I was reading yesterday that there is no evidence for contagion spread by take away food packaging so I'm not bothered by it. We have made it a point from the beginning to support Asian restaurants for the reasons you cite. We love Asian food and when we are both in the city together we frequently dine at many different Asian restaurants we like.

As we are not in the city we don't have the chance to eat out, but DH comes home Friday nights for the weekend. This past Friday he brought dinner from our favourite Indonesian restaurant as our little way of keeping things going.

The last time we ordered to go was from an Asian restaurant.

plllog, once again I applaud your empathy and diplomacy. While we do not all share the same beliefs regarding food safety, we all can still support local restaurants by buying gift certificates and either using them now, later, or giving them to others. I was not aware that Chinese, or Asian restaurants were being avoided, but given the ignorance of some, I'm not surprised, sadly. We have a couple local restaurants here that I'll call and see it they'll take gift certificate orders on the phone. Thanks for the heads up.

We are still trying to order out our dinner every other day. We are trying to patronize locally owned restaurants, one being a Chinese restaurant. They surprise us and are closing quite early, so though we have tried to order from them, they aren't always open when we call.

I’m not worried at all about Chinese takeout food. Just microwave it to reheat before serving - above 140F for 5 minutes is what I’ve read is enough to kill the virus. However, I don’t order anything that is supposed to be eaten room temp.

So, as I heard it explained, it's true that "safe" "minimal temperature for cooking" of 140° F will indeed kill the virus, if the restaurant follows the most basic food handling during normal times measures, there shouldn't be any virus in your food. Additionally, it generally takes a big exposure to get infected, not a single bit of virus. Plus, the virus only attacks receptor cells that are in your respiratory system, and there aren't enough of these in the alimentary system to get the virus from food.

Be as cautious as makes sense to you--heat also kills most bacteria--but don't let caution turn into paranoia.

Szechuan, at least as is made near me, is a great choice. Even on a chilly night, in classic paper boxes (though doubled, which provides as little insulation as well as catching drips), arrives piping hot! Those dragon's breath woks are no joke.

We have "contactless delivery". Brings new meaning to "ding dong dash". But they often do text or call instead of ringing the bell. I think it would only be the outer bag/box that would be a worry given how things are done here. I know other parts of the country don't take it so seriously. In ordinary times, there was a lot of training and consideration for not passing pathogens, and they've stepped up their efforts. Whatever cautions you feel are necessary for yourself are worthwhile. If there were evidence that the virus were being passed by food packaging, there'd be a big crackdown here.

BTW, there's a small boba tea chain that was featured on the news. They're making to-gos in jars, and selling the ingredients so you can make up your own at home. They're also giving away grab and go lunches to necessary workers. Just school type. PB&J, bag of chips, piece of whole fruit. An Asian business helping the community.

I only like Sichuan and Hunan, and there are not any of those kind of restaurants near me now. I used to go to one down the street from me when I lived in Venice, and it was an easy walk. There are not any Chinese markets near me either. There is supposed to be a Filipino market near me, but I could not figure out how to visit it. It looked like it was closed for good when I tried to go there. Anyway, I did bring a lot of Japanese ingredients with me, as those are difficult to find here as well.

I much prefer to make Chinese food myself rather than get it at a restaurant, since it is so easy to make, although I do not have a wok here, as I do not have room to store it. Also, I have not invested in a wok ring to go with the stove that we have here, although the Bertazzoni we have in L.A. came with a wok ring and has a much higher heat burner than what we have here. I could probably get a flat bottom wok-style pan. I did bring a Chinese cookbook with me.

It's very unfortunate that we have a president who has referred to the virus as "the Chinese Virus" instead of its proper name. It seems like he is just baiting people and also trying to divide people rather than unite them.

That is ridiculous. If we had a few favorites here we might do the same but we never eat out where we live. Once in ten years. A friend drove past two favorite dumpling shops in ChinaTown but the lines were too long. Not restaurants but small shops that make them to take home and cook. (or freeze). Or buy frozen. Letting one customer in at a time. All wearing masks.

Those ribs sound amazing. I would so do that and triple order. Tip big for those taking the risks to keep us fed.

I so agree to support your local businesses. I looked at the NYcity list of take-out/delivery and it is extensive so that's good.

Any bags or packaging can be opened outside. Order hot food and pop in the oven or saucepan discarding the take-out container.

(not you Lars. You are new in your area so you don't have favorites yet)...I'm responding to plllogs original post.

We've been picking up sushi since the Governor stopped letting us eat out. But there's no good Chinese restaurants in Fort Collins, so we have to make it ourselves. To that end, I threw a pound of jumbo shrimp into the wok last night along with bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, crushed cashews, and some Tiger sauce.

Coachella Valley is not really good for Chinese food (lots of bad reviews), but it looks like there is a Sichuan restaurant in Indio, about 18 miles from here. It also looks like there is a better selection of Chinese restaurants in Indio than elsewhere in the valley. We normally go to Shields Date Garden Restaurant when we go to Indio, and we buy dates while we are there.

