Chinatown dishes adapting and evolving
- By Tom Cunliffe
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 7, 2015
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General Tso's chicken, popular in America. |
Chinatowns in different countries also develop their own special dishes that do not seem to be eaten in China itself. In Sydney, Australia for instance, Mango pancakes - Mango and whipped cream wrapped around in pancakes - are extremely popular but don't exist in the UK. Meanwhile, in the UK crispy duck is very popular, a sort of basic version of Peking Duck.
General Tso's chicken is a sweet and spicy fried chicken dish that is so popular in American that an American documentary was recently made about it called 'The Search for General Tso's Chicken'. The director discovers that nobody in China, or in Hunan Province where the original Qing Dynasty General Tso hailed from, has heard of the dish.
However, judging by one restaurant in Shanghai, this could be changing. Opened in the last couple of years, Fortune Cookie restaurant in Shanghai specializes in American-style Chinese take-out food. All the classic American staples are there, including General Tso's chicken, crab Rangoon (made with imitation crab and slabs of Philadelphia cream cheese, deep-fried in wonton skins), and Mapo Tofu fries with cheese. The owners say that expats living in Shanghai are very happy with this food, and younger Chinese customers also generally enjoy it, but older Chinese residents are not so enamored by the very sweet and salty flavors. Either way, it's a fascinating evolution in the idea of how Chinese food relates to cultural identity, and who decides what Chinese food actually is.
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