How the USA Invented Chinese Food

Americans love to "get Chinese" for takeout or as an easy meal. But there's still a lot of Americans out there who don't know the "Chinese food" they're eating is essentially American food. Today, let's dive into the history of Chinese people in America and how they're recreated a new genre of Chinese/American food.
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SOCIAL MEDIA:
Twitter - / itsmatthewli
Instagram - / randomchino
Credits:
Producer - Matthew Li
Production Assistant - Mana Chuabang
Script Supervisor - Russ Medcalf
Special thanks:
Louis Govier
Yusef Iqbal
Yeevonne Lim
Dylan Payne
Brandon Goddard
Music from Musicbed & Tom Fox
SOURCES:
The New York Times - shorturl.at/zEN47
TIME - shorturl.at/kuNV7
The New Yorker - shorturl.at/tuNP5
Library of Congress - shorturl.at/dpMU6
Atlas Obscura - shorturl.at/rCY45
The Tacoma Method - shorturl.at/oGOPR
Timestamps:
0:00 - Chinese food isn't Chinese
1:29 - Introducing American Chinese Food
2:39 - The Gold Rush & Chinese migration to the US
3:42 - Chinese people overstay their welcome in the US
4:17 - The Chinese Exclusion Act
4:52 - The Driving Out
6:23 - Why all Chinatowns look the same
7:20 - The origin of the Chinese takeout box
8:30 - The origin of the egg roll
8:59 - The origin of general tso's chicken
9:16 - The shocking origin of the fortune cookie
10:21 - Trying omikuji senbei
11:20 - Why fortune cookies became Chinese
13:00 - An American history of being Asian-American

[@hollowsoulreaper]

I think similarly in the UK, Indians (from South Asia) that migrated to the UK created their own "Indian food" that also catered to the British palate and that's how we got Chicken Tikka Masala

[@feralkat9370]

That's the Bangladeshis fcuking up Indian cuisine in the UK. Saw this very informative BBC vid about why 'Indian' food in the UK isn't really Indian. eg Vindaloo is a Portuguese dish (Vin d'Alhos) introduced into India with simple ingredients like wine and garlic that marinate pork etc. In the UK Vindaloo is a greasy hot curry, nothing like the real Vindaloo of Goa, where the Portuguese ruled.

[@HFC786]

Many dishes on a menu in a British Indian restaurant you won’t find anywhere in India

[@jeevan88888]

@@HFC786 Like what?

[@lorgnetteify]

Wow thats the next rabbit hole of truth I will drop in after.

[@Katharina-rp7iq]

Fun fact: Americans changed Pizza a lot to the point italians refuse to acknowledge many types of american pizza as real pizza and the restaurants called 'wiener schnitzel' hinting at a german dish doesn’t serve any german food at all, not even wiener schnitzel. Plus mac n cheese americans eat is not italian either.

[@SDZ675]

Same with how "sushi" outside Japan is just mostly random maki roll concoctions when it's mostly sashimi and nigiri in Japan or how Italian and Indian food in US/UK are completely different than in their native countries. That's the beauty of cuisines; they adapt to the tastes of the local population and ingredients.

[@eduardochavacano]

The adaptation may just be accidental. As for sushi, Japan. It is allowed to be reinvented because ZEN encourages reinvention. So authentic Sushi is sushi that was reinvented. But some food are not allowed to tamper with. No one in the west needs fake teriyaki, when the ingridients for the dish are readily available.

[@Liam-iv7wk]

Indian food I find interesting because there's so many different takes on it throughout the world. Like South Africa and the Caribbean have interesting takes on Indian food.

[@yummychips_]

What? What do you mean by "authentic sushi is sushi that was reinvented". Sushi is supposed to be fermented soured rice with fish and still is known as that, but adopted the term "narezushi" in modern times. The current modern "Sushi" is 100% a adaptation of narezushi, not a revinvention. It even adopted its original name. Modern "sushi" isn't even as old as people think and only about a century old with many popular staples being younger than that, like salmon, sea urchin, and even Tuna. It has roots towards when Japan evolved technologically and innovations in fishing, food storage, safer processing and preparations. The original sushi was fermenting fish in salt and rice. This is what gave the sour properties in the rice. The product was meant to be stored food for the winter days where fishing, farming and food in general was hard to come by. They adapted it, by infusing a vinegar base brine into the rice and using fresh fish. The dish was intended to be a adapted version of the original sushi using more available technology and gathered knowledge for the key reason of "Trying to get the Japanese public to eat new types of dishes". The west 100% reinvented modern sushi by using completely different ingredients and not focusing on the soured rice aspect. Also... what do you mean by zen encourages reinvention. Last I remember, Japanese Zen focuses on a state of perfection not reinvention. So no clue where you got that idea from. @@eduardochavacano

