On 2/10/2014 5:14 PM, sf wrote:
> There is Chinese food and then there is Americanized Chinese food.
> Both can be delicious, but it's always good to know the difference
> between the two.
> http://dc.eater.com/archives/2011/10...e-dont-eat.php
>
> 1) Crab Wontons: These deep-fried dumplings filled with crabmeat and
> cream cheese are popular...but nobody eats cheese in China. We're all
> lactose intolerant. But we do like to curdle other things, like
> fermented bean paste and duck blood.
>
>
> 2) General Tso's Chicken: Come on, this guy was too busy warding off
> rebellions to be cooking. This recipe is strictly American—chunks of
> chicken battered, fried and sweetened for Western tastes. No one in
> Hunan had even heard of this before 1970.
>
>
> 3) Chop Suey: Ah yes, the garbage disposal of the omelet world.
> Refrigerator scraps stir-fried and topped with an egg. It is said that
> some Chinese cook working during the Gold Rush served it as a personal
> "**** you" to some drunk American miners.
>
>
>
> 4) Pu Pu Platter: Everything about this appetizer is an affront to
> poor people. It's nothing but fried, greasy egg rolls, spare ribs,
> chicken wings and beef teriyaki—which isn't even Chinese!
>
>
> 5) Sweet 'n' Sour Pork: Chunks of pork, battered, deep-fried and
> slimed in a thick orange sauce. There are obvious Southern barbecue
> influences here.
>
>
> 6) Sweet 'n' Sour Chicken: same treatment, but it's all white meat
> because somehow that makes it better. With pieces of pineapple to
> assuage your guilt.
>
>
> 7) Salad: We cook our food. When dysentery is a concern, you would
> too.
>
>
> 8) Egg Rolls: Does anyone eat these? These thick-skinned, blistered
> rolls that look like Linda Blair's face in The Exorcist are nothing
> like the real Chinese spring rolls, which are smaller, thin and
> crispy—and edible.
>
>
> 9) Beef and broccoli: There's really nothing wrong with this dish,
> except that we don't have Western broccoli in the East.
>
>
> 10) Fortune cookies: Another ploy to amuse Westerners, these
> flag-bearers of fortune don't even tell you good news anymore, only
> your closely guarded shortcomings. Chinese people eat something more
> fortuitous for dessert: oranges. They're good luck.

Mostly pretty correct but rather old news. There is so-called Chinese
Broccoli but I like it as little as regular. *Very many* Chinese but not
all are lactose intolerant. I know Fortune Cookies were probably
invented in San Francisco but they are fun anyway. The chicken was named
*for* General Tso; nobody thinks he was a cook.


--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.