
U of Toronto Acquires the World's Largest Collection of Chinese Restaurant Menus - Thevet
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/02/02/u-of-t-acquires-the-worlds-largest-collection-of-chinese-restaurant-menus.html
======
zacwest
"The Search for General Tso" on Netflix
[http://www.netflix.com/title/80011853?s=i](http://www.netflix.com/title/80011853?s=i)
dives into this collection a bit. Really fun documentary, too.

~~~
intopieces
One of the producers and primary contributors to that documentary, Jennifer 8.
Lee, presented a proposal at the most recent Unicode meeting to include
dumpling, chopsticks, fortune cookie and chinese takeout menu into Unicode's
emoji. Very well done. She did a TED talk in 08

[https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_t...](https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_tso)

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slantyyz
Interesting.

My dad owned (second owner) one of the first "fake Chinese" take out
restaurants in Toronto - opened in 1955. He used to have a collection of all
the old menus from his restaurant.

At one point in the late 80s, I did some updates for him in Quark Xpress on a
Mac SE.

It has changed hands a couple of times since my Dad retired in the early 90s
though. I just dug up their current menu [1], and it looks like they're still
using a variant of the menu that dates back to the 70s.

While I miss the free food, I sure don't miss working there...

[1]
[http://www.chopstickfoods.ca/en/menu.html](http://www.chopstickfoods.ca/en/menu.html)

~~~
antoniuschan99
I live in Toronto. Is this place worthy of checking out?

~~~
slantyyz
I haven't eaten there in over 20 years as I live out of the way, so to be
honest, I have no idea.

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bozo1979
I've always wondered why beef with black bean sauce is common to see on menus
in Canada but not in the US. Also, chow fun seems to be served at particular
restaurants.

~~~
schwap
Other particularities I've noticed are the lack of Orange Chicken in Canada
and the lack of Ginger Beef in the states (they don't know what they're
missing).

~~~
danielki
From my understanding, this is because neither of these are actually true
"Chinese" dishes,. Ginger Beef was "invented" by a Chinese immigrant in
Calgary in the 1970s [0], whereas the westernized Orange Chicken is actually a
variation on General Tso's chicken, which was invented/popularized in New York
in the early 1970s [1].

[0]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090330125905/http://cbc.ca/new...](https://web.archive.org/web/20090330125905/http://cbc.ca/news/background/chinese-
newyear/calgary.html)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso%27s_chicken#Name_a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso%27s_chicken#Name_and_origins)

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GurnB
Now this would be an interesting collection of data to analyze. Is the #7
lunch special Beef with Broccoli in more than 90% of the menu's?

~~~
mc32
It depends, in china pork and chicken are more popular than beef which is more
on par with lamb. And they use less broccoli and more cabbage family veggies.

~~~
GavinMcG
It's clear what you meant, of course – but it's an interesting tidbit that
broccoli is a "cabbage-family" vegetable!

In fact, broccoli is the same species as cabbage, which are both cultivars of
_Brassica oleracea_.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassicaceae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassicaceae)

~~~
mc32
Gah, you're right I'd forgotten. I meant the cuisine tends to the more leafy
versions of the cruciferous veggies like cabbage, "white vegetable", and some
others.

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p4wnc6
They plan to finally, once and for all, settle the timeless question of if you
can order beef, chicken, or tofu as the protein, and if you can order
broccoli, mushrooms, or peppers as the vegetable, and if you can order white
rice, brown rice, or noodles as the starch, then how many total dishes can you
order?

~~~
api_or_ipa
27 unless you allow deletions, then it's 4^3-1 since a plate with no food is
not particularly satisfying.

The real question emerges once you consider quantities & lesser adjuncts like
ginger, soy sauce, mushrooms, etc. It's surprising how fast this stuff can add
up.

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zardo
I was kind of thinking it was the CS department collecting them to build
SweetNSourNet.

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superchink
The comment about the first image [1] was confusing to me:

"The text is a mix of English words written in a style reminiscent of
Cantonese."

Does the author even have a clue what he's saying?

[1]
[http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2016/02/...](http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2016/02/02/u-of-
t-acquires-the-worlds-largest-collection-of-chinese-restaurant-menus/webold-
menujpg.jpg.size.xxlarge.promo.jpg)

~~~
DanAndersen
The sentence preceding the one you quoted should explain it. The point is that
there is a particular font style used in "mock Chinese" imagery that makes
English words look like they are written with the sort of sharp strokes that
Western audiences saw as being like Chinese characters.

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addled
I'm tempted to start doing this for the places in my town. Cashew Chicken is a
big deal here.