[@Sacto1654]

@@eduardochavacano Actually, sushi is supposed to be eaten by hand, even _nigiri_ sushi. Holding a piece of _nigiri_ by hand would shock Westerners but that was the norm in Japan until (arguably) after World War II.

[@DemonZest]

In Europe we have our own japanese food, still called japanese but they are modified recipes that appeal more to European palate.

[@Lavszera]

How is european-japanese food like?

[@augth]

Japanese restaurants in the West are very different depending on the country. I’m French and was horrified when I discovered that Japanese restaurants in North America have sushi with "spicy mayo". Our restaurants aren’t authentic either but in a different way. They’ll have miso soup, sushi, teriyaki and gyoza usually.

[@eduardochavacano]

They probably dont deliberately modify. Because Europeans strive for authenticity. Lack of ingridients us just accidental modification.

[@eduardochavacano]

@@augth its easy to have authentic Japanese restaurants in rich countries. Even in philippines 5 star hotels have real Japanese food

[@werren894]

europe already eat sushi as old as 16 century tho

[@jeff__w]

Actually, there’s a bit more to the “Chinatown” look: the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 had leveled the city’s Chinatown and the city, including the mayor, seized on the opportunity to try to “relocate the Chinese,” something the city had wanted to do even _before_ the earthquake and fire, given that Chinatown was prime real estate. A Subcommittee on Relocating the Chinese met with prominent members of the Chinese community who, essentially, told the committee over about 25 hearings that, if forced to relocate, they might move somewhere else entirely, depriving the city of revenue from Chinese-American trade and other business benefits. (Representatives of imperial China weighed in on the side of the Chinese community as well.) The subcommittee dropped the plan. A Mendocino-born businessman, Look Tin Eli, came up with the idea to rebuild Chinatown in an exotic, _faux_ Chinese-style, and the white architects employed incorporated those features of Chinese architecture, e.g., curved eaves, multilevel pagodas, that, to them, seemed to typify Chinese architecture. Eli and the other Chinese or Chinese-American business leaders were well aware that this style was nothing like genuine Chinese architecture but that didn’t matter to them; if tourists wanted to see some theme park version of Chinese architecture-and they did-Chinatown would have no qualms about catering to them.

[@dansharpe2364]

As a white English person who grew up in Hong Kong from the age of 10 I was baffled by "Chinese" food served in takeaways in the UK when I returned here to go to college. I took to speaking to staff in Cantonese and suddenly real Chinese food was available! Great video, thank you, I have "Liked and Subscribed".

[@terryc522]

As a CBC (Chinese born Canadian) born in the 70’s and first generation Canuk. I totally get the American/Canadian Chinese food. It was interesting to say the least. Very polarized. I remember inviting friends over for dinner and they were shocked about what we fed them. They either loved it or hated it. It was mostly Cantonese or “Hong Kong” style Chinese food. There are two interesting books. One American and one Canadian that delves into American/Canadian Chinese food. “The fortune cookie chronicles” and “Chop suey nation”. Jenifer 8. Lee (author of The fortune cookie chronicles) also did a Ted Talk called “Search for General Tao” it also a name of a documentary she produced? Ps, it was great in the 70’s as an Asian/Chinese child. Everyone thought Bruce Lee was my uncle and I got “diplomatic immunity” from getting beat up 😂

[@wwlee5]

Hopefully Jennifer found out it was a Hunan chef who fled to Taiwan and then NYC (like a bunch of Chinese) who invented General Tso. It's just a modern dish, really. Not 100 years old or older. Just like pho is actually a modern noodle dish in Vietnam. Anyway, I don't recall seeing it in China but I have had it at a Hunanese restaurant in Taipei roughly 3 years ago with my Taiwanese colleagues, not in this video link here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3_GqHx5d6dgerM There's nothing particular about General Tso since it uses the same ingredients for Chinese dishes, even in America.

