Comments on: Review: Great Wall (takeout)

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:53:43 +0000

Does someone want to organize an egg roll party? That sounds like fun! Send me details and I’ll post it up here!

By: Hopi

Hopi — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:47:46 +0000

Hey all! Mark and I actually enjoy the Great Wall take out. We always get the same thing though-”stir fried Chinese vegetable with bean curd”. I usually get a vegetable egg roll to go with it. It never occurred to me the egg roll might be only 98% vegetarian (how horrifying) though I wonder if the sauce with the stir fry might have a bit of oyster sauce in it, but I have not asked specifically (I think I have asked about the egg roll but it has been so long ago now that I am not sure). An egg roll party sounds fun

By: adriennefriend

adriennefriend — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:57:51 +0000

I like the vegan spring rolls & dumplings in Kroger’s natural foods frozen case. That’s about it… :[ Unfortunately they regularly run $4-$5 a bag–enough to serve an enthusiastic couple once! :[

What we SHOULD do is have a spring roll making party: buy a bunch of the wrappers when they go on special at Meijer or Kroger and then just go to town with some shredded carrots, cabbage, and previously-frozen diced tofu. We can freeze and pull out for the hot oil at our leisure, and cheaply.

By: annalisa

annalisa — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:18:48 +0000

oh, Adrienne, good call.
I would bet money that Jade House’s tofu soup is vegan, but I think that would be the only safe Chinese-American soup around here.
I like to pretend the crab cheese angles are vegetarian, but it seems likely that they’re not. On a side note, I really enjoy cranberry rangoon (http://www.annalisagross.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/cranberry-rangoon.jpg), which is a great vegetarian version. They can also be made with vegan cream cheese, but then start to get pricey.
Jade House doesn’t have any vegetarian spring rolls, which is such a bummer. Their egg rolls are “98% vegetarian” (actual quote from JH employee), but the pork (or whatever the 2% is) totally blends in with the cabbage, so it doesn’t work for me as something to share with my meat-eating partner. Does anyone know of veg*n spring rolls in town? I think spring rolls are usually vegan, right?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:14:26 +0000

Adrienne,

Thanks for the tip — I have adjusted the “restaurant menus” page and made a note of it on this post!

By: Adrienne N. Lowe

Adrienne N. Lowe — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:20:58 +0000

Hi there!

My friend Anna Lisa linked me to this blog. I am celebrating ten years vegetarian this year and I’ve spent most of that vegan. I would appreciate future recommendation levels for Vegans and Vegetarians. Thanks so much for this site!

I also wanted to take the opportunity to add my two cents about the soups at American-Chinese places. In my experience, none of them start with a vegetarian soup broth–they start with a simple chicken broth, the stock made from boiling down the chicken parts unsuitable for all of the main courses. I was shocked and dismayed to discover this fact about eight years ago when dining at a Chinese buffet with my parents. I asked the owners about the soups after I’d had some (specifically, the Egg Drop and the Hot & Sour with tofu) and, after the usual misunderstandings about chicken broth being vegetarian, I confirmed that the base was indeed a non-vegetarian one. I have had similar experiences at many many many other American-Chinese buffet restaurants, including Great Wall and the one over by Meijer.

As a result, I would not recommend soups as part of the vegetarian menu unless you can be definitively told by the ownership that it begins with a water, soy sauce/vinegar broth. (Perhaps you have been by Great Wall, which is why you listed it above.) And because it has been my experience that most folks do not think chicken broth and vegetarianism are mutually exclusive, I would just steer clear entirely.

Thanks again for this resource!!

adrienne

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:27:18 +0000

True — this would be better suited for Vegetarians than Vegans (and that isn’t saying much ). I know Jade House (east-side) is very accommodating with vegifying orders — they’ve done Tofu-substitutions for me a number of times. I guess they get a lot of Earlham kids there!

Perhaps our future reviews should specify recommendation levels for both Vegans AND vegetarians?

By: Thomas Kemp

Thomas Kemp — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:00:10 +0000

Um, I’d not recommend this particular establishment to “vegan” friends – very little in the way of vegan recipes – either from the intentional or unintentional point of view . . . .

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:28:21 +0000

I did some looking around and it looks like, in America, “Crab Rangoon” is actually “Cream Cheese Wontons”, which confirms my suspicions of content.

We’ll follow up on this by actually just asking the Great Wall if they actually contain any fish or crabmeat.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:26:47 +0000

Ok. I did some googling and "imitation crabmeat" is in fact made of fish. Link & Link for clarification. Thusly it should technically not be listed under vegetarian items on the menu.