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China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

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Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#81

Post by barry-cotter »

alkonaut wrote: post #70

This is exactly the same with Italian food: even though the US is full of people of Italian descent, that doesn't change the fact that the Olive Garden menu baffles Italians. Italian-American is a different kitchen. Just like British-Indian food. Or Tex-Mex. Sometimes these adaptations are pretty good (the British Indian food, which is what everyone outside india thinks of as "Indian food" is pretty good!) but for so…

Indian food in Malaysia/Indonesia/Singapore is Southern Indian, mostly Tamil, not Bengali but spicier like British Indian food. Japanese Indian food is Bengali by way of Britain with no hint of spiciness. Tex-Mex for food snobs is called Southwest cuisine. American pizza is very different from Italian and good enough to have a small niche in Italy itself.

I'm not really familiar with US-Chinese but you're wrong about Tex-Mex and at least one kind of Italian-American food. I'd be surprised if you were wrong about US-Chinese food because UK, DE and IE Chinese food are all awful.

In English an ethnie's way of cooking is a cuisine not a kitchen.

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#82

Post by barry-cotter »

lod723 wrote: post #42
cbhl wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering how big the Chinese population is in Fremont, Cupertino, San Mateo, and Daly City, I'm surprised there aren't more approved restaurants on your list. But then again, rents are outrageous, so maybe it's just impossible to open a restaurant as an immigrant who is good at cooking.

You left out Millbrae. I don't think the grandposter tried very hard. There's definitely a number of proper Chinese places in that corridor, but the average ones do suck. That or the in-laws are looking for a specific region in China that isn't well represented in the bay. There's a reasonable argument to be made that Chinese food in the San Gabriel Valley in LA is better than in China, since you can find a large num…

You can find every major Chinese cuisine in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and possibly Shenzhen and Guangdong, with great quality. That said the selection of Yunnan, Tibetan, Mongolian and Xinjiang may not be great but they're all there. That said Vancouver, New York and Tokyo are all in the top ten cities in the world for Chinese food.

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#83

Post by m_mueller »

sooheon wrote: post #80
m_mueller wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually rice is the main focus in Japanese Sushi - it needs to be treated perfectly - soft and grained, yet sticky enough to just hold together, with salt and vinegar added to a point, pressed and eaten very quickly. Fish is just there to round off the rice. That's why Sushi chefs train for years just preparing the rice - cutting fish is the last step to learn.

I'm sure rife is important, but you're way over correcting. Fish is just there to round off the rice? Please.

I stand by my comment. Any trained Sushi chef knows how to cut the fish properly, all they need is access to a good wholesale fish market like Tsukiji or one of its resellers to offer you some very nice fish - but the way they treat the rice is where you see the biggest difference between a trained sushi chef and a master. No matter where you go in Japan it's still way beyond what you'd get in expensive places abroad with a high likelihood though.

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#84

Post by Retric »

nostrademons wrote: post #27

My dad's a Chinese immigrant, and I've been to China and had Chinese food there. There are two types of Chinese food you can get in America (well, more given all the regional variations, but I'm making a point...). If you went to a strip mall, walked into a P.F. Chang's, and had General Tso's Chicken, that's not Chinese food. But if you walked into an unmarked doorway in Chinatown, walked down a flight of stairs to a…

You can also get the Chinese menu at many of the nice, American style, small town chinease restaurants.

However, China has a wide range of food stiles. And, there is plenty of back and forth. Much like how Pitza is not really Italian you can still find it in Italy.

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#85

Post by Markoff »

lvturner wrote: post #64
tuna-piano wrote: post #44

In the reverse, this is what I got when I ordered a burger at a basketball game in China. I think of this burger when I try and empathize with how other cultures feel when America adapts their cuisine: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5dDMxJP_n1aVWFmby0ydlJfbW8... Also, here's a video of Chinese people trying Panda Express (American Chinese fast food) for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo59LlkTDe4

That burger to me looks like it's actually a 肉夹馍 (rou jia mo) - which is often mistranslated as a burger or a "Chinese Burger" if done right they are really tasty... unfortunately this particular example looks a little stomach churning Edit: wife has corrected me, it's a 馅饼 (xian bing) - roughly translated as a minced meat pancake/pie!

