Roosevelt Island Stir Fry Chicken With Eggplant Deep Fried First - Grosses Out China 1 Kitchen Customer

Image of China 1 Kitchen

You walk into Roosevelt Island's only Chinese restaurant, China 1 Kitchen, for some take out Stir Fry Chicken with eggplant. Do you expect the eggplant to be put in the deep fryer before stir frying?

Well, Manhattan Park Resident DD did not and what DD saw grossed DD out. I received this message from DD last Thursday:

I was grossed out tonight to find out they are deep frying the food before they stir fry it. Tonight I caught them deep frying the eggplant I ordered. I never heard of a Chinese restaurant doing that before. Here I was ordering what I thought of as a healthy vegetable meal, and it was deep fried. And in the same grease they deep fry the wings and everything else.

I asked DD:

Can you provide any additional details. Did you ask them why they were doing this? If so, any response? Did you take the food.

DD replied:

Yes I asked and they said "they always do". I ordered chicken with eggplant. I noticed the purple skins of the eggplants in the basket they were deep frying, in with other stuff,( I guess my chicken). I intervened over the eggplant being cooked that way. It didn't occur to me then that the chicken might be cooked that way too.

Yes I asked, and they said "they always do". I was upset and asked for the owner. They ignored me. I said I did not want to eat deep fried food. i was being ignored no matter what I said and was about to ask for my money back, as I had already paid. Some older woman then told me that she would fix it but it wold take longer.She did not specify what she was going to do either.

I am not sure she did anything different at all. I took the food from her after a couple of minutes. It looked and tasted the exact way as a couple of days ago when I had it delivered to my apt. without knowing how they cooked it.

I am guessing they might be deep frying the food to get it cooked quicker. That makes the food really really unhealthy. Also vegetarians are getting veggies cooked in the same grease as the pork..etc.

Here's how to make your own stir fry chicken with eggplant.

You Tube Video How To Make Chinese Stir Fry Chicken with Eggplant

I happened to be speaking with a professional cook last night and mentioned DD's issue with the China 1 stir fry. The chef indicated that placing the eggplant in the deep fryer before stir frying may not be that unusual because doing so would soften the eggplant and make it easier to cook.

I don't know if that is common practice or not but it is certainly not the expectation of customers ordering stir fry to have their food deep fried as well.

Here's a recipe from PF Chang for Stir Fried Chicken with Eggplant that includes deep frying.