American Chinese cuisine

American Chinese cuisine, known in the United States as simply Chinese food, is a style of food developed by Americans of Chinese descent and served in many North American Chinese restaurants. The dishes typically served in restaurants cater to American tastes and differ significantly from Chinese cuisine in China itself. Although China has various regional cuisines, Cantonese cuisine has been the most influential regional cuisine in the development of American Chinese food.

Differences from mainland Chinese cuisines

American Chinese food typically treats vegetables as a side dish or garnish, while traditional cuisines of China emphasize vegetables. This can be seen in the use of carrots and tomatoes. Native Chinese cuisine makes frequent use of Asian leaf vegetables like bok choy and kai-lan and puts a greater emphasis on fresh meat and seafood.

Stir frying, pan frying, and deep frying tend to be the most common Chinese cooking techniques used in American Chinese cuisine, which are all easily done using a wok (a Chinese frying pan with bowl-like features). The food also has a reputation for high levels of MSG to enhance the flavor. Market forces and customer demand have encouraged many restaurants to offer "MSG Free" or "No MSG" menus, or to omit this ingredient on request.

American Chinese cuisine often uses ingredients not native to and very rarely used in China. One such example is the common use of western broccoli instead of Chinese broccoli in American Chinese cuisine. Occasionally, western broccoli is also referred to as sai lan fa (in Cantonese) in order not to confuse the two styles of broccoli. Among Chinese speakers, however, it is typically understood that one is referring to the leafy vegetable unless otherwise specified.


This is also the case with the words for carrot (luo buo or lo bac, or hong luo buo, hong meaning "red") and onion (cong). Lo bac, in Cantonese, refers to the daikon, a large, pungent white radish. The orange western carrot is known in some areas of China as "foreign Daikon" (or more properly hung lo bac in Cantonese, hung meaning "red"). When the word for onion, chung, is used, it is understood that one is referring to "green onions" (otherwise known to English-speakers as "scallions" or "spring onions"). The larger many-layered onion bulb common in the United States is called yang cong. This translates as "western onion". These names make it evident that the American broccoli, carrot, and onion are not indigenous to China, and therefore are less common in the traditional cuisines of China.

Since tomatoes are New World plants, they are also relatively new to China and Chinese cuisine. Tomato-based sauces can be found in some American Chinese dishes such as the "beef and tomato". Hence, if a dish contains significant amounts of any of these ingredients, it has most likely been Americanized. Egg fried rice in American Chinese cuisine is also prepared differently, with more soy sauce added for more flavor whereas the traditional egg fried rice in Chinese culture uses less soy sauce. Some food styles such as Dim sum were also modified to fit American palates, such as added batter for fried dishes and extra soy sauce.

Salads containing raw or uncooked ingredients are rare in traditional Chinese cuisine, as are Japanese style sushi or sashimi. However, an increasing number of American Chinese restaurants, including some upscale establishments, have started to offer these items in response to customer demand.

Dishes

American Chinese restaurant menu items

• Almond chicken - chicken breaded in batter containing ground almonds, fried and served with almonds and onions
• General Tso's chicken – chunks of chicken that are dipped in a batter and deep-fried and seasoned with ginger, garlic, sesame oil, scallions, and hot chili peppers.
• Sesame chicken – boned, battered, and deep-fried chicken which is then dressed with a translucent red or orange, sweet and mildly spicy sauce, made from soy sauce, corn starch, vinegar, chicken broth, and sugar.
• Chinese chicken salad – usually contains sliced or shredded chicken, uncooked leafy greens, crispy noodles (or fried wonton skins) and sesame dressing. Some restaurants serve the salad with mandarin oranges.
• Chop suey – connotes "assorted pieces" in Chinese. It is usually a mix of vegetables and meat in a brown sauce but can also be served in a white sauce.
• Crab rangoon – fried wonton skins stuffed with (usually) artificial crab meat (surimi) and cream cheese.
• Fortune cookie – invented in California as a westernized version of the Japanese omikuji senbei, fortune cookies have become sweetened and found their way to many American Chinese restaurants.
• Royal beef – deep-fried sliced beef, doused in a wine sauce and often served with steamed broccoli.
• Pepper steak – consists of sliced steak, green bell peppers, tomatoes, and white or green onions stir-fried with salt, sugar, and soy sauce. Bean sprouts are a less common addition
• Mongolian beef - fried beef with scallions or white onions in a spicy and often sweet brown sauce
• Fried wontons – somewhat similar to crab rangoon, a filling, (most often pork), is wrapped in a wonton skin and deep fried.
• Beef & Broccoli - Flank steak cut into small pieces, stir-fried with broccoli, and covered in a dark sauce made with soy sauce and oyster sauce and thickened with cornstarch.
• Sweet roll - Yeast rolls, typically fried, covered in granulated sugar or powdered sugar. Some variants are stuffed with cream cheese or icing.
• Sushi - Despite being part of traditional Japanese cuisine, some American Chinese restaurants serve various types of sushi, usually on buffets.

