I'm about to order me some Asian food from this place that has a HUGE menu. About 90% of the time I always stick to the same stuff: pad Thai, Singapore fried vermicelli or Cantonese chow mien, but today I really want to try something new. Any recommendations? I'm probably going to get two or three different things because it's both me and my mom eating, and, plus, I love having Chinese food leftovers around.

On a side note, most of the stuff on this menu is East Asian.

Feel free to make any Asian food recommendations here in the future though.

beef with chili-cocnut-sauce (thai-style i recon) they have it on every chinese menu over here so yea,

Can never go wrong with chicken balls and sweet and sour sauce. Mm... deep fried...

I should have mentioned that I'm trying to stick to a relatively pescetarian diet. I was going to go with some deep fried squid - calamari rings are the bomb diz - but I ended up going with egg foo yong and chili coconut shrimp - which I'm assuming are breaded and fried.

I would recommend Singapore fried vermicelli if anyone hasn't tried it. Be careful though because some chefs like to make it a wee bit too spicy. Generally it's pretty mild, though.

there is something called mapo tofu that is "relatively" meatless.

-or-

maybe next time start with the rice: ask if they have sticky rice. then ask what you should eat with the sticky rice.

EDIT: ... i am hungry now ....

Wartning with the sticky rice, they sometimes put extra stuff in it such as eggs, meat, fruit, etc.

I personally suggest, if you can get shrimp with egg on rice, that's always good. Usually they offer vegetables and a meat, such as shrimp, chicken, pork or beef. You can go with shrimp. Finally, I suggest any vegetables you can order. Surprisingly enough, chinese know how to make veggies taste damned fantastic! Oh! And try some of their soups. Seafood soups are always good. I personally have a very delicate palette and go for their rice soups with some pork/shrimp.

at the typical new world chinese restaurant the seafood choices will mostly be different shellfish, though squid is becoming more popular. for this i recommend shrimp with cashew or walnut whichever one they are using.
if you're looking for fish try a thai restaurant. they usually have typical chinese food there as well. try the salmon curry, fried catfish or of course tom yum if you can.

Vietnamese style spring rolls

Vietnamese Pho
Try different kind of Curry
Taiwanese Hot Pot (or Japanese Shabu Shabu), not really a dish I guess, but they're great.
Hot and Sour Soup, but I liked spicy and sour stuff in general.

hrrm that's all the asian food I liked to eat outside of fried stuff and sushi/sashimi

Chinese sticky rice. My grandma used to make the best
I really want some now...

Oh and some more that I just thought of. Haven't had these things in a long time:

Bitter gourd soup

Dim sum. I like cheong fun. The one with shrimps is nice.

Nasi Lemak. It's a popular Malaysian dish.
You can find it sold wrapped in a banana leaf. The main ingredients are coconut rice, ikan bilis (which is basically little crispy anchovies), peanuts, cucumber, sambal (yummy chilli sauce stuff) and hard boiled egg. It sometimes comes with beef or chicken and pickled veggies.

Popular and basic, but I love them.

Jajangmyeon
Wheat noodles with black soybean paste, diced meat and vegetables.
Naengmyeon
Cold Korean noodle dish. Love this with extra rice vinegar and slices of cold beef.
Somen
Beef Sukiyaki
Dip this in raw egg and eat with a bowl of steamed rice.
Chirashi
Sushi rice topped with sashimi.
Oh, and various Korean BBQ. My gosh.

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. ::drool

I think Korean food is often overlooked by many, but it's awesome. Particularly galbi and the spicy squid (ojingeo bokkum?). A close second after Japanese food, for sure.

But I personally grew up with Japanese food. Sushi is my favorite, but I really like a lot of the home-cooking type dishes (or at least, what my dad/grandparents cooked at home), like the Japanese Curry...sukiyaki...unagi donburi. Tempura sweet potatoes are awesome also.

I never cared much for Chinese food for some reason, but maybe it's also because I haven't had "proper" Chinese food. Thai can be really good also, but I don't care for peanut sauce.

Thai red curry with tofu
(eventhough it's not vegetarian i highly recommend seolleongtang)

It's been decided that I'm going to try making Jajangmyeon after my next trip to the grocery store. . All I need is a carrot, a cucumber (if I want to be fancy and add the garnish) and this "black bean paste". Or am I supposed to paste my own beans? I'm not sure...

Honestly, Nawth? I go the easy route and buy the ready-made kit. All you add is the meat (if you prefer) and the veggies.
http://www.hmart.com/shopnow/shopnow_newsub.asp?p=648436104222

That way would be more expensive though. At my grocery store they have these vacuum sealed "Asian noodles" (is what we'll call them) for $1.49 that somehow magically bust up to about six to eight meals worth of noodles. Potatoes and onions appear in my fridge sometimes after my mom has been here, so I'm looking at at least six jajangmyeon meals for about $2.50 plus whatever the bean paste costs. . That site has a really good deal compared to what the Asian grocery store here would charge, but then there would be shipping costs. I'm very economical about things that don't contain alcohol.