[@julienielsen3746]

I watched a PBS documentary on chinese restaurants in Canada. There were people telling us about getting Chow Mein burgers in the 1940s and 50s etc. Never heard of those in America. At least here in Oregon.

[@TipperProject]

In the UK we have both and it's kind of confusing. There's 'Chinese Takeaway' which is the American Chinese food, and there's Chinese or just Asian restaurants that make more authentic Chinese food. So sometimes when you're looking at places it's hard to know which it'll be without looking on the menu.

[@mylesjude233]

Is there any difference between British Chinese Takeaway and Chinese American Food

[@lauraqueentint]

@@mylesjude233 yes! its actually quite different. watch people get these takeaways online. they have curry sauce and all :)

[@chilliam00]

​@@mylesjude233bro there was a whole TikTok argument a few months ago between Americans and Brits about which Chinese food is better. It even made the news!

[@mylesjude233]

@@chilliam00 I heard of it, but what does british chinese food that differentiates it from American Chinese

[@durand101]

British Chinese food is totally different from American Chinese food. We don't have General Tso's, chop suey, egg rolls or many of the other dishes. We do have a lot of stir fried rice and noodle dishes, cantonese soups, spring rolls, prawn toast, dim sum, etc, as well as Chinese food from mainland China.

[@demanager0412]

over here in the Netherlands we have the same, having ''Chinese'' is actually adjusted Indonesian cuisine. Still great food but it's nothing like real Indonesian food, let alone Chinese.

[@faustinuskaryadi6610]

Probably because it was actually Chinese Indonesian food.

[@to_cya_]

In Thailand, there is a dish called “American Fried Rice” but it isn’t exist in the US.

[@curtisthomas2670]

So a Thai version of an American version of Chinese fried rice

[@to_cya_]

@@curtisthomas2670 it’s a dish which is fried rice mixed with ketchup, raisins, green peas, and carrots. And also served with sunny side up egg, fried chicken, sausages, and ham. You can check the channel called “OTR Food & History”, it’s well documented there.

[@Default78334]

In China there is a popular dish called "New Orleans Chicken" that has absolutely nothing to do with New Orleans.

[@er66an]

So interesting.I was in Germany in July and they have asian restaurants not only a mix of china and Japan but also Thailand, India and more

[@SiddharthS96]

Great video! Here in India, we have completely different food here, which is called Indo-Chinese with popular dishes like chilli chicken, chicken Manchurian, Schezwan chicken, etc. None of which exist in China or anywhere else in the world, yet they taste great!

[@Tampin111]

I from M'sia The Chinese food here has well blended with the locals which is also very unique & spicy Most foreigners loved it including the Chinese from mainland China.

[@ikunalz]

India also has a popular “Chinese restaurant” dish called American Chopsuey. I am sure it isn’t available either in America or in China.

[@flyingzone356]

American-Chinese food isn't entirely American, though, of course. It is loosely based on Cantonese cuisine. Most of the earliest waves of Chinese immigrants to the United States (and in fact all over the world) were from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. China is such a vast country, not surprisingly, regional differences are enormous. The people from Guangdong do not even speak the same language as those from the rest of China. Not surprisingly, their cuisine is very different from the rest of China too. Cantonese cuisine is in general less spicy, less salty, less "saucy," less oily and greasy (hard to believe given how oily and greasy American-Chinese food is), and more sweet (hence the sweetness of a lot of Chinese-American dishes).

[@n0etic_f0x]

Honestly, something really fun is to as an American go see what people think American food is. One thing I have seen is canned corn... for some reason. Like even as a pizza topping. More common and more American is ketchup and hotdogs, in or on everything as well as Ranch often being American flavor. Other than that oversize it and drench it in cheese... which... yeah we do that.

[@dunndudebemelol]

Peanut butter / canned corn / pizza / hot dogs / pancakes / burgers/ BIG / apple pie come to mind as an Englishman. I can only assume I'm missing some actual local foods and drinks like sweet tea?

[@singkamore]

Same here in the philippines but with breads, spanish bread, german bread etc.

[@nuutti2957]

Criminally underrated channel. Great to see you growing though.

