Your typical take-out order : Thai, Mexican, Pizza, you name it

Our favourite take out is a little Chinese place in a down-at-heel part of town. Front of house is a lady who now recognises us as regulars. We first discovered them during Covid lockdown, via Uber Eats. They established a line of communication eventually, asking if we would order direct from them. We usually do a massive order once every 2-3 months and pick it up on the way back from work. The front of house lady has it ready, packed in a big cardboard box. There seem to be several men doing the cooking in the back and several young children doing their homework in the front waiting area.

Our usual order:

3 wonton soup

4 portions of yung chow fried rice

2 portions of Hong Kong style sweet and sour chicken

2 portions of chicken with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts

2 portions of dry beef ho fun

They usually throw in a big bag of prawn crackers and sometimes severely fortune cookies. Once, inexplicably, we were given a massive portion of chips (french fries) cooked with garlic and silvers of bell pepper - not sure if that was some kind of mistake or freebie.

We consume the soup straight away, doctored with our favourite brand of chilli oil. The fried rice boxes are packed till bursting, so 4 boxes is actually like 5 level boxfuls’ worth. We level out the contents and freeze at least a couple of boxes of fried rice and a box of the sweet and sour chicken. The other stuff lasts in the fridge for ages, and we bulk it out with our own steamed veggies and plain rice. The ho fun are wide flat rice noodles - I’m sure they’re cooked in lard as they are so tasty. Again, they last for ages in the fridge and are bulked out with chopped veggies.

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I’ve been changing my approach to ordering take-out in 2025.

I have been limiting my take-out to 3 or 4 dishes when I order Indian, Thai, Chinese or Vietnamese food, when ordering for myself and 2 dining companions.

The 3 or 4 dishes provide enough food for leftovers at lunch over the next 2 days.

Also, I’ve been focusing on more veg.

My most recent Indian take-out order from
India House in LondonOnt was
Navratan Korma ($14 CAD),
Makhani dal ($14 CAD),
Aloo Gobi ($14 CAD), and Jeera Rice ($5 CAD).

I don’t think I’ve tried dry beef ho fun. I will have to see if I can find it in Toronto.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FoodToronto/s/oxCwsEhHf0

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I love it!

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In terms of Chinese take-out beef dishes, we used to order beef with Chinese greens regularly when I was growing up.

Our usual Chinese take-out fried noodle dishes over the past 20 years have been Singapore noodles / vermicelli or Cantonese Chow Mein. I have tried a few Hakka noodles over the past few years, but not lately.

Interesting and glad to hear you’re taking a more veg-centric approach. We tend to over-order as the delivery charges are such that it makes sense to order more and freeze what we can.

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Takeout has pretty much disappeared from our lifestyle with the exception of Pizza. Our favorite Indian restaurant, Saffron, is three blocks away. We have never found a Chinese restaurant we love in Austin (recommendations welcome). Our neighborhood has a terrific pizza place, Baldinucci. We bring home a cheese pie now and then.

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I don’t get take out much but the three go-to items are: beef chow fun, HK style chicken chow mein (topping separated) and al pastor burrito. They all travel well.

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I can’t believe you all love beef ho fun, and I’ve never tried it. LOL.

My work is cut out for me. I have a shortlist of places serving it in the Chinatown near me: Swatow, Taste of China, Kings Noodle, House of Gourmet , and Rol San :rofl:

You’ll have to try it from all those places to find the best rendition. A good one has nice ‘wok hei’.

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Lol, I will have to pace myself.

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Pizza

Bacon and banana peppers

Wings

Hot honey double fried
Medium for husband and kids

Chinese

Hot & Sour Soup

House Lo mein

Beef and broccoli

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Just so you know, there’s wet (gravy) and dry, dry sometimes getting wok char or wok hei.

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Yep. Thank you!

I eat a fair amount of Chinese food. I probably was eating Chinese food at least weekly in my twenties and thirties.

This just wasn’t a fried noodle we ever ordered for whatever reason!

Even scrolling through a dozen online menus today, it isn’t that easy to find, if I’m looking for ho fun or chow fun as terms. Someone on Reddit said it’s called Chow Ho in Toronto, but I’m not seeing that written in English on the online menus. It’s translated to fried rice noodles with beef on the half dozen Toronto Spadina Dundas Chinatown menus I’ve scrolled through. Only one, Asian Legend, seems to call it Ho Fun, out of the restaurants that are convenient for me .
I’m adding the characters for my own reference.
干炒牛河

We’re mostly a Singapore Noodles/ Shanghai Fried Noodles / Cantonese Chow Mein household.

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I ordered Egg Rolls (4 x $2.79), Honey Garlic Ribs ($15.99), Tai Dop Voy ($14.99) and Rice Noodle with Beef ($15.99) (which I think is a translation of, or equivalent to, Beef Ho Fun) from Wong’s Garden in London, ON tonight. That said, the noodles did have some wok hei.