Eating Out: Chinese

I'm gong to a Chinese Restaurant tonight to celebrate my Mums birthday =) but I'm dreading it cos I don't know what to have. I've looked at the menu on the website and picked out a few things. I'd like to know what you guys think and you can take a look at the menu yourselfs and see if there's a healthier alternative =)

what I chose:

Starter
Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

Main
Boiled Rice
Diced Chicken with Green Pepper and ChilliCooked with fresh chilli

Dessert
Fresh Fruit Platter w/ 1 scoop Ice Cream

I'd usually never have the ice cream but I'm allowing myself a treat =)

click here for the menu

thanks guys

Sasha xxx

oh and how many calories do you think that will all add up to?

A lot.

If calories are even a remote concern, you need to ditch the soup and ice cream. The ice cream alone could run you 250-300 calories. The main entree will probably run you 1,000-1,500 calories. The soup will run you another 500 calories.

If it were me I would just eat what I want and not worry about the calories for the day.

I don't know if chinese food in the UK is any healthier than it is in the U.S., but I'm assuming it's not.

I would recommend that if you are celebrating your mums birthday, that you relax for the evening, and enjoy her company without worrying yourself or her about calories!

However, looking at the menu, and www.weightlossresources.co.uk. the low cal options would be the soup you have chosen, and for main course the stir fried chicken and mixed veg. Have the plain boiled rice and eat half only.

Depending on the portion sizes, the soup would be approx. 170 cals and the main 330 cals. Rice - a reasonable potion 75g - would be 263 cals.

That comes to 763 calories. If you want ice cream, one good scoop would be approx. another 200 calories. With the fruit - say 1100 calories plus drinks.

dm84 how much do you think I eat?! I'm sure the main won't amount to 1500 calories. and I'm definate the soup will not be 500 calories. if that's the calorie content of chinese food in the US then maybe it is healthier over here.

Thanks jennie186 =) I'll take your advice and have the stir fry chicken & veg. or maybe i'll just have the veg, its the best bit anyway =P i don't usually have that much rice anway, and i'll probably be full up from the soup! I don't really drink, I'll probably just have tap water. thanks for that =)

I was giving the calories for the total portion, not necessarily what you will eat.

Chinese food has a lot of hidden calories that people don't realize.

okay so I've done some research on the calorie content and planned my meal.

Starter
Hot and Sour Soup - 80

Main
1/2 serving of Boiled Rice - 150
1/2 serving of Lemon Chicken - 150
1/2 serving of Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables - 25

Dessert
Fresh Fruit Platter - 100?

so that's around 505 calories. I'm sure the rest of the food will get eating by the rest of my family (my Dad probably lol). wahey =)

There's all sorts of hidden oil and starch that gets thrown into chinese food. Your estimates are way off, but like people here have said, forget about it for the day.

your just here to make me miserable aren't you. I'll ask them to cook it with minimum oil.

I'm not here to make you miserable.

People have already told you not to worry calories for this meal.

You don't even need to lose weight, so I have no idea why you are so concerned with the calories for one meal. Just write it off as 1,500 calories and move on with your life.

but I'm meant to be eating 1400 a day and I've already had 470 so 1500 is a lot just for dinner!

omg just eat the food. dont think about calories...think of it this way some 1 eats junk all the time and has a coupple of healthy meals will look NO different. so if you eat healthy 90% of the time and have some junk meals ull look no different!! just go for chineese and be full and happy. (btw id go with the fried chicken and some sweet sauce...yummm and try and get fried ice cream for dessert those r awsome)

have a good dinner and dont beat urself up over it

haha that's a good point. I don't want to upset my Mum today as it's her birthday so I will try not to look so disgusted at the food. but she knows that I'm not gonna eat a whole load of crap so I'll just do my best to not too much of a fuss around her. I'll have to try hard tomorrow not to restrict, too.

what does fried ice cream actually taste like? i've never had it and probably wont, just curious.

hmm its kinda like a thin sweet bread mixed with ice cream. Picture a realy thin hot doughie ice cream cone surrounding ice cream hot on the outside, cold on the inside...so good

Seriously, that whole meal can't be more than 700-900 calories unless the portions are very large or maybe if they drown everything in sauce.

Most chinese restaurants give a minimum of 500 calories in rice alone.Then you have 300 calories of meat, combined with several tablespoons of oil (300-400 calories) and corn starch.

I'm sure real chinese food is healthier, but the stuff we have is anything but healthy.

well I'm pretty satisfied with what I ended up having last night =)

we went to a different restaurant but the menu was pretty much the same

Starter
Veg Hot and Sour Soup
tasted just like vinegar lol but was nice

Main
Stir fried Soft Noodles with Mixed Veg
had about two thirds of the serving, was very nice =)

Dessert
Summer Fruits Frozen Yoghurt
I can't believe they had this, normally they just have loads of chocolate stuff. it was tasty =P

all in all was really good, healthy (well healthier than most chinese places), wasn't too expensive and I didn't feel too guilty afterwards =)

so how many calories do you think now? I thought maybe 800 for the whole meal?

I don't even think it's worth telling you how many calories you ate because you'll just freak out and claim we're trying to make you miserable.

You ate a lot of calories last night, period. Yet you woke up today feeling good, so who really cares?

Fruit frozen yogurt = same amount of calories as chocolate frozen yogurt. Anyways, I think its pretty much impossible for us to guess the calorie content of the food without seeing the food on a plate or knowing the portion size. If it was a huge amount of food that can add up to a ton of calories, and if it was like one of those gourmet restaurants where they just lay a tiny palmful of each course on a plate than hardly any at all. P.F. Chang's is a Chinese resturaunt that lists their info though, so maybe you could compare what you had to the nutrition info there. It doesn't really matter anymore though, its in the past.

P.F. Chang's: http://www.pfchangs.com/cuisine/menu_main.jsp

WOAH this restaurant has WAY more calories than all the other restaurant sites I've visited (UK). 650cals for a soup?! that can't be right can it? but I don't know the size of the bowl, my bowl was quite small and didn't have all of that crap in it, just the broth, peas and green beans, and a bit of tofu. I'm sure that doesn't add up to 650calories. Another site listed their's as 80cals!

anyway I'm forgetting about it now. like you said, helmeouthere, it's in the past.

Yes, chinese food in the western world has a ton of calories.