[@LelouchLamperouge235]

The Netflix series called Warrior plays out during the Driving Out era in San Francisco.

[@paulskiye6930]

Canton is a province. Guangzhou is a city in Canton.

[@shanicestella2226]

It isn't surprising that the authentic one somethings can be bit too challenging to be accepted by general American palate and it is reserved for a foodie with thick bucks , and of course some prefer the Americanized version

[@ruedelta]

This isn't even true though. The issue is that the usual suspects of Cantonese food (or other southern regions) are more challenging, whereas something like Dongbei food would be much easier to accept. When sausages in Harbin resemble kielbasa, it's imminently easier to bridge palate gaps. Sadly, the issue is that northern Chinese rarely immigrate over, and so not only there is very little chance of experiencing northern Chinese food in the US, people also associate "real Chinese food" strictly with a few select southern regions. Honestly it should be pretty shocking how it's nearly impossible to find Lu cuisine anywhere in the US, even though it was the dominant court style for the previous 200-300 years. Case in point, I've heard very few people turn up their noses at Beijing roast duck.

[@faustinuskaryadi6610]

While fortune cookie is Japanese invention, the omikuji itself have root in Chinese culture. Yes, many Taoist temples also have something similar to omamori, ofuda, and omikuji (fortune telling paper) just with more Chinese style and aesthetic. So, that's why Chinese restaurant in USA can easily adopt Japanese fortune cookie since fortune telling paper is also part of Chinese culture or I could say Confucian culture sphere.

[@julienielsen3746]

I watched a PBS documentary on chinese restaurants in Canada. There were people telling us about getting Chow Mein burgers in the 1940s and 50s etc. Never heard of those in America. At least in Oregon.

[@soulie2001]

I truly think this discounts how much the cultural differentiation has made (your) people carve out some large niche of America. You are top of the line, as we speak. And very respected.

[@boijorzee]

Over here in Belgium and Holland we have our own genre of Chinese food. Partly influenced by Indonesian food trough the Dutch colonial era and partly by Chinese immigrants. It has dishes like babi pangang, nasi goreng, Peking duck, and pork or chicken in sweet and sour sauce. It has nothing or very little in common with authentic Chinese cuisine but it's pretty great in its own right. When I was a kid this felt like something exotic and often the restaurants that served this kind of food were very distinctly decorated. But nowadays many of these places have fallen out of favor and you can get most of these dishes from the supermarkets. In Belgium many of the Chinese immigrants who ran these place have turned to selling fries instead. Still I really like this cuisine because it reminds me of my childhood and the fun times I had eating in those places.

[@KrasMazovHatesYourGuts]

Yeah, as you said: part of it is the over-representation of Cantonese/Cantonese-adjacent dishes due to the high number of Cantonese immigrants largely making up the majority of early Chinese migration. There's also another issue you might not have mentioned, being the inability to get certain traditional ingredients and having to sub them with what was available (the hallmark of culinary ingenuity). Take Kung Pao Chicken, which traditionally uses Sichuan Pepper in China, whereas in the US the version you typically get uses more chili peppers (often hotter than what is traditionally uses) and also uses a wider variety of vegetables. Sichuan Peppercorns were actually illegal to import into the US until very recently (2005), so it is only until the last 18 years that traditional Kung Pao could be made in the United States.

[@deyili49]

Thanks for making this video!

[@patricksebastian7841]

Bro is like the Johny Harris of food, been following you since 3k subs, you're gonna get far man, best of luck!

[@billspooks]

Thank You...!!! Wonderfully informative.

[@mylesjude233]

This video looks great, can't wait to watch 😊

[@shakiMiki]

An informative & rich video.

[@00Julian00]

You are a man of integrity as you listed your sources.

[@mimimarcus]

8:42 The dish on the right that is not fried looks like summer/garden rolls, which is a Vietnamese dish. Also, egg rolls or spring rolls probably originated from or derivatives of the traditional Vietnamese dish "Chả Giò" because of the rice paper, which is a Vietnamese invention.

[@justinarzola4584]

Spring Rolls don't use the rice paper from what I've eaten, usually fried batter,it is definitely a Chinese invention but I don't know if the Vietnamese came up with the idea for rolls before Chinese,I would assume it was Chinese as the Vietnamese often took aspects of Chinese culture into their own.

