Chinese food has a long history in America, beginning in earnest during the mid-19th century. Over this time, traditional Chinese dishes have been adapted for a number of reasons including the scarcity of certain ingredients, the publics tastes, and Americas changing views on certain types of food. The result of all these changes has been the creation of a distinct, new cuisine, which has been coined American Chinese.
Unfortunately, there are many people who do not view American Chinese as a cuisine. For these people, it is simply an inauthentic representation of traditional Chinese food that tastes starkly different from the real thing. In regards to taste, theyre not wrong. American Chinese food does taste different from food that is served across China. This should come as little surprise given that China is home to a multitude of cuisines created by and for an abundance of distinct ethnic groups over thousands of years. Recreating such regional nuances in the United States would be all but impossible. Yet, there are many further reasons why Chinese food in the U.S. is so different. In this article, we explore all of them, revealing why Chinese food tastes so different when its prepared, served, and eaten in America.
Why is chicken from Chinese restaurants different? It is usually tenderised by immersing it in baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) which softens it and gives it a slightly rubbery texture. Then the excess bicarb is neutralised with an acid such as rice vinegar.
It has been adapted to suit American palates
Several dishes from Chinas various cuisines have become popular in the United States. Nearly all of these have been adapted in some way to suit American palates as restaurant owner Wesley Chen highlighted to Survive + Thrive Boston: “American taste buds are more fond of sweet, sour, salty, bold flavors, and Americans also enjoy solid, crispy texture. The Chinese sense of taste is more compounded. We look for more layers of flavors combined, we also enjoy more soft and gooey texture.”
As Chen highlights, American Chinese food is often sweeter than food from China itself. It also tends to be more heavily sauced. Those who criticize American restaurants for making these alterations fail to understand one simple point: all restaurants need to create and serve dishes that will sell in order to survive, and this is the version of Chinese food that sells best in the United States.
Its important to note that American Chinese dishes are in no way lesser than those served in China, theyre simply different. Interestingly, this difference extends past taste and includes other aspects of the food as well. A prominent example of this is how American Chinese dishes are generally devoid of small bones. Fish is fileted instead of being served whole and fiddly specialties like chicken feet are often passed over altogether. This stands in direct contrast to food in China where bone-laden dishes are deemed some of the most desirable.
In the past, some ingredients weren’t readily available in the U.S.
Chinese American food is by no means new to the United States. In fact, this cuisine has its origins in Californias gold rush. During this time, and the decades that followed, many ingredients that were integral to Chinese cooking were not available in the U.S. and Chinese immigrants were forced to substitute ingredients from their home country for popular, readily available ingredients like broccoli.
Like all restaurant owners, these early Chinese Americans needed to turn a profit. This meant producing food that was cost effective and marketable to the American public. So, even when Chinese ingredients began to become available, their prohibitively expensive price prevented many immigrants from cooking with them. Instead of creating heavily substituted versions of traditional dishes, this caused some Chinese American chefs to invent new dishes like chop suey using ingredients that were cheap and popular in the U.S
Today, cooks both home and professional have unrivaled access to ingredients from around the world, including China. Thanks to their ubiquity, what were once specialist ingredients can now be purchased cheaply. Over the 150 years since Chinese people immigrated to the U.S., American Chinese dishes like chop suey have become embedded in the local food culture. So integral are these that they cannot be replaced, even by Chinese dishes that claim a greater degree of authenticity.
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FAQ
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