Regional American Chinese dishes

• Chow mein sandwich – sandwich of chow mein and gravy (Southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island).
• Chop suey sandwich – sandwich of chicken chop suey on a hamburger bun (North Shore of Massachusetts).
• St. Paul sandwich – egg foo young patty in plain white sandwich bread (St. Louis, Missouri).
• Springfield-style cashew chicken – a style of cashew chicken that combines breaded deep fried chicken, cashews, and oyster sauce. (Springfield, Missouri).
• Yaka mein - Chinese-Creole food found in New Orleans that evolved from beef noodle soup.

North American versions found in China

• Cashew chicken – Stir fried tender chicken pieces with cashews.
• Chow mein – literally means "stir-fried noodles". Chow mein consists of fried crispy noodles with bits of meat and vegetables. It can come with chicken, pork, shrimp or beef.
• Egg foo young – A Chinese-style omelet with vegetables and meat, usually served with a brown gravy. While some restaurants in North America deep-fry the omelet, versions found in Asia are more likely to fry in the wok.
• Egg roll – While spring rolls have a thin, light beige crispy skin that flakes apart, and is filled with mushrooms, bamboo, and other vegetables inside, the American style eggroll has a thicker, chewier, dark brown bubbly skin stuffed with cabbage and usually bits of meat or seafood (such as pork or shrimp), but no egg.
• Fried rice – Fried rice dishes are popular offerings in American Chinese food due to the speed and ease of preparation and their appeal to American tastes. Fried rice is generally prepared with rice cooled overnight, allowing restaurants to put leftover rice to good use (freshly cooked rice is actually less suitable for fried rice). The Chinese American version of this dish typically uses more soy sauce than the versions found in China. Fried rice is offered with different combinations of meat and vegetables.
• Ginger beef –  shēngjiāng niúròu Tender beef cut in chunks, mixed with ginger and Chinese mixed vegetables.
• Ginger fried beef –  gānchǎo niúròu-sī Tender beef cut in strings, battered, deep dried, then re-fried in a wok mixed with a sweet sauce, a variation of a popular Northern Chinese dish.
• Hulatang – a Chinese traditional soup with hot spices, often called "spicy soup" on menus
• Kung Pao chicken – The Sichuan dish is spicy hot, but the versions served in North America tend to be less so if at all, and sometimes leave out the Sichuan Pepper that is a fundamental part of the original dish.
• Lo mein ("stirred noodles"). These noodles are frequently made with eggs and flour, making them chewier than simply using water. Thick, spaghetti shaped noodles are pan fried with vegetables (mainly bok choy and Chinese cabbage (nappa)) and meat. Sometimes this dish is referred to as "chow mein" (which literally means "fried noodles" in Cantonese).
• Mei Fun (see Rice vermicelli dishes)
• Moo shu pork – The original version uses more typically Chinese ingredients (including wood ear fungi and daylily buds) and thin flour pancakes while the American version uses vegetables more familiar to Americans, and thicker pancakes. This dish is quite popular in Chinese restaurants in the United States, but not so popular in China.
• Orange chicken – chopped, battered, fried chicken with a sweet orange flavored chili sauce that is thickened and glazed. The traditional version consists of stir-fried chicken in a light, slightly sweet soy sauce that is flavored with dried orange peels.
• Wonton soup – In most American Chinese restaurants, only wonton dumplings in broth are served, while versions found in China may come with noodles. In Canton, Wonton Soup can be a full meal in itself, consisting of thin egg noodles and several pork and prawn wontons in a pork or chicken soup broth or noodle broth. Especially in takeout restaurants, wonton are often made with thicker dough skins.
• Beijing beef – In China, this dish uses gai-lan (Chinese broccoli) rather than American broccoli.

See also

• Canadian Chinese cuisine
• Chinese bakery products
• Chinese cuisine
• American cuisine
• Fortune Cookie
• Imperial Dynasty restaurant
• Oyster paila

External links

• "Chinese food in America History" (The Food Timeline)
• Imogen Lim Restaurant Menu Collection: American menus. Vancouver Island University Library.