ordering chinese / thai food for a group

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would also consider the sauces. It seems like a lot of Chinese restaurants use very similar sauces on several dishes, so I would aim to have a variety.

Thai has sweeter sauces often so take that into consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moo Goo Gai Pan sounds intimidating but it’s just chicken and vegetables in a mild sauce, nothing too exotic unless people don’t like mushrooms

You might need to reconsider your definition. Around here, exotic is putting garlic salt on mashed potatoes.

This is largely not true of DC and the close in suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is very odd. If it’s just five, you ask each person what they want if you’re doing entrees. If you are hosting a small dinner party then you make a main dish with sides. If you are dead set on not communicating with people you know and like well enough to invite inside your house, then make it a “dim sum dinner” and get a whole lot of dumplings and small appetizers with maybe a double or triple order of fried rice.

Nowadays people have a variety of food intolerances, allergies or whatever. 20 years ago you could have done this and I’d be happy to eat some of whatever you got because I could tolerate it. Nowadays, there’s almost nothing I could eat because of recently developed food intolerances, heartburn, or medication interactions, so if I go to an Asian restaurant I have to order very carefully. I’m not going to bore you as the host with all my intolerances, and if you cooked, I will push food around my plate, but if you’re bringing in takeout in those crappy black containers and I didn’t get to select my own I’m going to be pissed to sit there and drink some water and hopefully eat some plain rice and make up some BS line about how “oh I had a big lunch today and something upset my tummy so I’m fine with this, thanks.”

You’re the first person I’d cross off my list!

Such a bore.

So you would rather this person gets sick from eating your chosen food?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is very odd. If it’s just five, you ask each person what they want if you’re doing entrees. If you are hosting a small dinner party then you make a main dish with sides. If you are dead set on not communicating with people you know and like well enough to invite inside your house, then make it a “dim sum dinner” and get a whole lot of dumplings and small appetizers with maybe a double or triple order of fried rice.

Nowadays people have a variety of food intolerances, allergies or whatever. 20 years ago you could have done this and I’d be happy to eat some of whatever you got because I could tolerate it. Nowadays, there’s almost nothing I could eat because of recently developed food intolerances, heartburn, or medication interactions, so if I go to an Asian restaurant I have to order very carefully. I’m not going to bore you as the host with all my intolerances, and if you cooked, I will push food around my plate, but if you’re bringing in takeout in those crappy black containers and I didn’t get to select my own I’m going to be pissed to sit there and drink some water and hopefully eat some plain rice and make up some BS line about how “oh I had a big lunch today and something upset my tummy so I’m fine with this, thanks.”

You’re the first person I’d cross off my list!

Such a bore.

So you would rather this person gets sick from eating your chosen food?

I probably wouldn’t be upset at not going anyway. With my friends if we’re doing something like this, I would say “hey Jane, do you want me to get you the shrimp that you always like” and she would say yes or “no, I’m not eating shrimp right now, can you get something chicken with no broccoli and can we have some steamed rice.” and I’d do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:spring rolls or steamed dumplings
combination low mein or combination pad see ew (not both)
chicken fried rice
Kung pow chicken (no peanuts)
Panang curry tofu
Sichuan green beens (without pork if you have a vegetarian)
beef and broccoli or double fried pork

it's too much but who cares, have left overs.

Omg hilarious.

NP. You will be ready to go if you are watching a Batman fight scene full of onomatopoeia. Kung POW!

I believe it was kapow. Oddly, also used in restaurant names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is very odd. If it’s just five, you ask each person what they want if you’re doing entrees. If you are hosting a small dinner party then you make a main dish with sides. If you are dead set on not communicating with people you know and like well enough to invite inside your house, then make it a “dim sum dinner” and get a whole lot of dumplings and small appetizers with maybe a double or triple order of fried rice.

Nowadays people have a variety of food intolerances, allergies or whatever. 20 years ago you could have done this and I’d be happy to eat some of whatever you got because I could tolerate it. Nowadays, there’s almost nothing I could eat because of recently developed food intolerances, heartburn, or medication interactions, so if I go to an Asian restaurant I have to order very carefully. I’m not going to bore you as the host with all my intolerances, and if you cooked, I will push food around my plate, but if you’re bringing in takeout in those crappy black containers and I didn’t get to select my own I’m going to be pissed to sit there and drink some water and hopefully eat some plain rice and make up some BS line about how “oh I had a big lunch today and something upset my tummy so I’m fine with this, thanks.”

You’re the first person I’d cross off my list!

Such a bore.

So you would rather this person gets sick from eating your chosen food?

I would rather that high-maintenance, oh-so-delicate people just stay away.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for all of your suggestions. I offered to host my friends, I didn’t want to ask them for their choices the same way I wouldn’t have asked what they want to eat if I was cooking. The food was for all to share and with a variety I assumed that all would be happy. I do respect people’s food situations like allergies but luckily none of this group has any (except for me).

In case anyone circles back out of curiosity, this is what I ordered (Chinese) and most was fully eaten:

2 orders of spring rolls
combination lo mein
beef with broccoli
sweet and sour shrimp
szechuan chicken
kung pao tofu
eggplant in garlic sauce

Also, one poster suggested ordering less variety but double each dish ordered, and I do think that might have been a good idea because I would up feeling like I only got a small amount of each.

We had a fun night watching much of the new season of Nobody Wants This and eating Chinese food!