Chinatown dishes adapting and evolving
- By Tom Cunliffe
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, December 7, 2015
Chinatowns across the world developed when migrants, in search of a better life, set off to foreign lands. London's first Chinatown bloomed by the docks in Limehouse from the 1880s to the 1930s. Few of the Chinese restaurants and grocery stores that populated the area at that time still exist. As with New York's Chinatown in Manhattan, Limehouse's Chinatown was seen as something exotic and mysterious (as depicted in the 1929 movie 'Picadilly'), rather than the assimilated places Chinatowns around the world have become today.
 |
|
Mango Pancakes popular in Chinatowns in Sydney, Australia. |
Chinatowns around the world gradually began to adapt their Chinese food to suit locals' taste buds. In Britain for instance, Chinatowns have adapted to conservative British tastes, which is why many classic UK Chinatown dishes feature boneless meat (something that might surprise Chinese people used to eating meat with bones still intact) and many fried dishes because fried food is so popular in the UK.
Traditionally, most Chinatown's food was shaped by Southern China and Cantonese cuisine. This is why it is often a surprise for a British person to try Chinese food in Beijing for the first time since it is so different from much of the Chinese food available in the UK. This is slowly beginning to change as many new Chinese immigrants, business people and students moving to the UK from all over Chinese mainland are bringing with them a taste of their own regional cuisines. Thus, a city like London has started to open up more restaurants that cater to their tastes, in the process allowing people in London to try food outside of the normal Western-style Cantonese food. Some Cantonese restaurants have even started adding spicy Sichuan dishes onto their menus reflecting these changes.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)