[@mimimarcus]

@@justinarzola4584 Yes, the Vietnamese culture was heavily influenced by the Chinese culture, as with many others including the USA, because the Chinese culture is one of the most influential cultures in the world. But regarding cuisine, I don't think it's the case as I think Vietnamese cuisine is very unique and influence might have been more of a two-way street than one way. Personally, I think Vietnamese are better cooks and so my guess is the Chinese might've taken some inspirations, especially by the southern part of China where most Cantonese live. Cantonese and Vietnamese share a lot of similarities in language, culture, etc.

[@justinarzola4584]

@@mimimarcus I don't really see any influence in Cantonese rolls to the Vietnamese style( look very different and maybe prepared different)though your definitely right about the Cantonese and Vietnamese sharing some culture.

[@Pratchettgaiman]

In my relatively small city in the US I find it interesting that the Japanese and Thai restaurants are *probably* more authentic to their home cuisines than any of the Chinese restaurants. In my hometown (which is bigger and crucially home to a state university which attracts a fair amount of Chinese students) there are a couple of places that are clearly not as marketed to the White American palate, so you clearly can have Chinese food closer to the food in actual China, you just need a significant population to support it

[@mzple]

Defenitly thai, as the thai government helps pay for restaurants as a way of creating culinary tourism. Considering how many tourists go to Thailand I would say it is a huge success.

[@Thatveganlifestyle]

Super interesting video.

[@amraouza4937]

crazy video, crazy underrated

[@dynasty0019]

Hey Matt, I think you should do a piggyback video on your Japanese Pasta video on why Italian cuisine, or should I say more correctly, Italian-American cuisine is so popular in Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.

[@Liam-iv7wk]

I think it ultimately brings up the highly unspoken concept of foreign diasporas and how they differ greatly from their ancestral nation. Like Italian American (and Italian Brazilian) food is definitely different than the old country. More Lebanese and Irish overwhelmingly live outside their respective countries

[@knobjob2839]

One thing I noticed while in China was how much less salt they put in food. Some savory dishes were borderline sweet.

[@jonncatron7381]

I was taught a lot of this in the 80' in school but they stoped teaching it in the 90's

[@truth4004]

its using local produce for cost so they ended up being diff recipes.

[@Sacto1654]

Some "Chinese" dishes known to Americans like _chop suey_ and _egg foo young_ are actually of southern Chinese origin, mostly because many of the Chinese immigrants during the 19th Century came from southern China, especially what is now Taishan County in Guangdong Province. In fact, because of the large number of emigrants from Hong Kong after World War II, the first authentic Chinese cuisine that became popular in the USA, especially in San Francisco and Los Angeles, is the Cantonese cuisine familiar to the people of Hong Kong. (Which does explain why many Americans are familiar with _dim sum_ ).

[@trevoroutim8519]

Great video. South African- born Chinese over here. Grandparents came from Canton.

[@JAMESHANGLUNG-km4ru]

Thank you for explaining this ,God bless you.

[@andrearoseschneider7479]

I had a place in Brookline Ma. It had three different menus. I always chose more actual Chinese dishes that were authentic and spicy. But it closed at the end of the pandemic. I miss it so.

[@christianhansen3292]

Egg is used to seal wrapper from unfurling in deep dry oil.

[@gerardc6070]

When my family makes lumpia, we seal the wrapper with egg. So when I noticed "egg rolls" in restaurants that seemed similar, I assumed that they used eggs too. 😅

[@draglionz]

awesome history vlog/history lesson. Where did you buy that shirt Yin/Yan shirt?

[@offthemenuyt]

at a thrift shop in Tokyo lol

[@augth]

This channel is severely underrated

[@deioped]

Erm.. Chinatown in Singapore wasn't built to look like an exotic location. The building you showed is the Buddha Tooth Relic temple, it looks like any chinese temple we have all over here. The rest of Chinatown's old buildings were relics from colonial times.

