"Chinese food is delicious." Growing up surrounded by General Tso's chicken and dumplings with too thick, overly chewy skins one finds this hard to believe. I had always been told this by my father and several Chinese American friends, but I never quite believed them until my time in Hong Kong. Visits to Beijing and Shanghai further convinced me. My students in Hong Kong once asked me what people in American movies and TV shows are always eating with chopsticks out of those white boxes. When I told them that that is how Chinese food comes in the US they found it to be quite funny.I was reminded of my own awakening to the rich subtleties of various Chinese dishes by an article in today's Times. Written by the Zagats, it challenges America to help foster an environment in which better Chinese food - once prevented by the unavailability of certain ingredients, now prevented by the difficulties procuring visas for Chinese chefs - can flourish. I second that challenge.
p.s. Wikipedia's definition of General Tso's is pretty funny. "The dish is largely unknown in China and other lands home to the Chinese diaspora." The jig is up, let's drop the "largely."
2 comments:
General Tso's no existo? Then what the hell could they possibly be feeding us? Is their a definition for bamboozled in the Wikapedia?
All that time in college we ate that dough non chicken covered sweetness and come to find out, it's not even traditional nor native to China. In the words of YODA: A big stink of this, i will make.
General Tso was so manly that he wouldn't deign to eat chicken. It was all beef and duck for him.
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