Chinese food tonight

[General Tso]

My go-to is always General Tso's Chicken.

 

[millah_22]

I’ll invite you over the next time and after dinner we can dock

 

[RicoSuave102954]

What's your order?

Cat and dog

 

[Hendy hawk]

Cashew Chicken, Chicken & vegetables and Happy Family.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Three orders of crab rangoons

Have you ever had the original recipe from Trader Vics? As good as the cheap mostly or all cream cheese filling, the original is mindblowingly good. And it’s pretty easy to make at home as long the original filling with half minced Dungeness crab (you can use blue lump instead), half Philly cream cheese and a little A1 and Lingham’s hot sauce and then mixed. Fry it in a wonton wrapper and you’re done other than making a plum sauce.

 

[JMNSHO]

American Chinese food:

Hunan Beef, extra spicy with lots of straw mushrooms
Steamed Dumplings
Hot and Sour Soup


Authentic Chinese food:
???

 

[FSUTribe76]

And of course the great thing about American “Chinese” is that very little of it is even remotely original Chinese. More than half of the takeout menu are American inventions. Chop suey famously invented by a personal chef to a whitey in California. Orange chicken invented by Panda Express not that long ago. Crab Rangoon invented by Trader Vics. Bur-Bon Chicken invented by now lost to history “Chinese” restaurant in New Orleans. General Tso’s chicken was really invented at Hunan Park in NYC in the 70s (a Taiwanese chef also claimed to have invented and named it but the modern General Tso’s more closely resembles Hunan Park’s General Chings than the healthier dish called General Tso’s by the Taiwanese chef). Egg Fu Yung invented in Gold Rush California. Egg Rolls invented in 1930’s Chinatown in NYC. Beef and Broccoli invented in 1920’s California. Mongolian Beef was invented in 1960s California as an adaptation of a Taiwanese chef who invented so-called Mongolian BBQ which he considered a blending of Chinese stir fry with American BBQ and he originally called Beijing BBQ before being forced to change the name as a political concession to Taiwanese authorities.

I could go on and on. But one of my favorite anecdotes about how naive the average American is to their food origin is that on a Tallahassee “foodies” Facebook group I’m in, someone asked “Where I can get good authentic Orange Chicken not that cr%p from Panda Express?”

 

[bcherod]

Interesting. How do you make chicken soup "Greek"?

Just saw this. I promise to explain later in the day. The night owl is crashing now, listening to ‘60’s folk music.

But, it’s lighter. Chicken broth from real chicken, from the farmer.

More later.

Cheers. 😻

 

[FSUTribe76]

American Chinese food:

Hunan Beef, extra spicy with lots of straw mushrooms
Steamed Dumplings
Hot and Sour Soup


Authentic Chinese food:
???

There’s some decent actually authentic or at least close to it dishes as well.

I absolutely love XLB/“soup dumplings”/xiao long bao which admittedly are only from mid 1800s Beijing but it’s a derivative of earlier iterations going back almost a thousand years.

Mapo Tofu is from mid 1800s Chengdu which is the capital of the Sichuan/Szechuan region.

Kung Pao chicken is a late 1800s dish from the Sichuan/Szechuan region.

Peking Duck is a VERY old authentic dish from the 14th century Beijing.

Char Siu Pork is an even older dish from the Canton province.

So there are SOME authentic Chinese dishes at an American Chinese takeout.

 

[bcherod]

And of course the great thing about American “Chinese” is that very little of it is even remotely original Chinese. More than half of the takeout menu are American inventions. Chop suey famously invented by a personal chef to a whitey in California. Orange chicken invented by Panda Express not that long ago. Crab Rangoon invented by Trader Vics. Bur-Bon Chicken invented by now lost to history “Chinese” restaurant in New Orleans. General Tso’s chicken was really invented at Hunan Park in NYC in the 70s (a Taiwanese chef also claimed to have invented and named it but the modern General Tso’s more closely resembles Hunan Park’s General Chings than the healthier dish called General Tso’s by the Taiwanese chef). Egg Fu Yung invented in Gold Rush California. Egg Rolls invented in 1930’s Chinatown in NYC. Beef and Broccoli invented in 1920’s California. Mongolian Beef was invented in 1960s California as an adaptation of a Taiwanese chef who invented so-called Mongolian BBQ which he considered a blending of Chinese stir fry with American BBQ and he originally called Beijing BBQ before being forced to change the name as a political concession to Taiwanese authorities.

I could go on and on. But one of my favorite anecdotes about how naive the average American is to their food origin is that on a Tallahassee “foodies” Facebook group I’m in, someone asked “Where I can get good authentic Orange Chicken not that cr%p from Panda Express?”

I was fortunate enough to have real Chinese food from the time I was wee one. Then I lived in Asia.

my previous post is based on what I would eat in Tallahassee, but if I were in NY, the menu would be different.

 

[pink shizzle]

Lots of whites in this thread.

To be fair orange chicken, General Tso's, etc. is also popular in China. I saw plenty of it there, and not just in touristy places.

 

[LBoogie28]

To be fair orange chicken, General Tso's, etc. is also popular in China. I saw plenty of it there, and not just in touristy places.

Compete honesty…I have never sat down to a family dinner and have had those dishes ordered for the table. The olds certainly aren’t cooking them (1st gen don’t cook much at all). I also have about 15 years of church pot luck experience where I have yet to see the General’s chicken be presented. I won’t argue these items can’t be found on menus, but even the places I most frequent in Dallas don’t have them listed (mostly eat at noodle/dumpling houses, dim sum, sichuan, hot pot, etc). I also have not had the same experience as you outside tourist traps in China/Taiwan, but will note it wasn’t something I was looking for in particular.

My original post was a light ribbing though. If you like it, eat it. Authenticity means little if it’s tasty AF.

 

[HawkMachine]

Best fifteen dollar.

 

[Derekd3408]

do you not like any of your local places? I usually find local places are way better than hy vee or panda express.

The dumpsters outside an OK Chinese restaurant are better than Panda and HyVee.

 

[gojojo]

Surprisingly, North Liberty has one of the better Japanese/Chinese options in the corridor, SushiYa.

Caterpillar roll
Rainbow Roll
Teriyaki Chicken
Sh1t ton of Rangoons