[@jeff__w]

9:50 _“Fortune cookies”_ I’m not a big fan of fortune cookies but I _love_ _tsujiura senbei_ (辻占せんべい). They taste _nothing_ like the fortune cookies in the US, at least the ones sold near the Fushimi Inari Shrine don’t-have a delicious savory nutty flavor, basically like a sesame cracker. My favorite fortune in a fortune cookie: my mom opened a fortune cookie, read the fortune, and gave the slip of paper to my dad, saying “This is for you.” The fortune? _A beautiful woman will hand you a message._ 7:31 _Oyster pails/“Take out boxes”_ We were showing friends from Hong Kong around, young men in their 20s, and took them to a local Chinese restaurant. What made the biggest impression on them was _not_ the food (which to them was perfectly “okay”) but the stacks of Chinese takeout boxes, with the stereotypical red “chop suey” font, that were piled high on top of the beverage fridge. They had never seen them in real-life before, only in US television shows or movies-in fact, they might have doubted that those existed anywhere _other than_ in films and TV-and that, to them, were quintessentially “American.”

[@wwlee5]

The fortune cookie, I agree. But there are too many varieties of eggrolls (spring rolls) in China, Taiwan, and SE Asia. The eggroll in the picture looks EXACTLY like the poster of a vegan restaurant advertising some promotion behind where I live: In Taiwan. It's called lumpia, in the Taiwanese language, fried that is...Lunbing in Mandarin if you want to go standard Chinese (yes, it's the same word as the Filipino word but originally it's a Chinese word). As for other dishes, people in Taiwan and China distinguish each other by saying, southern Taiwan or southern China likes sweetened dishes, northerners like non-sweeten fermented bean taste. It's really hard to say the Chinese served in America is "Americanized" when I basically got the same soup, same sweet sour dish at an Asian factory cooked by a Chinese chef, servicing to Chinese workers. There will be some "Americanized" things but that's waaaaay overblown. Don't listen to one group of Chinese, listen to different groups from different regions of China.

[@s._3560]

So true, China is a huge country with a huge population. Certain dishes are sometimes small regional dishes so it doesn't mean that every Chinese knows about its existence. For instance, in Singapore and Malaysia, there is a popular dish hailed from people originated from Fujian - Popiah (薄饼) which is very much like spring roll. It is basically a medley of cooked vegetables (mainly carrots, cabbage, green beans and jicama (optional) with other condiments wrapped in a thin rice crepe roll. It isn't fried but freshly wrapped and eaten much like a burrito. I would say many who aren't from that region wouldn't know about it! But thanks to the internet now, you can search it up and look for images or even YT videos on it.

[@Ris-T.]

As an Asian who has lived in US, I do think there is a distinct difference between egg roll and spring roll. The American egg roll, while it is a derivative of Asian spring roll, does not seem to exist here in Asia or at least I have not yet encountered something similar here so far. It is also evident when we examine the origin of the manufacturers: if you look at the frozen skins/wrappers for egg rolls and spring rolls available in Asian supermarkets in US, the egg roll wrappers are mainly made in US (and typically have brand names similar to American Chinese restaurants, with some even using the faux Chinese fonts), while the spring roll wrappers are mainly made in Asia.

[@Pratchettgaiman]

I love American Chinese food, but especially where I live where there aren’t many Asian people the places that sell it have a tendency to not have very high quality food in general

[@user-ut3nn1ey7h]

hello otm, thank you for this video reporting of chinese food is now here food. but when we speak of dim sum - my parents or family would tell us that our menu in america is bigger than some of the restaurants in HK. some items were created by the same chef a chinese man from china. wish that take out easier items mentioned not there are brocolli with chicken or sweet and sour chicken was created by cantonese of here with pineapples in here. and can be found in 'nice' restaurants. elle for hot and sour soup

[@otto_jk]

I never thought that RC Anime would become the Johnny Harris of food culture 👍

[@littlekirby6]

Yeah I come here to learn new things about food from you, but also I appreciate that you mention things like the Chinese massacres. I would think that maybe they would teach it in some schools around San Francisco, but growing up in Texas the only thing I learned was that Chinese people came for the gold rush, then built railroads, and then a lot of people hated them for being foreigners.

[@Halkin85]

People from Guangzhou did eat rats. I have seen it in the early 90s. Google it and there is an AP video on youtube. I do not think it is common anymore but it was when I was young.

[@silentwatcher1455]

Many Chinese foods have variants when in US. These variants were result of adjustment made by Chinese migrants and Americans to suit the American customers.

[@metiu2342]

Why do i feel like ive seen you from somewhere before.... Did u happen to be in like a youtuber group?

