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How is deep frying and heavy saucing an American thing? The only time I see fish prepared that way is at Chinese resteraunts. Do you mean as English/Scottish fish and chips?

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Are you by any chance talking about Chinese restaurants in the u.s.? Most of the time when I had fish in China at restaurants it was whole. With head and everything. So, even if covered with any sauce, you could easily distinguish the fish.

I don't know about the US, but 糖醋鱼 is a popular dish in China, among many other sauce heavy fish dishes.

I grew up eating mostly steamed and smoked fish. In the US often fish is served either deep fried (and breaded) or with some kind of sauce that kills the flavor of the fish.

Of cause "Chinese" restaurants are the quintessential American food joint so they do a lot of deep frying of everything including the fish.

So I grew up in Seattle, and deep fried fish with chips is something you get at ivars, and at that is definitely an English dish (fish wth chips is the national food of the U.K.). The standard American way of cooking a fish is smoked (salmon) or on a barbecue with foil (well, OK, I'm not sure about the east coast).

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