There is Chinese food and then there is Americanized Chinese food.
Both can be delicious, but it's always good to know the difference
between the two.
http://dc.eater.com/archives/2011/10...e-dont-eat.php

1) Crab Wontons: These deep-fried dumplings filled with crabmeat and
cream cheese are popular...but nobody eats cheese in China. We're all
lactose intolerant. But we do like to curdle other things, like
fermented bean paste and duck blood.


2) General Tso's Chicken: Come on, this guy was too busy warding off
rebellions to be cooking. This recipe is strictly American—chunks of
chicken battered, fried and sweetened for Western tastes. No one in
Hunan had even heard of this before 1970.


3) Chop Suey: Ah yes, the garbage disposal of the omelet world.
Refrigerator scraps stir-fried and topped with an egg. It is said that
some Chinese cook working during the Gold Rush served it as a personal
"**** you" to some drunk American miners.



4) Pu Pu Platter: Everything about this appetizer is an affront to
poor people. It's nothing but fried, greasy egg rolls, spare ribs,
chicken wings and beef teriyaki—which isn't even Chinese!


5) Sweet 'n' Sour Pork: Chunks of pork, battered, deep-fried and
slimed in a thick orange sauce. There are obvious Southern barbecue
influences here.


6) Sweet 'n' Sour Chicken: same treatment, but it's all white meat
because somehow that makes it better. With pieces of pineapple to
assuage your guilt.


7) Salad: We cook our food. When dysentery is a concern, you would
too.


8) Egg Rolls: Does anyone eat these? These thick-skinned, blistered
rolls that look like Linda Blair's face in The Exorcist are nothing
like the real Chinese spring rolls, which are smaller, thin and
crispy—and edible.


9) Beef and broccoli: There's really nothing wrong with this dish,
except that we don't have Western broccoli in the East.


10) Fortune cookies: Another ploy to amuse Westerners, these
flag-bearers of fortune don't even tell you good news anymore, only
your closely guarded shortcomings. Chinese people eat something more
fortuitous for dessert: oranges. They're good luck.



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Good Food.
Good Friends.
Good Memories.