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Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 30, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I asked the owner of the local Chinese place here in the US about this and she said the following, condensed for brevity. All the food they make is composed of a limited number of ingredients. 3-4 types of meat, 2-3 types of rice, 4-6 different sauces, 2-3 types of noodles, 7-10 types of veggies. You ignore the menu entirely if you are aware of what is on offer and just state what you want: pork in white rice with broccoli, cabbage, and carrots in ginger sauce for example. The menu is huge b/c they often try to explicitly list every possible iteration of these ingredients with a name and price. If you look closely most of the dishes are extremely similar but with a different starch (rice or noodle) and different meat. They list theirs by the base starch: white rice, fried rice, lo mein, chow mein, etc. Underneath these subheadings is a list of basically they same meat/veg/sauce combos reiterated under every starch type. The stuff they consider the good combinations are usually under "House Specials".