We have small gatherings within friends, about 40 people, in my house.
Me & cousin planned to do sweet & sour chicken, of course served with white rice,
but what side dish or appetizer that goes well with this main dish?
Thank you for sharing.
sandy
Favorite Answer
I was married to an Asian for 15 years so ate and cooked a lot of Asian food. Sweet and Sour Chicken is an Americanized dish. When you serve a sweet Asian dish you need to balance it out. Asians eat more vegetable side dishes than additional meat entrees, plain rice,noodles and tea. If you want something alcoholic most Asians prefer beer.
spicy dish: spicy pickles—pickled radish, pickled sea weed, pickled cucumbers, pickled cabbage (pak choy/bok choy/Chinese mustard), pickled ginger
salty dish: yard long beans or pak choy in soy sauce /sesame oil, eggplants stir fry
musty: black fungus, shitake mushrooms or similar reconstituted dried mushroom
bitter dish: stuffed bitter melon
soup: watercress with tofu
fruit: melons, citrus ,lychee nuts
You can always add spring rolls or dim sum but they take a little more work to do.
I’ll give you some good websites.
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/chinese/
http://www.recipe.com/recipes/china/vegetables/
http://www.recipezaar.com
http://www.asiancook.co.uk/ChineseCategory.html
Julian
IM apoligizing for these usual side dishes that people usually use, but to balance out the sweetness of the glaze, a simple basmanie rice would be good, but put some chicken stalk in while steaming for additional flavor, another side dish would be a simple vegtable stirfry, no meat
Anonymous
I would do a side of steamed cauli and spoon some of the sauce over the top, and mix some bright green steamed peas into the rice, just before serving.
Jazmin
My aunt always does this types of things.
Last time she made a gathering it was Asian themed.
She made sweet & sour chicken with the following (therefore your answer):
chow mein and egg rolls
bballpro
40 people = small gathering, wow!
Chinese egg rolls or Philipino lumpia
Chow mein (my favorite!)
Chinese chicken salad (from somewhere good, since there are plenty of questionable recipes from some restaurants). Costco has a ready-made "kit", just add the iceberg lettuce, which is not too bad but not great.