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Comment by miles | Hacker News Reader

if you're not from LA, SF, NY there's a strong chance you've never actually had chinese food.

I imagine there are over a billion people in China and Taiwan who would beg to differ ;-)

Exactly. Chinese friends tell me "Chinese" food one finds in Chinatowns in western cities is heavily adapted to western tastes and nothing like what is eaten in China.

Last time I was in China, no one had ever heard of General Tso. From what I gather, he was a bloodthirsty tyrant, but made an excellent chicken.

I have a hunch that the 'Tso' is actually a corruption of 'sauce', meaning instead of being named for a military general, 'general' is the name of the sauce.

General Tso's chicken, like fortune cookies and Chop Suey, come from America.

LOL

I suspect that the "Chinese" food here is adapted to comply with US law.

What laws are these? I find it strange to hear anyone claim that US laws determine what is made and sold as Chinese food. There are some laws regarding food safety, but they apply to all foods.

This is probably not what either of you meant, but until 2005, it was illegal to import sichuan peppercorns. This resulted in a lot of dishes missing a fairly important taste, even in otherwise authentic Sichuan restaurants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper#US_import_ban

no that's just a ridiculous racist thought that you came up with on your own.

I'm not talking about Chinatowns. those are ghettoes leftover from the 1800s

But if you know how to order right, you can find dishes that are kind of like American dishes only vastly better.

http://www.chinatouradvisors.com/UpLoad/Jiangsu/Suzhou/Food/...

Even if you're from LA, SF, or NY, there's a strong chance you've never actually had Chinese food ;)

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