American Chinese cuisine, known in the United States as simply Chinese cuisine,
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. History
In the 19th century, Chinese in San Francisco operated sophisticated and
sometimes luxurious restaurants patronized mainly by Chinese, while
restaurants in smaller towns served what their customers requested, ranging from
pork chop sandwiches and apple pie to beans and eggs. These smaller
restaurants developed American Chinese cuisine when they modified their food to
suit a more American palate. First catering to miners and railroad workers,
they established new eateries in towns where Chinese food was completely
unknown, adapting local ingredients and catering to their customers' tastes.
In the process, cooks adapted southern Chinese dishes such as chop suey and
developed a style of Chinese food not found in China. Restaurants provided an
ethnic niche for small businesses at a time when the Chinese people were
excluded from most jobs in the wage economy by ethnic discrimination or lack
of language fluency. In 2011, the Smithsonian National Museum
of American History displayed some of the historical background and cultural
artifacts of American Chinese cuisine in its exhibit Sweet & Sour: A Look at the
History of Chinese Food in the United States.
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. 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 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 and onion. 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". When the word for onion, chung, is used, it is understood
that one is referring to "green 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. Fried rice in American Chinese cuisine is also
prepared differently, with more soy sauce added for more flavor whereas the
traditional 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.
Ming Tsai, the owner of the Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts,
said that American Chinese restaurants typically try to have food representing
3-5 regions of China at one time, have chop suey, or have "fried vegetables and
some protein in a thick sauce", "eight different sweet and sour dishes", or "a
whole page of 20 different chow meins or fried rice dishes". Tsai said
"Chinese-American cuisine is 'dumbed-down' Chinese food. It’s
adapted... to be blander, thicker and sweeter for the American public".
Most American Chinese establishments cater to non-Chinese customers with
menus written in English or containing pictures. If separate Chinese-language
menus are available, they typically feature delicacies like liver, chicken
feet, or other meat dishes that might deter American customers. In Chinatown,
New York, the restaurants were known for having a "phantom" menu with food
preferred by ethnic Chinese, but believed to be disliked by non-Chinese
Americans. Dishes
= American Chinese restaurant menu items=
Dishes that often appear on American Chinese restaurant menus include:
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 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 artificial crab meat 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,, 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.
Chop suey sandwich – sandwich of chicken chop suey on a hamburger bun.
St. Paul sandwich – egg foo young patty in plain white sandwich bread.
Springfield-style cashew chicken – a style of cashew chicken that combines
breaded deep fried chicken, cashews, and oyster sauce..
Yaka mein - Chinese-Creole food found in New Orleans that evolved from to 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, 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. 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 – 生薑牛肉 shēngjiāng niúròu Tender beef cut in chunks, mixed with
ginger and Chinese mixed vegetables. Ginger fried beef – 乾炒牛肉絲 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. 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) and meat. Sometimes this dish is referred to as "chow mein".
Mei Fun Moo shu pork – The original version uses
more typically Chinese ingredients 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 rather than American broccoli. Regional variations
= San Francisco= Since the early 1990s, many American
Chinese restaurants influenced by California cuisine have opened in San
Francisco and the Bay Area. The trademark dishes of American Chinese
cuisine remain on the menu, but there is more emphasis on fresh vegetables, and
the selection is vegetarian-friendly. This new cuisine has exotic ingredients
like mangos and portobello mushrooms. Brown rice is often offered as an
optional alternative to white rice. Some restaurants substitute grilled wheat
flour tortillas for the rice pancakes in mu shu dishes. This occurs even in some
restaurants that would not otherwise be identified as California Chinese, both
the more Westernized places and the more authentic places. There is a Mexican
bakery that sells some restaurants thinner tortillas made for use with mu
shu. Mu shu purists do not always react positively to this trend.
