National Chinese Takeout Day

When is National Chinese Takeout Day? This holiday is always observed on November 5

Every culture has its own cuisine. Over time, each culture develops its own dietary tastes, driven somewhat by the availability of local food sources, including herbs and spices. Chinese culture has evolved over many thousands of years. As a result, Chinese cuisine is one of the most diverse and delicious of all. Today is National Chinese Takeout Day. On this November 5 holiday, we have the pleasure of enjoying a truly exquisite food holiday. And, with it, we can choose among a very wide array of meals. The title of this holiday makes it clear that we should specifically partake in takeout food. So, go online and order a variety of Chinese menu items. We suspect your only problem today is determining which items to order and how much.

To properly partake in this delicious holiday, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind:

Of course, place a takeout order for Chinese food from your local Chinese restaurant. Order your selections to go. Include an order of egg rolls, too. It doesn’t matter whether you go out to pick it up, or order it through a delivery service like Door Dash.
Hot tea or rice wine is the everage of choice for this holiday.
You will also want to select a soup. May we suggest Wonton or Egg Drop soup?
Certainly, make sure to include fortune cookies for everyone.
Lastly, eat the meal with chopsticks. If you don’t know how to use them, today is the perfect time to learn the art of using chopsticks. It’s not that hard.

Types of Chinese Cuisine

There are several major types of authentic Chinese cuisines, along with many lesser-known types of Chinese cooking. They are largely aligned with the major areas or regions of China.

Chinese immigrants began to arrive in America in the 180os. They brought their cultural traditions with them. Concurrently, they brought recipes from their home regions. As they assimilated into their new world, some recipes remained unaltered from their home countries. Although, the recipes they brought were sometimes altered to include foods, herbs and spices more readily available in America. They further altered recipes to better match the tastes of Americans who came to their restaurants. As a result, your best chance to enjoy authentic Chinese food, is to go to China.

Here are the eight major types of Chinese cuisine:

Anhui Cuisine
Cantonese Cuisine, also known as Guandong
Fujian Cuisine
Hunan Cuisine
Jiangsu Cuisine
Shandong Cuisine
Sichuan Cuisine
Zhejiang Cuisine

Of course, there are many other types of Asian cuisine that does not originate in China. While we sometimes mistakenly think of them as “Chinese cuisine”, they are distinctly different. For example, the ever-popular Thai food is Asian, but not Chinese.

Did You Know? There are approximately 45,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States. Surely, a few of them are located in your community.

How to Celebrate National Chinese Takeout Day

How do people celebrate this great Oriental food holiday? Here’s how:

First, call your favorite Chinese restaurant and order takeout.
Make it a party! Rather than eating takeout by yourself, invite your friends over to your house. Then, order takeout. Don’t forget to get fortune cookies for everyone. You never know, it could be someone’s lucky day.
Be daring. Buy something on the takeout menu that you’ve never had before.
Learn more about China. It’s a huge country. As a matter of fact, it is the most populous country in the world. And, Chinese culture is both fascinating and storied. Learn much more about China.
If there isn’t a nearby Chinese restaurant, make it at home. Find a Chinese recipe.
Bring a box of Fortune cookies to work. Then, place them in a bowl to share with coworkers.

Important Chopstick Etiquette: When using chopsticks, never jab them into the food on the plate. This is considered both insulting and impolite. Rather, place the chopsticks on a napkin beside the plate, or lay them flat on top of the plate of food.

National Chinese Takeout Day Quote

“I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one.” – – Paul Simon

Footnote: Paul Simon wrote and sang “Mother and Child Reunion in 1972.

History and Origin of National Chinese Takeout Day

Despite our extensive research, we have not yet found the creator or the origin of this day. Nor, did we find the reason this date was selected to celebrate National Chinese Takeout Day. Based upon our research, this holiday began around 2010. One might think that this holiday originated in China. But, all of our research suggests it was created in the United States. You could also make an argument that this holiday should be a “World” holiday, as Chinese cuisine is enjoyed all over the world.

Almost all food-related holidays and special days are referred to as “National”. I guess we Americans like our food…and it shows.

We did not find any documentation confirming this to be a “National” day. We found no congressional records or presidential proclamation.

Definition of “National” Days – Furthermore, find out why it is so important to distinguish and identify true national days.

This Day in History

Besides National Chinese Takeout Day, here are some things that happened on this day:

Parker Brothers markets the board game Monopoly. (1935)
Voters re-elect President Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third time. (1940)
Roy Rogers, the “King of the Cowboys”, born Leonard Franklin Sly, was born on this day in 1911.

What’s more see additional historical events.

More November 5 Holidays

Besides National Chinese Takeout Day, here are more November 5 holidays for you to savor and enjoy:

Gunpowder Day, also called Guy Fawkes Day

More About Today

This Day in History

Famous November Birthdays – Find out who shares your birth date.

Recipe of the Day: Easy Cinnamon Apple Fritters – Dontcha just love any recipe that starts with the word “easy”!?

Ecards – Send a free Ecard daily for National Chinese Takeout Day or just about any October calendar holiday, occasion, observance, or event. Without a doubt, it’s fun for both the sender and the recipient.

Holiday Insights, where every day in November is a holiday, a bizarre or wacky day, an observance, or a special event. Thus, please join us in the daily calendar fun each and every day of the year. all in all it’s a great place to enjoy every holiday.

Did You Know? Moreover, in addition to National Chinese Takeout Day, there are literally thousands of daily holidays, special events, and observances, more than one for every day of the year. and many of these holidays are new. People and organizations are creating new holidays regularly. November holidays are no exception. Consequently, at Holiday Insights, we take great efforts to thoroughly research and document the details of each one, as completely and accurately as possible.