[@luplew1444]

Thanks for the history lesson. Great video. I miss real Chinese food myself.

[@cyeungko]

How about the term romanticized Chinese food? This can be applied to "Chinese food" outside of China. They were created by the Chinese diaspora to fit the palate of that country.

[@yung_nuts]

reminds me of that sopranos scene where the American Italians go to Italy, and natives make fun of them for getting spaghetti with marinara sauce, because to them thats like coming to America just for macaroni and cheese

[@dojokonojo]

Growing up next to a large Chinese immigrant community in California during the 2000s where I could just go a mile down the street for authentic Chinese food, I wasn't introduced to American Chinese food until I was a teenager lol

[@lezcano777]

Qué buen video

[@HYPERIONNakayama]

Your video style reminds me of Jonny Harris. Great quality

[@mzple]

Yes they eat it from Chinese Americans. But with that being said now in many cities there is authentic non american chinese food in many US cities. In Rockville, Maryland you can get anything from Dim Sum, to Xi'an food, to Uygher cuisine, to Yunan, hotpot and North Chinese food.

[@edwinholcombe2741]

As an American living in East Asia the reverse is also true. What is called American food can be very foreign to an American.

[@lostboy8084]

General tso chicken was made for Admiral Perry's banquet him and other American guests actually enjoyed the dish and they couldn't find it in any Chinese restaurants at the time and as they were people who had influence ended up being responsible for bringing it to American Chinese restaurants especially when you had these important people asking for General Tso chicken those Chinese business men new a good thing and used connections to bring the recipe to America.

[@ranjanbiswas3233]

Egg roll's wrapper has EGG. That's why egg roll.

[@robertlee4172]

Love that story about the takeout box. Hate the story about the slaughter of Chinese locals. My great great grandfather started off in Oakland, working the railroad from 1865 till completion. He was one of the lucky ones who got out alive. Later, he worked as a sheep herder in Utah. Didn't make much, but he was able to send money home to raise his family. Eventually, he moved back to China permanently.

[@into_the_void]

Same in India.. we have our own version called indo Chinese food. It started from Chinatown in Kolkata and then spread all over India..

[@jonpirovsky]

I think it's very interesting how people want to attach a single definition to the cuisine of a country of over 1 billion people and larger than Europe... The same happens with "Indian" cuisine, "Brazilian" cuisine etc... It also happens with "American" cuisine outside the US. These are HUGE countries, its cuisine varies wildly across the regions...

[@JimFeig]

Most of the Pasta you know has been Americanized as well.

[@studyandburn]

Honestly general tso can pass as chinese food

[@thaihm]

Chop suey??? Does that still exit? I don’t remember what that is supposed to be.

[@ramencurry6672]

That’s because you were born in the 90s. Chop suey was more of a thing in the 1950s

[@ssjwes]

Chinese food in America is more of a commercial concept than traditional food.

[@mu2ko]

小吉 "きりょうがよいね" Low Luck "Good looking" Onikuji kukkie Japanese fortune cookie said it. Haha. Doesn't say anything. No make sense ;)

[@tomtom9792]

same with other ethnic food...... for example, calling Taco Bell as Mexican food

[@melissaroscher1080]

Wish you had mentioned that no matter where Chinese immigrants go, the food morphs to the new culture, examples; Cuban Chinese, Japanese Chinese food, etc.

[@nadiayc85]

The province is Guangdong, not Guangzhou

[@gabrielspautz3448]

i mean we can even say that sriracha sauce is a chinese american invention

[@mariaaugustapinto365]

Mas a comida chinesa é uma delícia! 😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@truth4004]

American Chinese cooked by Asians is the best. They created it so to me it is Chinese.

[@wwlee5]

It is Chinese, probably 95% of it. I used to grow up in one "America-Chinese restaurant." Now I work in Asia working for an Asian factory that serves "America-Chinese" food to Chinese workers, cooked by Chinese chefs. Most people like to say that sweet-sour-pork for example is Americanized. Or the hot-sour soup. Or the egg-roll. Such and such. You can get the hot-sour soup at a food stall in taichung, taiwan; and sweet-sour-pork at a Cantonese restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan. The egg-roll (or lumpia in Taiwanese or lunbing in Mandarin as written on the poster) was being promoted by a vegan restaurant a few months ago behind the alley where I live. Don't listen to anyone else including Chinese or Taiwanese themselves. They tend to only eat sichuanese, hunanese, or northern Chinese food and ignore the other variety of cuisines in China and Taiwan.