roujiamo is always open (sliced and filled with meat)

if it's completely sealed it's gonna be some of million kinds of bing

personally i consider everything inferior to donkey sandwich

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#86

Post by colomon »

bane wrote: post #37
nostrademons wrote: post #27

My dad's a Chinese immigrant, and I've been to China and had Chinese food there. There are two types of Chinese food you can get in America (well, more given all the regional variations, but I'm making a point...). If you went to a strip mall, walked into a P.F. Chang's, and had General Tso's Chicken, that's not Chinese food. But if you walked into an unmarked doorway in Chinatown, walked down a flight of stairs to a…

> walked into a P.F. Chang's, and had General Tso's Chicken To be a touch contrarian, I'd even argue that the kind of food served in some of the newer chain restaurants isn't even proper traditional American-Chinese food (which seems to have shown up sometime in the late 19th, early 20th century). One of the things I've come to appreciate after lots of travel and lots of -Chinese food is how well developed and embedd…

"But you can find an American-Chinese restaurant in almost every po-dunk country town across the entirety of America."

This is a relatively recent development, BTW. I grew up in small town Michigan. In the 70s, when we wanted Chinese food, we actually drove 30 minutes to Sarnia, Canada. (Or cooked it ourselves.) In the 80s, a place finally opened in town. As late as the early 90s we were still occasionally going for Chinese in Canada because they were still marginally better than the local places. But in the last 20 years only nostalgia would get me going to Sarnia primarily for Chinese food. (The dim sum place in Windsor is a different matter!)

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#87

Post by deskglass »

rinka_singh wrote: post #8

:-p China would NEVER understand the concept of Indian Chinese food either. We've changed the traditional Chinese food so significantly that... And it is the second most popular "cuisine" in India after traditional Indian food.

Similarly, I ate at an Indian restaurant in Beijing and didn't notice any difference from Chinese food.

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#88

Post by partisan »

spc476 wrote: post #67
bane wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> walked into a P.F. Chang's, and had General Tso's Chicken To be a touch contrarian, I'd even argue that the kind of food served in some of the newer chain restaurants isn't even proper traditional American-Chinese food (which seems to have shown up sometime in the late 19th, early 20th century). One of the things I've come to appreciate after lots of travel and lots of -Chinese food is how well developed and embedd…

You can find an American-Chinese restaurant everywhere, but I was very surprised to find a Chinese-Mexican restaurant in Florida (Indiantown, Florida to be precise): https://www.google.com/maps/@27.024428,-80.4724516,3a,75y,21... Haven't eaten there, but have passed the place plenty of times (girlfriend's Mom used to live in Indiantown).

I had plenty of meals at Chino-Latino places growing up. In my neighborhood, they were the only Chinese food places that offered a sit-down dining experience. Every standard Chinese place was all takeout and even then, all transactions took place through some bulletproof plexiglass.

At the Chino-Latino places, you would get toasted slices of italian bread and butter instead of fried noodles and duck sauce and you could get you favorite sides like mofongo or tostones.

I miss the experience. My mom would treat us to it when she could.

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#89

Post by wikibob »

inopinatus wrote: post #19

I'm married to a first-generation offspring of Chinese parents, a source of regular and scathing remarks on how what is served in the US as "Chinese food" is often a many-generations-removed facsimile thereof. Three items in particular (Chop Suey, Chow Mein and General Tso Chicken) receive very special ridicule and their appearance on a menu can effectively disqualify any restaurant from further consideration. As the…

Could you share the names of the places that they consider to be acceptably authentic?

Re: China Doesn't Understand the Concept of American Chinese Food (2014)

#90

Post by stonemetal »

nostrademons wrote: post #27

My dad's a Chinese immigrant, and I've been to China and had Chinese food there. There are two types of Chinese food you can get in America (well, more given all the regional variations, but I'm making a point...). If you went to a strip mall, walked into a P.F. Chang's, and had General Tso's Chicken, that's not Chinese food. But if you walked into an unmarked doorway in Chinatown, walked down a flight of stairs to a…

It isn't nearly that hard to find authentic Chinese food. It probably isn't on the menu because it doesn't sell, but most non chain Chinese restaurants are pretty capable of putting together a nice authentic meal.
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