I ate in a family restaurant in Hong Kong once. The menu was all in Chinese of some sort, so I had no hope. The staff couldn't speak English.
At that moment the next table had theirs served and it looked fabulous. I just pointed at theirs, and they served me the same. It was fabulous, but I never knew what it was. Far, far better than any Chinese takeaway over here.
Hoppy, it's the same with me and Asian food. As a decorator, i've been fed by many of my Asian customers and their meals are to die for. That's because they are cooked properly and not just waved over a wok for a few seconds.
As for my fav Chinese takeaway (to answer the OP), sweet and sour chicken balls & boiled rice.
I never eat takeaway food. I find that good food doesn't do too well for spending time in a cardboard box on the back of a motor scooter. Some bad food may see an improvement when exposed to that, but I wouldn't eat that either.
The only ones we do are Cantonese from a friend's superb restaurant. Expensive and all cooked by the owner who also grows all the veg and buys local products. Special menu for Chinese New Year now for 14 days.
The only other takeaways we get are fish and chips but it's very rare these days. I'm always ill afterwards.
Our go to Chinese takeaway meal is always..
Sweet and sour chicken
Beef in black bean sauce
Prawn foo yung
Roast pork with cashew nuts
We like to have different tastes so will share what we order and have any leftovers the next day. Don’t think I’d enjoy just one meal, it’d be too much of the same taste, if you see what I mean.
Small world hoppy i to ate a fabulous meal in hong kong too. As it was 30yrs ago i couldnt tell you what i ate. What i could remember was being told to put the lid back upside down on the teapot so as to get a refill.
We did a tour of China quite a while ago, never thought I’d say it but we did get a bit sick of all the Chinese meals we had, interesting as they were. Some were absolutely delicious and some were..well..not!!
When in Liverpool Redman and I used to go to big bowl noodle, sometimes had to wait for a table it was full of Chinese people. Portions were mahoosive though ever finished even one dish.