To not want to eat Chinese - help me to see if I’m being unreasonable

[Watermoves]

My partners favourite take away is Chinese. I’m not keen, I’m vegetarian (raised this way) and just find its bland and boring. I have eaten Chinese but I don’t really like it.

Therefore we often have Indian, Mexican, pizza etc if we have a takeaway all of which he also really likes. I often offer to get him a Chinese or suggest he gets one if I’m working late etc but he always says no.

it come to a head tonight as he wanted a Chinese take away and I didn’t fancy it but suggested I would get something else. He said it’s not the same eating a takeaway alone. I kinda get that, but I would have got myself an Indian. (We would be eating at the table together just different food)

He basically said I should suck it up and eat the Chinese food every so often for him? My rationale is that I shouldn’t have to eat what I don’t want or like?

who is being unreasonable?

If me and DP are getting a takeaway, and don't want to eat the same food, we order from different places to be delivered at the same time. It's not rocket science, or a problem.

We do have free delivery on Just Eat though, which is worth it even if you only get one takeaway a week.

I find it insane how many people are suggesting OP wastes time, money and (lets face it a lot of) calories on eating something she doesn't like, just so manbaby can share a portion of crispy beef.

there is literally nothing stopping him from having 'the option he would prefer'
He can order a chinese just for him on a day OP is out. He can have one for lunch at work. He can go for a chinese with his friends or family. He can have a chinese while OP has an Indian. So many different options.

Whining "it's not the same if you don't share one" is utterly pathetic.
Does he think the 8.4 million single households in the UK (not to mention all the people living individually in houseshares) never have takeaways?

It's more about sitting down and having dinner together than whether you're eating the same food. YANBU

I'm with you OP dont like Chinese food apart from chicken fried rice and starters like ribs, wings, prawn crackers. I just don't like the chunks of vegetables, noodles, bean sprouts, baby corn and water chestnuts are vile. And the sauces are all very sweet and illuminous looking and black bean sauce looks bleurgh. So I always end up having chicken fried rice or char sui fried rice which thankfully I do love so can always find something to eat.

YANBU. I don’t like Chinese food, I’ve tried lots of it, both local rubbish and “authentic” places and I just don’t enjoy the flavour profile.

I apologise 😳 I meant Buddhas delight

But I've literally never seen a Chinese that offers stuff like that. I can only get sad boring vegetables in bland sauce.

I just went to check out menus and the szechuan veg has gone! I know they would still cook it if we asked but still...

There isn’t really a cuisine where I couldn’t find something on the menu but I have personally found more variation in Chinese restaurants/takeaways than others. Some I just really don’t like. There is one near me that is so heavily salted I can’t eat it. It took us quite a long time to find our preferred local Chinese and it doesn’t deliver to us so have to collect. My parents have an amazing one near them- it’s much better than our preferred local. I’ve had a look at their menu and there are loads of tofu options, curries, aubergine and mushroom based dishes.

In your shoes I’d be willing to try a meal from a different restaurant to see if it’s any better.

I don't know if anyone told you, but there's no need to repeat a point that six people have made before you.

I think we all need a "menu off" on a new thread 😂 I've had two amazing Chinese takeaways on UK holidays, and ours do nothing similar!

And you're literally the eighth person to answer that question. RTFT?

Aside from pizza and the occasional home-made lasagna (not made by me, I should add), I only ever eat "English" food, and even then I don't have a wide variety of it. The blander the better, as I can't do spices on any level.

Anyway, some 31 years ago now, when I was 16, I was staying with my sister (she'd have been 24) and she really wanted a Chinese takeaway, but said there was too much to order for one person. She went on and on at me to have some, tried every which way to up-sell it, to the point where I told her outright that if she was to order me anything, I was unlikely to eat it.

She ordered it anyway. She then hit the roof when I left practically all of it, telling me how much she'd paid for it, and how mad she was I wouldn't eat any more than I had. My sister is a narcissistic bully by the way, and in that moment I vowed I would never, ever be coerced into having a meal just because someone else wants to enjoy it. In what world is it acceptable to tell people what they will eat?

She was clearly joking!

You are both being unreasonable... you for saying Chinese is bland and boring (hello MSG!), and your partner for saying you should eat something you don't like. If he desperately needs Chinese, he should get it when you're not home, or like you said, order from separate restaurants.

Just get different takeaways 🤷‍♀️

Why "excited"? Does anyone really get excited about having a takeaway? I mean, I like a good takeaway occasionally, but I don't remember ever getting actually excited about it.

Maybe he wants to enjoy his plate of MSG without being sneered at... OP didn't say she doesn't agree with the healthiness of the food, just the flavour.

@CaptainFuture you do realise this is not Chinese food????

i like Indian, my DH likes Chinese and we eat our own choice of food together.

It’s a bit strange demanding someone eat something they don’t like as a treat

Chinese is also my least favourite takeaway, though weirdly for the opposite reason! In most I can almost taste the MSG. Plus I hate sweet and sour/savoury together which seems to make up a large amount of their sauces. I just don't like the flavours in most dishes and find them overpowering.

Love all other typical Asian takeaway foods though - Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, Sri Lankan etc.

We did find one amazing Chinese restaurant that also does takeaway near us (went for a friend's birthday) - all freshly cooked, great quality, really tasty and the waiter was happy to make suggestions to me for things that weren't sweet. The quality was reflected in the price though so I wouldn't be keen to get it as a takeaway, it was more of a going out to dinner treat!

Oh and @LadyLucyWells I think someone else may have mentioned it but she's actually vegetarian 🤣

I understand where you are coming from. I was veggie for about 20 years and even now I wouldn't be particularly enamoured with a veggie takeaway because you don't know what you are really getting.

Of course, when you see chilli, ginger, garlic, spring onion, pepper all stir fried and add a bit of this a dash of that...

Well I actually missed my old mix vegetable curry, which used to be big chunky English mushrooms, chunky crunchy onion, bamboo shoot, peas... I had a real hankering.

It arrived - frozen mixed veg in curry sauce with what were frozen baby button mushroom. Restaurant were taking no calls (complaints) Just Eat advised me that I'd been served a vegetable curry so all I could do was leave a review.
Mixed veg in oyster sauce should be a lovely light dish - brocolli and cauliflower last seen being binned at the retirement home. Lots of cabbage for bulk..

Unless you know you are getting a fresh tasty meal, Chinese isn't usually a good option.

Indian on the other hand...

What was the question? I've just started feeling hungry!

Domino's. Extra cheese and tomato sauce.

Just both order different things and aim to eat at the same time? As long as everybody is happy.

@CaptainFuture Most of that stuff is Japanese and Korean and not Chinese. I mean it looks quite nice but it’s Asian fusion stuff. It is incredibly hard to find authentic Chinese food in a takeaway and even some decent restaurants serve stuff up nothing like the food I was raised on.

There is quite a decent take away near me and she will do me stuff off menu.

Any meat eaters try and get hold of Mapo tofu, steamed pork with ginger in cabbage leaves, potsticker dumplings.

Regardless of the cuisine, he is being very ridiculous

wowzabox every time. Try the vegan Mapo Tofu and comic back and tell me it is bland!

He's being a big bloody baby!

Anyway, Indian food is far superior to Chinese...