Why Chinese food in America is so unimaginative

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By NICOLE MONES

— and let’s be honest, generally so bad — is a topic that bubbles to the surface every few years. Dutifully, food writers point out that real Chinese cooking is much more complex and delicious than anything you’ll find here. Then, usually, nothing happens, and the conversation evaporates.

But never has there been so much potential for actual change. China’s culinary renaissance, powered by its surging economy, would seem ideally poised to export real Chinese cooking. Recently, in an Op-Ed column in The Times, Nina and Tim Zagat, the founders of Zagat Survey, pleaded for more Chinese chefs to be allowed into America, so that we could finally have a chance to taste authentic Chinese cuisine. And several cookbook authors have been drawn to the subject: earlier this year, Fuchsia Dunlop published “Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook,” a primer on the cooking of Hunan (adapted in these pages). This fall, Cecilia Chiang, a pioneering San Francisco restaurateur, is coming out with “The Seventh Daughter,” a book about her family’s cooking.

But the problem isn’t one that a few books or even better immigration policy can fix. Real Chinese cooking doesn’t need to be imported, because it has been here for decades.

Since the start of the current wave of Chinese immigration in the 1980s, gifted Chinese chefs have jammed into enclaves like the San Gabriel Valley in California and Flushing, N.Y., competing with one another, complaining about how hard it is to get Americans to give their cuisine a chance. The real problem is the American diner or, more precisely, the relationship between diner and chef. Chefs don’t know how to step outside of all-Chinese communities and market their cuisine to the mainstream. And most American diners want to stick to the Chinese food they already know.

The food they know is what chefs call Meiguorende kouwei — food cooked “to American taste.” This cuisine uses a short vocabulary of standard sauces with big, pungent flavors. The sauce tends to lead, usually with a combination of flavor notes. As Linda Huang, owner of Chung King in San Gabriel, put it, “It’s sweet, sour and a little spicy.”

The other food of China is Zhongguorende kouwei, food cooked “to Chinese taste.” That phrase covers a culinary tradition of enormous range and long history, with more than 5,000 named dishes. Each dish is individually conceived. Flavors vary from the delicate to the electric. At its highest levels, like any fine art, Chinese cuisine aims to resonate with the soul. A great menu has themes and a narrative arc. Dishes may evoke the natural world, aspects of civilization or the moods and phases of men’s lives.

Finding this kind of cooking in America doesn’t require insider knowledge. All it takes is will and persistence. When you go to better Chinese restaurants, ask for the best “Chinese taste” dishes on (or off) the menu, and refuse to budge until you get them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine...amp;oref=slogin

[wong_watkins 1]

Who cares. They taste good.

[Jenn! 918]

Now I feel like going to Chinatown for some "Zhongguorende kouwei" dimsum! MMMMMM

Edited August 5, 2007 by jenn3539

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I like Indian Chinese food. That's Chinese cuisine that evolved in the Chinatown's of India - Calcutta, especially. There are an increasing number of nice restaurants in my area that cater to that now, they are all awesome but mad expensive. The customers are, not surprisingly, mostly Indian.

[L_n_O 3]

it's called Hakka.. Chinese/Indian food =)

[eric&gen 0]

I love Chinese food may be overpriced well worth it Lil.

[Dr_LHA 3]

As someone who grew up in the far east, I find it pretty annoying that you can't get real chinese food in America. I did once find a place in California that was happy to cook off-menu for you, where they would just cook you random things if you asked for a "family style meal". The food they did was the sort of thing you don't find on the menu, lots of greens, not deep fried, no sweet sticky sauce, delicious. Sadly in Central PA the Chinese here can't be bothered to even entertain the idea of cooking something proper chinese for a white man like myself.

[Mirorgate 0]

Bear paw with sea cucumber salad anyone?

[Eddie&Mary 0]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Dim Sum anyone??????????????

[Dr_LHA 3]

Bear paw with sea cucumber salad anyone?

Hmm... sea cumcumber, the only thing more tasteless than cucumber.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

You can get great Chinese food in LA - some of the best I've had outside of China

[Dr_LHA 3]

You can get great Chinese food in LA - some of the best I've had outside of China

Yep, most big cities you can get decent stuff if you know where to look. Just if you live in the boondocks like I do you're screwed. I count my lucky stars I have a local chinese that actually makes a few authentic dishes I remember from my childhood in the far east (e.g. Singapore Fried Noodles). But it must be pretty obvious to anyone who's ever been in a Chinese supermarket and seen all the vegetables they have in there, that American chinese food is not the real thing.

[Jamie76 0]

You mean Panda Express and PF Changs are not authentic Chinese food?

I think the main reasoning is that when Chinese food really took hold here in the US, it was changed to suit America's tastes...it was Americanized and since then, it's been very difficult to break that mold.

[trailmix 77]

I count my lucky stars I have a local chinese that actually makes a few authentic dishes I remember from my childhood in the far east (e.g. Singapore Fried Noodles). But it must be pretty obvious to anyone who's ever been in a Chinese supermarket and seen all the vegetables they have in there, that American chinese food is not the real thing.

Hey LHA, did you grow up in Singapore - you didn't go to SAS perchance?

[Dr_LHA 3]

Hey LHA, did you grow up in Singapore - you didn't go to SAS perchance?

Brunei actually. What is SAS?