Not too long ago, I went to McNulty’s Coffee and Tea to buy a pound of coffee beans purveyed by a Tom Wolfe lookalike and a Chinese-American Charlie Brown lookalike. The latter speaks crystal clear English to the extent that if you couldn’t see his face you’d think you were listening to a guest on the Lawrence Welk show. Well, ahead of me in line was a white man in his 50’s, who under no provocation said, “I love General Tso’s Chicken, but it tastes so much better at restaurants. I don’t know what I’m missing in my recipe, but do you have one?” American Born Chinese Charlie Brown just smiled and said, “no.” And I kid you not, this customer persisted with, “yeah, I guess it’d more likely be your mother who has the recipe.”
“Whatthehelldidyoujustaboutmymomma?!” would have been an acceptable response, but ABC Charlie Brown just smiled again and didn’t respond.
General Tso’s Chicken is to Chinese food what the California Roll is to Japanese food. It’s an American byproduct that’s become so popular it’s been reintroduced to its supposed provenance. And a lot of us wonder (or at least I always did)…where did it come from?
Fuschia Dunlop deserves some kind of award for clearing the air on the matter (in yesterday’s NYT Magazine). In brief, it was pretty much invented (or innovated really) by a Chinese chef in New York about sixty years ago, much like Chop Suey. Also, Dunlop’s recipe for GTC sounds absolutely delicious.
February 6th, 2007 on 7:56 am
It must be an epidemic. A week or so ago my partner and I went to check out “Letters From Iwo Jima” in Columbus, OH. It was an interesting crowd…lots of white American veterans and their blue haired wives, and more than a handful of Asians of all ages and family structures. As we were all walking out, an apparently 8,000 year old white dude asked one of the Asian men (who was probably in his 50s and who clearly had NOT come to the theater with the old guy) where he was from. He politely replied “Japan” although he seemed a bit surprised by this question from a stranger. The walking-dead old guy grasped his shoulder warmly and said “You’re a good man. Best of luck to you.” I still don’t know what to think about it, although so far none of it has been positive.