Who was General Tso? and other mysteries of American Chinese food [TED Talk] | Hacker News Reader

Who was General Tso? and other mysteries of American Chinese food [TED Talk]

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41 pointsDaniFong19 comments

In a previous job I worked, mostly remotely, with some engineers in China. On one occasion they came to the United States for a visit, and some local colleagues and I suggested to them that we order some Chinese food.

"We don't recognize anything on the menu," they told me.

They ended up ordering the restaurant's "house special", which turned out to be tiny bits of grilled chicken atop shredded lettuce and rice. A while later, I noticed they had only eaten about half of their lunch.

"This is too much for us," they said. "We can't eat it all!"

"It's too much for us, too," I assured them. "But we eat it all anyway."

Soon enough, they may not be thinking that the portion sizes are too large. Since the '80s, food consumption in China has skyrocketed. The typical traditional Chinese cuisine used to be chock full of vegetables in healthy portions. Now, the consumptions of meat has gone up 100% in the past 20 years. Really, eating more meat and fatty foods is one of the first signs of a nation growing in prosperity.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-06/24/content_679022...

China will soon have the same problems of obesity as the US.

On another note, one time we brought our coworkers to a "real chinese restaurant". They didn't order anything on the menu and asked the cook to make a special beef-fried-rice for them. While the rest of us were enjoying our bitter melon & pig intestines, they survived on the single-course-fried-rice deal the cook managed to conjure up. They actually liked the pig intestines & cow tendons until they found out what they were eating.

yes they r nice tasting =D

A wise man once said, "Any man can eat when he's hungry, but a real man eats when he's full..."

7 years ago I assisted a group of Shanghai government officials in a multi-city tour of America. They only wanted to eat Chinese food morning, noon, and night. I have found Chinese folks (especially anyone over the age of 40) to be highly inflexible in their dietary habits. In every city we visited, although most of those cities had famous China towns, we simply could not satisfy them. The food was never even half acceptable to them.

The trip was good from a business perspective. But they all came back to Shanghai sorely disappointed in America's ability to feed them well ;).

As to General Tso? I have rarely found a Chinese that has any clue who this famous person in history is. I'll take Jenny at her word that he's an important historical artifact.

In general, if you weren't brought up with food diversity, you'll probably cling to what you like and makes you feel comfortable. Same goes for Americans who visit China, give them a week and they'll be dying for some McDonalds. A friend of mine went there for international school and he mailed ordered frozen hot dogs and breakfast cereal because he just couldn't survive on chinese food. Bring any American to China and try introducing them to congee & noodles for lunch, I'm sure they'll freak out too.

Same goes for Indians/Pakistanis... I had to oversee our outsourcing team that was visiting the States and most of them simply refused eating American food even when I suggested vegetarian places. They ended up eating at the same indian restaurant for 3 weeks straight.

Aww. Congee is frickin' awesome though! I guess I'm lucky... my parents exposed me to all kinds of food growing up, so I never had that "Hamburger Helper 24/7" mentality.

I couldn't find a neighborhood WITHOUT a McDonald's in Beijing. Or KFC. Or Starbucks.

Well that's because you visited Beijing. Try visiting a city near Beijing, but not in Beijing.

I think if you visit any major city anywhere in the world, you'll find a huge diverse range of food you'll never have trouble with.

General Tso was in fact a famous general in Chinese history, however, he had nothing to do with the chicken dish itself. General Tso's chicken was a dish created in NYC (there are about 3 chef's claiming to be the first). In essence, it is an American creation. You would be hard pressed to find anything that is as deep fried and sugary as General Tso's Chicken in real Chinese cuisine.

This is just one of the many dishes that come from places you wouldn't expect: fortune cookies were created in Los Angeles, Chicken Tikka Masala was created in London, and Caesar Salad was created in Tijuana.

My mom is a 22 year American citizen and she just eats Chinese food morning, noon, and night. The rest of our family do not discriminate.

ps: I just asked my parents if General Tso was a real person and they confirmed.

I'm fascinated by Chinese restaurants and Chinatowns.

I hadn't thought about the Linux analogy before but that's pretty accurate. Although it's more accurate to say that Linux follows the Chinese restaurant model since it predates Linux by 8 or 9 decades.

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, by the same person, is a fun book too, even if it does wander a little.

I would definitely second a recommendation for The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Fascinating read about a cultural phenomenon we all know so well, yet don't know.

Is....is this girl's middle initial..."8"!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_8._Lee

"Jennifer added the number eight to her own name while she was a teenager because of the prevalence of her first name."

Sounds like a reference to the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Eight

Possibly related article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/magazine/04food.t.html

(I didn't watch the video since it crashed my browser.)

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