What Chinese food is real Chinese food, and what Chinese food is actually American food?

Question

My friend who is Chinese works at this restaraunt his father owns. And what they eat and what they sell is two different things. The Chinese food they sell is Americanized, so I want to know what is actually Chinese food and what is actually American food?

Answer 1

OK BUDDY....FIRST OFF...IM VIET......SO I CAN RELATE......ITS NOT REALLY AMERICAN FOOD...ITS STILL CHINESE FOOD BUT IN LESSER QUALITY WAY...GET IT....U MUST BE TALKIN ABOUT THE CHINESE BUFFET??...MORE AUTHENIC CHINESE IS MADE AT HOME.....RESTAURANT IS ALL BUSINESS......LESSER QUALITY MORE PROFIT....MOST CHINESE BUFFET TARGETS NON ASIAN CUSTOMER....DO THE MATH....IF THEY GET WHITES..MEXICAN...BLACKS N SO ON...THEY OUTNUMBER THE ASIAN PPL....THEY DONT CARE IF THEY HAVE ASIAN CUSTOMERS OR NOT AS LONG AS THEY HAVE CUSTOMERS.....EVERYONE LOVES CHINESE FOOD....MOST CHINESE BUFFET ALL SERVES THE SAME THING.....SO YEA.....TO THE ASIAN PPL...THOSE FOOD IS ALRITE..NOTHING SPECIAL.....BUT TO AMERICANS...ITS THE ****....LOL.....U WANT WANT GOOD ASIAN FOOD?? THEN GO TO A REAL REAL ASIAN RESTAURANT OR GO TO SOME OF UR ASIAN FRIENDS HOMES N TRY THIER PARENTS COOKINIG.....

Answer 2

Most food in Americanized Chinese restaurants are Americanized versions of Chinese food. For example, orange chicken. It is a actually a very difficult dish to make properly and is only accomplishable by the best chefs utilizing, oranges, mandarins, and peel to achieve an almost dry texture by the reduction of the juices. Very difficult to excecute well because the dryness preserving the citrus bite is so critical while achieving the dry texture. Even most authentic Chinese restaurants do not make this dish well.

The Americanized version is merely a stirfried chicken drenched in a corn syrup based orange artificially flavored sauce. Very different. There is probably no orange there except for the slice of oranged used for garnish.

Some dishes are purely Americanized, such as Chop Suey.. in Chinese it means "assorted stuff" and is basically a garbage dish of kitchen leftovers. Crunchy fried noodles appetizer sticks are americanized. fortune cookies. rangoons. fortune cookies.

Amazing sizzling rice soup is an authentic dish.. but it's a quite a rare dish in Chinese cuisine... sometime long ago... someone though westerners would think dig the sizzling action and somehow it came into the realm of stereotypical Chinese food.

Basically to distinguish between Americanized Chinese food and authentic Chinese food is to look at the clientale. If there are Chinese customers than it is mostly likely authentic. Chinese people highly dislike Americanized Chinese food.

Answer 3

Answers from K K Oz and Glenn are the most realistic and accurate. I just want to add that even in Chinese households - be they in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan or China - the food consumed at home are all different in presentation and tastes to those served in Chinese restaurants. But of course we would all know which are the better ones.

Perhaps the key to eating authentic Chinese dishes is to patronize the finer establishments and make it a habit to know what kind of Chinese cuisine is served: Cantonese (Hong Kong) food; Tze Chuan specialties, or traditional recipes for instance. [Avoid the American favorites such as general tso (never heard of it), chicken chow mein, etc.

Answer 4

The food sold in Chinese restaurants can be described as Chinese food but cooked to cater for American tastes. You do have fried rice, spring rolls, etc in Chinese restaurants all over the world. What happens is that the Chinese adapt their dishes to cater to local tastes and to make use of what ingredients are available locally.

If you travel overseas and eat in Chinese restaurants you'll find differences in taste and ingredients.

Chinese food also evolves in different countries and you'll find some Chinese dishes that can be found in some countries but not in others or even in China.

Answer 5

Most Chinese food served in restaurants in the U.S. have been made up to cater to American palates. Unfortunately due to racist ignorance, the majority of the dishes were invented in the U.S. Chinese cooking is typically natural and balanced, using local seasonal ingredients. There is typically not one thing that dominates the meal. Proteins, vegetables and starches rice or noodles are balanced in a meal. Pretty much anything battered, fried in a sweet & sour sauce is "fake" Chinese food with a million different names. Sweet & sour, General Tso, Sesame, Orange in front of any meat product's name is a giveaway. Chinese sounding names like, Chop Suey and Moo Goo Gai Pan were made up in the U.S. as well.

Answer 6

sweet and sour dishes are real chinese dishes, as with egg foo yong and egg rolls. i guess the difference is that american chinese food is sweetened to cater to the american taste buds, but the methods of cooking are essentially the same. in addition, there are many different sub-categories of chinese food (shanghainese, cantonese, hokkien etc) and each sub-category has its own speciality or flavor. i wld go so far to say that american chinese food is chinese food, it is a sub-category of chinese food.

Answer 7

Most Sweet and Sour, greasy, fried in oil with lots of MSG taste are Chinese American food.
Depends on where it's from- China is huge plus there are colonies of chinese disperse in countries like Taiwan: mix of Japanese and Chinese cuisine. Hong Kung: Cantonese food( dimsum, wonton, roast meat)
People from the north part of mainland china prefer boil, cold, stewed food such as noodle soup and dumplings( made of grain which sustain them longer in cold.)
People from the south of china prefer rice dishes.

Answer 8

What you're asking is, what is authentic Chinese food, right? Well, if the Chinese eat it and say yes, that's homecooked chinese food, then you got the right thing. 'Chinese' food served in western chinese restaurants (and also other countries) are usually altered to cater to local tastes and sensibilities.

Answer 9

That's the same thing I say about " Authentic Mexican " food, it's not the same food we eat at home .... it's all Americanized and it's Tex-Mex. Anyone would kill for my moms Mexican food. But back to Chinese food, I'm sure it's not " Authentic " either, I'll let you guys know when I go to China and taste the REAL thing !!

Answer 10

Chinese food that has been americanized is usually more greasy, and has stronger taste than what it originally was. Chinese Chinese food uses different spices and not as many dishes are deep fried.

Answer 11

Easy peasy. Find a restaurant where >90% of the customers are Chinese and you're lucky to find a table at peak hours. It's usually authentic.