There are supposed to be some good Japanese restaurants in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, but they are a bit expensive. We are exactly between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage (Palm Desert is just beyond Rancho Mirage from us) and that is much closer to us than Indio. Indio is the lower rent city in the valley, and we stayed there once when we wanted to visit Anza Borrego for a super bloom and that was the closest place we could find accommodations. I think there was a music festival in Coachella at the same time (nicknamed "Oldchella" because it featured rock groups from the 60s and 70s).

Anyway, we have not explored many restaurants here yet (except in Palm Springs) but have found good Greek food. There are plenty of good restaurants, but the variety is limited, especially compared to Los Angeles! There's an Egyptian restaurant close to us that we like, however. For Chinese food, I mostly see things like Panda Express, and I won't be going there. My favorite restaurant in Palm Springs is Belgian, but they have very limited hours.

Well, yes, if only we actually HAD an Oriental restaurant, LOL. We do have TTOWA, which serves sushi, but it's been closed. I did see in the paper that they are going to have an "order ahead" drive through type service soon. We also have a Chinese buffet, called New China, but their website isn't working so I don't know if they are even open for delivery/pick up.

Elery and I never eat out and I do mean NEVER. I can't remember the last time we ate out, last summer maybe? Here we mostly have chain restaurants and fast food anyway, with just a few independent places. I did see in the paper that the A&W drive in is open, though, so that's my first sign of spring, the car hops bringing trays out to prop on the window of the vehicles.

Annie

"It's very unfortunate that we have a president who has referred to the virus as "the Chinese Virus" instead of its proper name."

He claims he wants to be accurate. Well, if he wants to be really accurate he should also refer to the 1918 flu epidemic as "the American Flu" as apparently the first known case was in a military camp in Kansas.

Yup. Not only a military camp, but one where they were doing basic training before they sent the doughboys all over the world to disseminate it far and wide..

Weird how bias works. Corona beer closed their plant because of Mexico's directives, but their sales have been down. I would have thought people would want to figuratively consume the enemy in the traditional way, so sales would have been up.

Our neighborhood has a bunch of small business owners who are really hurting. A few asked for support on Facebook and neighbors stepped up - after all, most of us are still buying things so we can just make the extra effort to buy from a local business instead of Amazon or Costco. So we got the idea to put together a list of neighborhood business to support and publicize that via the neighborhood association’s website, Facebook, email list. I put it on our Covid-19 page and expect to add to it as more businesses contact us.

https://www.laurelhurstpdx.org/covid-19

There is an “angle” here too, I’m thinking some of these businesses may become advertisers in our neighborhood newsletter - after this is over, and if they survive.

That sounds great, John. Maybe they can also organize a central ordering site. It wouldn't have to be pretty. Maybe just lists of what they have to sell and ability to send e-mails to order.

The other "angle", of course, is preserving choice. If they don't survive, then when this is over you all will have no choice but to order from Amazon or Costco.

I don't really care for much of the Chinese food so I don't buy from them anyway. I am not buying from anyone now. I am using the food I have on hand. I have not been away from home in 4 weeks. I closed my business so have a lot of other businesses. I am optimistic.

Sue

Before the lockdown, I went to a Japanese and then a Chinese restaurant. I will go back again as soon as I want to travel that far. At the Chinese restaurant (which was a fairly authentic one) I was the only white there, last time I visited. I could tell they were already hurting, so I overtipped. I really find no need for me to support the overly sugary Americanized Chinese ones, but when I can, I'll get back to Westfield to support that other one.

plllog, one nice thing about all this is that lots of neighbors have volunteered to help. I’m trying to find someone to essentially take over the effort to contact our local small biz and figure out ways to support them.

Excellent! I keep wanting to do stuff, but the best way I've found so far, given that I'm still (non-virus) sick, is to stay quiet and keep out of the way. :) Be one less person someone has to help. John, I really appreciate reading about all your community organizing efforts. You do good work.

I can make my own egg drop soup for pennies, but I really like a mixture of hot n sour and egg drop ... so I order out a bowl of half and half from their kitchen. It's a mom n pop like store specializing on made to order carry out. You can sit near the counter and see into the kitchen. the owner/teller is not Chinese, but all of her help (two cooks) are. They report their stay at home business is really down, but it is steady ... seems they always have a carryout order or two waiting to be picked up. Prefer that to a subway type sandwich these days ...

We also have a Mexican restaurant; they are really hurting now. A new family has taken over, and the menu items by the same name are unlike the way they were when the previous family ran it. So some of my old favorites are just ... meh ... now as I search for new faves. You can always, however, ask them to prepare the dishes as they would make for themselves, and that is really, really good.

I detest 'mericanized Mexican. Too blah.

They make their own wonderful tortillas and kitchen/home-made white cheese ... nice quesadillas ... I also DO NOT care for deep-fried chili rellenos. Their tortilla soup is pretty good, tho not quite the same as the other family's concoction.