American Chinese Food VS Authentic Chinese Food

We as citizens of the United States of America have rarely eaten authentic Chinese food. When most people hear the phrase “Chinese food” they think of Panda Express and Pickup Stix. These places, while delicious, are not authentically Chinese. They are the American counterparts of Chinese food that became widely popular in America in the 1950’s. The Chinese food movement originated on the West Coast, specifically in San Francisco, and was originally a blend of many different styles of Chinese food. The most prevalent of those is from the province of Guangdong. Now that you know the origins of American to Chinese Chinese food I’ll explain why they’re different. First of all you can tell if a restaurant is authentically Chinese by their chicken dishes. American Chinese food tends to use white boneless meat. Whereas authentic Chinese food uses dark meat, connective tissue, organs, and small bones for nutritional value. Secondly, American Chinese food tends to be less spicy and more sweet and salty than traditional Chinese food. An example of a dish made sweeter or saltier than needed is Kung pao chicken which is much more savory than its Chinese counterpart. Now that you know the basics between authentic Chinese and American Chinese food, let’s talk about authentic dishes. Some authentic Chinese dishes include Egg Foo Young, Kung Pao chicken, Orange and Cashew chicken, Moo Shu pork, Fried Rice, Lo Mein, and Wonton soup. If one is looking to order authentic Chinese cuisine be sure to let your server know because it is not uncommon for restaurants to have two separate menus one for Westerners and one for Chinese. Lastly I would like to clear up one more myth: the Fortune is not Chinese. A very telltale way to see if you’ve eaten authentic Chinese food is to see if they bring you a fortune cookie. If they do, it’s most likely you’ve just enjoyed a delicious American Chinese meal.