ANTH 205 Lecture 28

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China: Foodways I

Chinese food is the most pervasive food on the planet

Restaurants on every continent (even Antarctica)

American-Chinese Food

Nothing at all like traditional chinese food

• Heavy, thick, sweet
• Lots of starch
• Over 40,000 chinese restaurants (more than all burger joints combined

History of American-Chinese Food

Original impressions:

1784

Samuel Shaw arrived in Canton aboard Empress of China

Neither Europeans nor Chinese admired each other's foods

1849

California Gold Rush brought first wave of Chinese Immigrants to US

Prospector racism and fear of outsider competition created hostility

Original foods by immigrats were cooked with American ingredients

1880s

Bohemian society of New York discovered Chinese cuisine

Chop Suey houses created blueprint for nearly all American Chinese Restaurants

Still used American ingredients

Chinese Exclusion act of 1882 (repealed 1943) stopped flow of immigrants and further reduced flow of authentic Chinese ingredients and cooks

supposedly, an actual Chinese person ate at this place and liked the food (added "authenticity")

may be some sort of culinary joke that we don't get...

1970s

Many people (chefs and artisans included) fled China and sought refuge in US after establishment of PRC and "Cultural Revolution"

Brought with them more regionally focused dishes.

Renewed interest in exotic Chinese cuisine

Nixon visited China in 1972 to start normalizing relationships, and popularized Peking duck

American-Chinese food is going (back^?) to China (esp. Beijing)

General Tso's Chicken

Named after General Tso Tsung-t'ang from Hunan, but very much American

Hunan palate is sweet and savory (perhaps how name arose)

Invented by Peng Chang-kuei in 1950s

• subsequently adapted for the American palate
• Originally the banquet chef for Nationalist Party (before civil war)
• Fled to Taiwan and then US
• Opened restaurant in New York next to UN headquarters, incredibly popular
• Went back to Taiwan
• Opened (unsuccessful) restaurant in hometown, Changsha, Hunan Province
• Some adopted General Tso's as a "traditional" Hunanese dish

Texture Foods

Flavorless on their own, but add texture:

• Shark fin ( Important: usually inhumanely collected)
• Sea cucumber
• Bird's nest: made from nests of cave swift, and some human jerk just comes and takes their home.

Monosodium Glutamate

Sodium salt of glutamic acid

Naturally-occurring essential amino acid

• Produced by fermented bacteria
• Present in Kelp, soy sauce, Mizo, and cheese
• Deep savory flavor to balance/highlight flavors; makes food taste more like itself