damn ignorant of you, if I do say so myself.

    Keep up the good work, Grand Sichuan! I’ll actually be dining with you tonight!

20. on July 27, 2009 at 7:30 pm admin wrote:

    Dear ZK,

    Thank you so much for your comments and we are encouraged. For our small restaurant, we do have problems and sometimes make mistakes. The best way to overcome these problems is to listen to customers to know what they really want, and the inter-net provides the best solution for us to do so. I always talk to my people in the restaurant that the secret for success is to be able to hear the customers’ real comments even criticism. We are so thankful whenever we read these comments and criticism from our web, and know these are priceless and precious. If we kept informed and corrected our problems accordingly, we would be successful. Thank you again and we are looking forward to your future comments.

    John