chinese take out: The true answer is not pretty, but it doesn't have to do with cats and dogs or lead paint. It's not that the ingredients are low quality, it's that the labor is cheap. People come over from Mainland China as indentured servants, incurring a debt of $30,000 to $50,000 to do so. They work off the debt by slaving in Chinese restaurants owned by the lenders, who also provide crude housing and other benefits but very little cash. By overpricing the benefits, they reduce what's left to pay off the loan, which means the indentured servitude has to go on longer. It may take someone five years or more of 80 hour work weeks to work off the debt. The end result is that the restaurant workers work for almost nothing. Also, the restaurants may file taxes, but the business is mostly cash, so they under-report their income. Not all restaurant workers are in this bind, but enough of them are that it depresses wages for the rest of the workforce. Chinese workers who aren't in this bind might have this scenario as the order taker you talk to when you order takeout. $1700/month in cash, in exchange for working 11 hours/day, 6 days a week, which works out to about $5.95/hr. It's cash under the table, but it's hardly a princely salary. You get to eat while you are at the restaurant, and you live somewhere cheap since you're never home except to sleep.|||Because butchering the free, stray animals in the back alley really cuts down on their overhead. MSG is free = My Special Goo.|||because stray cats are so plentiful|||just like mcdonalds is cheap...its because they are feeding you crap...Crap is cheap...real nutritional food is not cheap.|||I guess it depends where you are ordering from, and what you are ordering. Most Chinese take out restaurants still make a good profit even if there prices are low because they have the ability to add flavor to inexpensive ingredients and cheap cuts of meat (skirt or flank steak, dark chicken meat like thighs and legs, and salad shrimp).|||In my opinion Chinese takeout has never been cheap. Somehow, even if I'm only ordering for one it still comes out to at least $15, plus you should tip the driver. For $20 I can get a better meal somewhere else. Not that Chinese food is bad, but for $20 I could have steak and shrimp. Compared to most restaurants, Chinese food may seem cheap. But it's only because they cook in mass quantities and most of the dishes have the same ingredients; Stir fried rice, white rice, or noodles. You could spend a fortune on Chinese food if you order the right dishes.|||because its the cheap version of chinese food , not very refined like the normal asian diet|||Loads of cheap,oily/fattening ingredients!Not to talk about the meat "quality"...|||Hmmm... it's not cheap over here. It usually contains inferior quality meat and vegies, because the theory is that you can't tell once the strong flavoured sauces are added. Often vegies are bought that are not fit for shop sale (juicing carrots, defrosted vegies) and tough meat is tenderised with the aid of msg and other additives. Ever wondered why you get so terribly thirsty after eating chinese?? You get what you pay for.|||Due to a high lead content.