Help deciphering chinese take out menu? Gai kow? Gong bo gai?

Hi Tabitha, some of this actually sounds Vietnamese or Thai. Tom yum is a wonderful soup originating in Thailand. It is sweet and sour with lemongrass and kaffir limes. It's a stock broth usually chicken with pieces of galangal, bamboo shoots and mushrooms. My husband and I swear on this soup for healing our bodies when we are getting a cold or feeling run down. Enjoy and I hope you try something new :-)

I've never heard of any of them! I agree with Rhonda though sounds like it may be something other than Chinese like Thai or Vietnamese. I always think of pad thai as being Thai.

This is the part where I ask the person behind the counter . . . .

Haha I have no idea what they are. All I eat that's Chinese is Chow Mein and Sesame chicken.

Gai kow is apparently Chicken with chinese vegetables(according to my menu this means bean sprouts, okra, onions and green peppers. It also mentions that these veggies change "seasonally" aka whatever is on sale at Costco"

Gong Bo Gai is Kung Pao Chicken with peanuts.

heres a recipe id you'd like to make it at home:

http://www.whats4eats.com/recipes/r_po_kungpao.php

Kow Pad appears to be the chinese spelling of Khao Pad or Thai Fried Rice, this one it appears is just the fried rice with veggies added, no meats.

Tom Yum is a soup...the picture on Wikepedia alone is enough to not make me eat it, but it has praws(or shrimp), chicken, mushrooms and various "seasonal veggies" in a hot broth(they mention cayenne, chili powder, and several other 5 alarm ingredients)

According to my menus, Gang Gai is varying combinations of yellow curry(not very spicy), chicken and rice. I would make sure however that you get the part of the chicken you are accustomed to. No where does it say chicken breast in what I'm reading, where it does say this in other parts of the same menu...just a thought.

Finally Chicken Almond Ding.

This one doesn't sound too crazy, its basically chicken, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and bamboo chutes in a soy based sauce.

If you have other ones that you have no idea what they are, look at yumyum.com and go to the ethnic section. They have thousands of them listed.

Chicken Almond Ding

I would be very hesitant about ordering this....just in case of typo:)

Try Babelfish to translate. I have no clue.

i have no idea

I'm with you. If I don't know what it is; I don't order it. I mostly stick with shrimp, scallops, beef teriyaki (which I call 'Rat on a stick'), white or fried rice, French fries and egg rolls. I occasionally order a Pu Pu Platter because I think it's a funny sounding name, but I do know what's included in it.

I usually order chicken with broccoli.

Nope but it sounds so good LOL. Love chinese take out!
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Adelaide, thanks for doing that legwork!

Gai Khow is a Green Curry Shrimp - fiery green curry mellowed in rich coconut milk (according to a Thai cookbook I have).

Kow pad (or Khao Phad) - Vegetarian Fried Rice - buddhist recipe
Tom yum - spicy & sour soup - made with shrimp and lemongrass
Gang Gai - Red Chicken Curry - uses red curry paste - rich, savory and spicy
All of those dishes are Thai.

My favorite chinese dishes are any Chow Fun (wide noodles cooked like lo mein), singapore mei fun (the angel hair type pasta with shrimp, chicken, pork and egg and veggies - a bit spicy - with a bit of curry in it), spring rolls (kind of like egg rolls but smaller and crisper), sesame noodles (cold and spicy), Lamb with Scallions, Mu Shu Pork (or chicken or shrimp) - a mixture of meats or seafood with hoisin sauce and some veggies and you roll it up in these thin pancakes - put some plum sauce in first and then roll it all up), Beef with Broccoli, Sesame Chicken, Orange Chicken, Shrimp w/Baby Peas - we try to try new things each time we go out. Love anything chinese - have eaten all kinds of strange stuff in the Dim Sum parlors. Try everything. It is all delicious!

Tom yum is Thai, and is one of my all-time favorite foods. It has the most wonderful tang! Its vegetable combination makes it very healthful. It prefer mine with shrimp, but you can order it with chicken, too. I love the broth by itself, to, as a delicious hot drink. A Thai family has a stall at the Reading Terminal Market; sometimes I order it strained so I just have the broth in a cup to carry around sipping while I shop--they way one does with coffee, tea or soda. It's so delicious! To those of you who are afraid to try it, I say Do it! You will not be sorry, I assure you!!!

I love pad thai, too, a delicious main dish.

Another dish I would recommend if they serve it is pad graprow (or kra prow, or similar depending on transliteration) - meat of your choice cooked with onions, basil leaves, and often other vegetables (varies from restaurant to restaurant) - but the cooked basil gives it a wonderful flavor. It's often made somewhat hot (with the addition of chile peppers) but you can usually get them to moderate these or leave them out.

This is what I call my "index dish" for Thai restaurants - the one I order the first time I go to any new Thai place, much the same as lamb vindaloo is for Indian restaurants - because I figure if they can make this well, I can trust most if not all of the rest of their menu.

I've seen Almond Gai Ding. I know for a fact that in Chinese, Gai is chicken.
Some of the others like gong bo is just translation variations. I've seen it as Gung Po, Gung Bo, Kung Po, Kung Poa or Gong Bo. I saw one restaurant menu that had different names for the beef, chicken, and shrimp Kung Pao.
Some are named for people, like General Tso, some for ingredients, some for regions. Hunan and Sechwan are regions.
I have found that there are actually only about a dozen recipes. Each is adjusted with the type of meat, the vegetable included, the spiciness of the sauce. Chicken with Orange Flavor, General Tso's Chicken, and Sesame Chicken are the same dish, with either a sweet orange sauce, a spicy sauce or the middle one with sesame seeds on top.
Hunan Chicken and Sechuan Chicken are very similar, variations on the vegetables. Mei fun, Chow fun, and Lo Mein are each different noodles width, either the flat, angel hair, or spaghetti size noodles. Chow Mein is actually named for the Crispy noodles that are part of the dish. Mein is noodles, and fun, or fen, is also another word for noodle but rice noodle rather than wheat.
China is the 2nd largest country after Russia, and has the most people. With different languages and dialects, you get many different words for similar dishes. I always felt the best way to find out is to try something.