

Who was General Tso? and other mysteries of American Chinese food [TED Talk] - DaniFong
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_tso.html

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tjr
In a previous job I worked, mostly remotely, with some engineers in China. On
one occasion they came to the United States for a visit, and some local
colleagues and I suggested to them that we order some Chinese food.

"We don't recognize anything on the menu," they told me.

They ended up ordering the restaurant's "house special", which turned out to
be tiny bits of grilled chicken atop shredded lettuce and rice. A while later,
I noticed they had only eaten about half of their lunch.

"This is too much for us," they said. "We can't eat it all!"

"It's too much for us, too," I assured them. "But we eat it all anyway."

~~~
catch23
On another note, one time we brought our coworkers to a "real chinese
restaurant". They didn't order anything on the menu and asked the cook to make
a special beef-fried-rice for them. While the rest of us were enjoying our
bitter melon & pig intestines, they survived on the single-course-fried-rice
deal the cook managed to conjure up. They actually liked the pig intestines &
cow tendons until they found out what they were eating.

~~~
light3
yes they r nice tasting =D

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jhancock
7 years ago I assisted a group of Shanghai government officials in a multi-
city tour of America. They only wanted to eat Chinese food morning, noon, and
night. I have found Chinese folks (especially anyone over the age of 40) to be
highly inflexible in their dietary habits. In every city we visited, although
most of those cities had famous China towns, we simply could not satisfy them.
The food was never even half acceptable to them.

The trip was good from a business perspective. But they all came back to
Shanghai sorely disappointed in America's ability to feed them well ;).

As to General Tso? I have rarely found a Chinese that has any clue who this
famous person in history is. I'll take Jenny at her word that he's an
important historical artifact.

~~~
catch23
In general, if you weren't brought up with food diversity, you'll probably
cling to what you like and makes you feel comfortable. Same goes for Americans
who visit China, give them a week and they'll be dying for some McDonalds. A
friend of mine went there for international school and he mailed ordered
frozen hot dogs and breakfast cereal because he just couldn't survive on
chinese food. Bring any American to China and try introducing them to congee &
noodles for lunch, I'm sure they'll freak out too.

Same goes for Indians/Pakistanis... I had to oversee our outsourcing team that
was visiting the States and most of them simply refused eating American food
even when I suggested vegetarian places. They ended up eating at the same
indian restaurant for 3 weeks straight.

~~~
cglee
I couldn't find a neighborhood WITHOUT a McDonald's in Beijing. Or KFC. Or
Starbucks.

~~~
catch23
Well that's because you visited Beijing. Try visiting a city near Beijing, but
not in Beijing.

I think if you visit any major city anywhere in the world, you'll find a huge
diverse range of food you'll never have trouble with.

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delano
I'm fascinated by Chinese restaurants and Chinatowns.

I hadn't thought about the Linux analogy before but that's pretty accurate.
Although it's more accurate to say that Linux follows the Chinese restaurant
model since it predates Linux by 8 or 9 decades.

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shadytrees
_The Fortune Cookie Chronicles_ , by the same person, is a fun book too, even
if it does wander a little.

~~~
jamesjyu
I would definitely second a recommendation for The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.
Fascinating read about a cultural phenomenon we all know so well, yet don't
know.

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robertk
Is....is this girl's middle initial..."8"!?

~~~
wheels
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_8._Lee>

_"Jennifer added the number eight to her own name while she was a teenager
because of the prevalence of her first name."_

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wmf
Possibly related article:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/magazine/04food.t.html>

(I didn't watch the video since it crashed my browser.)

