The Irish FF snack sensation Spice Bag!

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Lol, sweet and sour chicken balls are absolutely on my top 25 Chinese take-out foods and Top 25 mall food court foods. I order Chicken Balls once or twice a year.

Ginger Beef is on my list of top 10 Chinese Canadian take-out foods. I order it at Rol San once in a while, and every time I visit Calgary, Regina, Edmonton or Saskatoon, where it’s on every Chinese Canadian menu.

Rol San’s version of crispy ginger beef was awful the last time I tried it, I’ll stick to their dim sum :dumpling:

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I liked it when I had it with Jacq from Chowhound (the Community Manager ages ago). It’s been a while.

Faley had a pretty good version. Faley closed the Thorncliffe Park location some time ago and I don’t know of their Rexdale location is still around. I also haven’t been to Rexdale in about 6 years. LOL.

The dry Ginger Beef at some Hakka restos is similar but not exactly the same as a good Calgary version

I mostly get Dim Sum at Rol San.

My sister went to the University of Buffalo, and she said the best Chinese restaurants were over in Canada. I went to one with her, back in the days when you could just hold up your drivers license and Customs would wave you across the border. I don’t remember chicken balls, though.

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You probably wouldn’t notice Chicken Balls in Niagara Region, if you weren’t looking for Sweet and Sour Something. :smiley:

I’ve been eating Chinese food a couple times a month my entire life, and I had never noticed Dry Beef Ho Fun/ Chow Fun on the menu until @medgirl mentioned it here. LOL. I also didn’t try General Tso/ Tao Chicken until I was close to 35. I was 46 when I tried Orange Beef.

Not just Canadian. This author references his experience with it in the UK, as well as Fuchsia Dunlop’s statements about them in My Seat At The Banquet:

Also, from Dunlop’s Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/fuchsiadunlop/p/C4pXJhfMJ66/

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Why only sweet and sour, or are there other varieties too?
I don’t feel so dumb now. Asked locally and no one knows anything. :slight_smile:
I’ve got to find my Canadian Chinese chef, it appears.

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Balls a plenty in our local Chinese takeaway menu!

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To be fair, the original dish in question does not contain sweet & sour chicken balls, but “salt & chilli” chicken balls (and thank goodness for that).

Like @Amandarama said, salt & pepper chicken / shrimp / squid is a common Chinese dish often found on Sichuan menus, with the possible addition of Sichuan peppercorns.

That Spice Bag is a feed bag I can get behind. Quite literally :horse:

Hopefully, our travels will take us to Dublin again some time, or perhaps it’s made its way to London in the meantime, where I might visit my bestie this summer :crossed_fingers:t2:

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Balls-a-plenty.

Good restaurant name, or bad restaurant name?

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I didn’t mean to suggest Chicken Balls were not also found in the UK and in Ireland.

My comment was in reference to Chicken Balls being common in Canada and not being common in the USA.

I agree with @linguafood that Salt and Chile sounds like Salt and Pepper prep. Very good on chicken wings and on squid at Chinese Canadian restaurants. Not just at Sichuan restaurants up here.

I have only had Chinese food in Ireland once. I didn’t have chicken balls that night.

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:joy:

But this Spice Bag has me intrigued. I’m not sure if its availability extends to Northern Ireland.

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Here, in Northern Ireland , via Reddit

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London and Dublin, maybe, in 2026!!!

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Never heard of sweet and sour chicken balls, and my mom’s family ran a Chinese take out in Chicago. They did sell a small brown bag of fried noodles for .10¢ in the 40s and 50s, super high mark up, usually stacked on the counter. A lot of Chinese restaurants did this, copy cat thing. I think they were the model for Chun King canned noodles.

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Well now that you’ve learned about the Spice Bag I think it’s crucial you know about this brilliant lad:

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I’ve been following him for a while now, absolutely hilarious :rofl:

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Yes, very. Going back just 22 weeks made me realise how long (hint: much longer than 22 weeks) I’ve been following him and how long that means I’ve been faffing about on social media.
But with accounts like his, I’m ok with some of that time spent.

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I live near a very Irish community in the Bronx (Woodlawn, for those who know) and I haven’t encountered this here. But It looks really good and I will inquire about it. My SO is Irish, and hasn’t seen this either. Maybe we have to go to Ireland on our summer holiday!

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