CHinese Takeway - jelly meat

[woozer]

How/why do they make the meat the consistency of jelly -yuck.

[jd_1984]

Cheap, battered meat. I have gone well off chineese takeaway food of late. Especially when I can whip up a great strir fry in 12 minutes with quality fresh ingredients.

[237SJ]

I think the Chinese you get in the Far East is much better for having the MSG in it. It`s just not the same here.

[johne1892]

Looks like we're all going over to JD's house tomorrow!

The meat from my Chinese is lovely.....

[jd_1984]

We used to have a great one, bit pricy but excellent quality. The one in the next town churned out poorer quality at half the price and unfortunately it is that one that is still in business! But it was next to a pub and who can tell after 8 pints!

[woozer]

I do mostly cook our meaks from fresh ingredients but ust very occasionally - I like to be lazy and unhealthy and a chinese after a 12 hour shift used to be a treat but recently the meat has been so soft and yucky ............what on earth do they do to it

[ummmm]

I only eat prawns from a Chinese....it's very hard to fake a prawn..

[237SJ]

It`s not real meat, that`s why. It`s reconstituted. I noticed the strips of chicken in our thai were uniform thickness with sort of threads running through them to look like the grain of real meat.

[squarebear]

ummmm - I take it you have not heard of Surimi prawns then?

[woozer]

oops - lost control of fingers LOL key board sticking again - could it be MSG that softens the meat

[237SJ]

I doubt it woozer. MSG is a flavour enhancer and it`s not used here because people are touchy about it. They say as it is a type of salt it is bad but by the time they`ve covered their rice with soy sauce they`ve put all the salt back in anyway.

[ummmm]

Yes SB....but you can tell the difference. You mentioned to me the other day in the 'scampi' thread...and as soon as I seen them I knew what they were. If you're a sea food lover like me you'd notice them by sight.

They are quite tasty though...