It only seems mystifying when you open up that carton from your favorite Chinese restaurant down the street. Even as that heavenly aroma wafts up into your noise and jabs at your brain, sending an impulse to the rest of your body that this delicious food must be eaten urgently, you might not realize it, but cooking your own Chinese cuisine can be the very thing that will take your next budding relationship to the next level.
Hear me out.
Sometimes it’s the first date. Sometimes, it’s the second date. And maybe in some cases, Chinese food might be saved for the third date. But if you want it to go beyond that and keep getting more dates with this person, there is a surefire way to solidify it and make that person crave you. Yes, even more than mushu pork.
See, it’s all too easy to take your date out for Chinese food. You can sit in a booth and giggle while munching on fried wontons until your food comes out. Maybe you’ll even get to go back to your date’s place. If you’ve opted to go to your date’s place and order Chinese takeout already, boo. You’re in trouble because you’ve set the expectations bar really low. Criminally low.
Nothing is wrong with Chinese food for a first date, or any date. But if you truly like this person and get all those feelings, don’t wind up with disappointment, crying to your friends at the bar when this date of yours stops calling. No, no, no. Take the bull by the horns and make them never want to leave you.
By making your own Chinese food at home, you’ll impress them on a whole different level. Here’s how!
- It’s alluring
There are more Chinese restaurants in America than there are McDonald’s. Even though you can find Chinese restaurants everywhere though, because Americans aren’t used to cooking Chinese cuisine, it’s intriguing. Someone that knows how to cook a cuisine from a country they aren’t from or haven’t ever lived in is definitely someone you want to keep getting to know.
- It’s delicious
Very few people dislike Chinese food. There are so many different dishes that it’s easy to fall in love with one of them, or all of them.
- It’s healthful
If the person you’re courting is big into eating right and exercising, Chinese food is a welcome option because it’s healthful. Most Chinese cooking makes use of peanut oil which is significantly healthier than other oils. It is high in monounsaturated fat (just like olive oil) which makes it heart-healthy and has loads of antioxidants.
- It goes straight to their heart
While it’s often been said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, the same can be said of women as well. When someone takes the time to cook for us and make us a meal that is delicious, even if it wasn’t difficult to prepare, it speaks to the soul.
- It tastes impressive yet is beyond simple
Once you have the ingredients you need to make authentic-tasting Chinese food in your kitchen, it becomes incredibly easy to make it any time you feel the urge to eat orange chicken, sweet and sour pork, Mongolian beef, and even those fall-off-the-bone pork ribs. In fact, you’ll that you’re making it for yourself sometimes when you’re alone just to get your Chinese food fix.
- It will get you more dates
After the first date goes well and you move onto the second date, you can invite your new love interest over to partake in the particulars of homemade Chinese cuisine. It will always end with another date being secured. You may want to wait until the third date, but it’s important you roll this one out early on if you really like this person because this will absolutely secure you more dates with them.
Who could say no to homemade Chinese food? No one, that’s who! Try it once and you’ll wonder why you didn’t start making it yourself sooner.
Maggie Zhu is the author of The Chinese Stir Fry Sauce Cookbook and the owner of Omnivore’s Cookbook since 2013. Her passion is sharing modern Chinese recipes that teach you how to cook better food with a less labor-intensive approach. Her website was featured by Yahoo News as one of the seven food blogs you should be following for Asian cuisine. She is originally from Beijing, and now cooks from her Austin, Texas kitchen.