[@yeert6931]

Nice video, getting heavy Johnny Harris vibes in a good way

[@royc888]

Taiwan invented a few fake foreign sounding food: Mongolian BBQ is not even Mongolian, Moon shrimp cake is not from Thailand, Pineapple cakes originally never had any pineapples in them.

[@RoyFJ65]

Wait tlil you see whats passed off as Chinese food in India, the irony being China is their next door neighbor.

[@PSL09]

its a great video but i feel like a lot of people know this at this point lol

[@lorgnetteify]

It’s so difficult to find information on what kind of meat is being used in american*** chinese food. The meat is so rubbery. Maybe its marinated in some nasty agents; maybe msg? I mean wth. 😢

[@Suntoria236]

We just call them “American” Chinese food Edit: Ah yes, just reached that part of the video

[@eduardochavacano]

But it seem like it is still fair to call Chinese take out in America as Chinese? They do after all have stuff like Kumpao chicken, Sweet and Sour pork, and lemon chicken and these are Cantonese Food. Sure the box came from the US and it is fast food. But the people who made them are Chinese and they really value Authenticity and tradition. What matters is that their Quality is Consistent to what they have been making for decades. The video is great. But it failed to establish what seem to be its main thesis that Chinese Food in America is not Chinese. It is Chinese, made by Chinese people and with the same INTEGRITY they have in cooking Chinese food in China.

[@whaz4056]

Not all Chinese's food originate from China. You can find different types of Chinese culture & food from various countries. Chinese are everywhere

[@daanachmad4032]

It is laughable how some Americans made fun of Brits for their take of Chinese foods. You may find the British Chinese foods unappetising. But, don't act like you know what authentic Chinese foods are.

[@redacted_vombat5742]

I would like a video describing how the Chinese (or some of them) view cruelty to animals( such as torturing them before slaughter) as being a part of flavorings the flesh in some sick or morbid cultural inherent. Is it true?

[@ramencurry6672]

Americanized Chinese food is kind of lame because it’s basically a one trick pony. Most of American Chinese food is cooked in a wok or deep fried so it all has that wok taste or fried food taste. The flavor profile is narrow and limited. Gets boring after a while. …..Authentic Chinese food is better because the selection is enormous. Many non Chinese people say they don’t like authentic Chinese food but they never delved into the enormous selections of the choices. Yes there are bad versions of authentic Chinese food but since the selection is so big it is much more interesting to explore

[@upthedown1]

Everybody and their mother knows that the Chinese food we eat is American Chinese food made for our palate. We're okay with that. Couldn't care less. The real Chinese food would probably be too much for alot of people.

[@mysticloverfairy1]

Be adventurous

[@elgatofelix8917]

Last time I was this early, it was still "only two weeks to flatten muh curve"

[@KrasMazovHatesYourGuts]

It's 2023. Go back to /pol/, kid.

[@jasonreviews]

he's incorrect most of the chinese food you see in the US is cantonese food. Please get that right. The first chinese were my people toisanese.... Oh my god.

[@doviangraciano4359]

A whole video to say americans do it best 😂

[@balerikirmu.11]

U really expect white America, that's freaking out CRT to teach about it's true history? Always interesting seeing diasporas carving a niche for themselves

[@aolmonkey]

Because they’re afraid of MSG man did I say that.

[@oldie4210]

I for one would never travel to China, just because of their food and how it is cooked. I will almost eat anything but I have to sure to know what it is, the other is the accepted practice of using gutter/spit oil.

[@ramencurry6672]

If you’re eating food in America you’re eating ingredients that’s banned in many countries. American food is not as safe as you think it is.

[@TheeRomantic]

The chemicals

[@zzzyyyxxx]

The premise is flawed, Americans absolutely do eat authentic Chinese food, depending on where they live. In many cities there are at least a few actually authentic Chinese places simply because Chinese people themselves in the US want to eat food they know and not Americanized Chinese food, so these authentic restaurants cater to them and by extension the rest of Americans too.