In addition, many restaurants serving more native-style Chinese cuisines
exist, due to the high numbers and proportion of ethnic Chinese in San
Francisco and the Bay Area. Restaurants specializing in Cantonese, Sichuanese,
Hunanese, Northern Chinese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong
traditions are widely available, as are more specialized restaurants such as
seafood restaurants, Hong Kong-style diners and cafes), dim sum teahouses,
and hot pot restaurants. Many Chinatown areas also feature Chinese bakeries,
boba milk tea shops, roasted meat, vegetarian cuisine, and specialized
dessert shops. Chop suey is not widely available in San Francisco, and the
city's chow mein is different from Midwestern chow mein.
Authentic restaurants with Chinese-language menus may offer
"yellow-hair chicken", essentially a free-range chicken, as opposed to
typical American mass-farmed chicken. Yellow-hair chicken is valued for its
flavor, but needs to be cooked properly to be tender due to its lower fat and
higher muscle content. This dish usually does not appear on the English-language
menu. Dau Miu is a Chinese vegetable that has
become popular since the early 1990s, and now not only appears on
English-language menus, usually as "pea shoots", but is often served by upscale
non-Asian restaurants as well. Originally it was only available during
a few months of the year, but it is now grown in greenhouses and is available
year-round. = Hawaii=
Hawaiian-Chinese food developed a bit differently from the continental United
States. Owing to the diversity of ethnicities in Hawaii and the history of
the Chinese influence in Hawaii, resident Chinese cuisine forms a
component of the cuisine of Hawaii, which is a fusion of different culinary
traditions. Some Chinese dishes are typically served as part of plate
lunches in Hawaii. The names of foods are different as well, such as Manapua,
from Hawaiian meaning "chewed up pork" for dim sum bao, though the meat is not
necessarily pork. Chinese restaurants and American Jews
The perception that American Jews eat at Chinese restaurants on Christmas Day is
documented in media as a common stereotype with a basis in fact. The
tradition may have arisen from the lack of other open restaurants on Christmas
Day, as well as the close proximity of Jewish and Chinese immigrants to each
other in New York City. It has been portrayed in film and television.
American Chinese chain restaurants China Coast – Closed in 1995; owned by
General Mills Corp., formerly 52 locations throughout the United States
Chinese Gourmet Express - throughout the United States
Leeann Chin – Minnesota and Wisconsin; owned at one time by General Mills Corp.
Manchu Wok – Throughout the United States and Canada, as well as Guam,
Korea and Japan Panda Express – Throughout the United
States, some locations in Mexico Pei Wei Asian Diner – Throughout the
United States; a subsidiary of P.F. Chang's
P. F. Chang's China Bistro – Throughout the United States; features
California-Chinese fusion cuisine Pick Up Stix – California, Arizona, and
Nevada The Great Wall – Delaware, New Jersey,
Maryland, Virginia, New York, West Virginia, South Carolina
Stir Crazy - Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Florida,
Indiana, Texas, and Ohio See also
Notes References and further reading
= Studies= Chen, Yong. Chop Suey, USA: The Story of
Chinese Food in America. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN
9780231168922. Coe, Andrew. Chop Suey: A Cultural
History of Chinese Food in the United States. New York: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 9780195331073. Hayford, Charles. "Who's Afraid of Chop
Suey?," Education About Asia 16.3: 7-12. Free download: [2]
Lee, Jennifer 8.. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of
Chinese Food. New York: Twelve. ISBN 9780446580076.
Roberts, J. A. G.. China to Chinatown: Chinese Food in the West. London:
Reaktion. ISBN 1861891334. Wu, David Y. H.; Cheung, Sidney C. H..
The Globalization of Chinese Food. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. ISBN
0700714030. = Cookbooks=
Sara Bosse, Onoto Watanna, with an Introduction by Jacqueline M. Newman.
Chinese-Japanese Cook Book.. ISBN 1-55709-371-7. ISBN 978-1-55709-371-4.
Ken Hom. Easy Family Recipes from a Chinese-American Childhood.. ISBN
0-394-58758-8. Eileen Yin-Fei Lo and Alexandra
Grablewski. The Chinese Kitchen: Recipes, Techniques and Ingredients,
History, and Memories from America's Leading Authority on Chinese Cooking..
ISBN 0-688-15826-9. External links
"Chinese food in America History" [3]