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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)

#41

Post by [deleted] »

cbhl wrote: post #40
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…

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.

[deleted]

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

#42

Post by lod723 »

cbhl wrote: post #40
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…

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 number of regional cuisines all in one place, and the raw ingredient quality is higher when compared to mainland China.

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

#43

Post by stevenwoo »

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…

The Ranch 99 near the Cisco'campus in Milpitas featured a half dozen Chinese restaurants nearby with no English on the menu the last time I worked near there five years ago.

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

#44

Post by tuna-piano »

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

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

#46

Post by haskal »

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.

Indo-Chinese is barely derived from/a changed version of traditional Chinese.

As an Indian who eats traditional Chinese food from various parts of China regularly, I can confirm that there literally isn't any sauce that tastes like Indo-Chinese cuisine's sauces. Indo-Chinese seems like Indian food with ingredients from Chinese food added which makes it a changed version of traditional Indian food rather than a changed version of traditional Chinese food.

One of my life's goals is to get one of my friend from NE China to eat Manchurian food in Mumbai. Results will be interesting.

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

#47

Post by scruple »

echevil wrote: post #10

Yeah, American Chinese food is mostly Cantonese, which is only one of the eight major cuisines in China. Even if it were exactly the same as Cantonese food in China (it is not, apparently), it would still be unfamiliar to most Chinese people

And, even then, there is an undeniable Western influence on quite a bit of "modern" Cantonese food, even in Hong Kong itself.

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

#48

Post by _0ffh »

GuiA wrote: post #35
candiodari wrote: post #22

Funny thing about international food. It's not very international at all. French food is great ... except in France it's very different (and outside of the center of Paris sucks pretty bad) Turkish fast food, specifically Kebab, is as far as I know a German invention taken up by Turks, rather than something that historically existed in Turkey. Now you might say shaved roasted meat existed there, and you'd be right, b…

> French food is great ... except in France it's very different (and outside of the center of Paris sucks pretty bad) Can't tell if you're trolling, have never been to France, or just went to all the wrong places. The center of Paris would be the worst place to eat any great French food, unless you only care for pretentious, overpriced restaurants which get featured in tourist magazines. Go spend some time in small r…

I think they meant the part about the invention of the Döner Kebap in it's currently popular form: "The dish developed there [in Berlin] from its original form into a distinctive style [...] that would soon become one of the top-selling fast food and street food dishes in Germany and much of Europe, and popular around the world.[14]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner_kebab#History

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

#50

Post by mirimir »

haskal wrote: post #46
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.

Indo-Chinese is barely derived from/a changed version of traditional Chinese. As an Indian who eats traditional Chinese food from various parts of China regularly, I can confirm that there literally isn't any sauce that tastes like Indo-Chinese cuisine's sauces. Indo-Chinese seems like Indian food with ingredients from Chinese food added which makes it a changed version of traditional Indian food rather than a change…

I've had American-Indian-Chinese food in the Edison, NJ area. It was closer to American-Chinese than American-Indian.

Edit: Also, I remember a great Indian-Thai-Chinese restaurant in Oaxaca, Mexico.

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