How American Chinese Foodstuffs Are Different From Chinese Foodstuffs

[Anonymous]

1. Deep-Fried Foods

Deep frying is not part of traditional Chinese cooking. Traditional Chinese cooking consists of mostly steaming, stir-frying, and boiling. In modern times, however, there is youtiao (deep-fried breadsticks) in China.

2. Meaty Dishes

Meat is sparing in traditional Chinese cuisine, as meat is traditionally considered a sign of wealth and thus reserved for Chinese New Year. As a result, many Chinese dishes are heavily plant-based.

3. Sushi

Sushi is Japanese food.

4. Salads or Raw Vegetables

Eating raw vegetables is not done traditionally. Vegetables are usually stir-fried, boiled, or steamed.

5. Dairy Products

Most people of the world have some degree of lactose intolerance. The Chinese is included. Milk or dry milk may be purchased for babies, in addition to receiving breastmilk from their human mothers. But the consumption of milk decreases as they age. Cheese and yogurt are also not part of the traditional Chinese diet. However, I think the consumption of dairy products by the Chinese is increasing due to Western ideas about nutrition and the global fast food chains.

[Laura_Marx]

Ah this is really interesting. I already knew some of these because we learned a little bit about Chinese cuisine in cooking school, but I had no idea about the raw vegetables and dairy products not really being eaten.

Also: do Chinese restauraunts serve sushi in the US? That's crazy. They don't do that here.

[Cosytoasty]

Yeah but here they'll serve you chips with your peking duck if you REALLY want it 😂

[Laura_Marx]

LOL, yes thats true actually! Most of them do burgers!

[Fathoms77]

Nice. Americans need to stop thinking something like General Tso's chicken is even remotely similar to real Chinese fare.

If it's "Americanized," it's guaranteed to be worse for you, sadly. Most Americans wouldn't even eat real Chinese food because it's not loaded with meat and fat and it isn't deep-fried.

[Phoenix98]

That's not a all true we have a few actual authentic Chinese restaurants around here and people love eating at them, all the dishes are traditionally made. They're some of the most popular places around here.

[myTake Owner]

@Phoenix98 Consider the time frame. The time frame and environment are important key factors. Would you eat meat if the meat supply were rationed by the government?

[Fathoms77]

@Phoenix98 Depends on where you are, really. Lower-end areas eat a big pile of fried crap and call it Chinese food.

[Phoenix98]

Fair point.

[oddwaffle]

The hall mark of Chinese cuisine is based on their master chefs and Chinese master chefs can be really really flexible when they came into contact with western cuisine. Oh, they will still stick to their traditional secrets but they are more than willing to learn and make western foods their own way.

There was a chef in a Chinese restaurant, who told me he could make anything. I was feeling a little hungry so I asked for a donut and a grill cheese sandwich. I watched him did both of those using the wok. The donut was Chinese style but it was donut with sugar and everything.

[LaVilaine]

Authentic Chinese food is like 1000x better than that American buffet CRAP. It makes me so angry when boiled unseasoned chicken breast people think that it's the authentic kind and then make ignorant statements like "how is everyone in China not fat? All your food is deep fried and covered in a sweet sauce!" No, you dipshit. That's American food made to appeal to an American market.

[myTake Owner]

Actually, Chinese people are getting fat too. With urban Chinese having money in their pockets and businesses gaining more power, many Chinese people are becoming fat too. There is also no government-controlled meat rationing. So, which is better? Having the freedom to eat whatever you want, or allowing the government to ration an important part of the human diet (meat)?

[LaVilaine]

I think that's a global trend, truth be known. Especially with globalization and increasing industrialization. I don't know what's best, truly, and I would never presume to know.

[Tarvold]

Good take, but I'm sorry - 1, 2 and 4 is just not true.

It may be somewhat true for some of the more common and well known styles of Chinese cuisine - like Cantonese and Shanghainese, but you can't make blanket statements like that for all of "Chinese" cuisine.

[Tarvold]

Here's a couple of example of Chinese deep frying awesomeness:

Deep fried milk
s.yimg.com/.../milk_186qbpt-186qbsv.jpg

whitebait
www.epinosh.com/.../Photo-4-3-13-10-22-33-AM.jpg

octopus
mymegusta.files.wordpress.com/.../...icy-fried.jpg

etc... etc...

[myTake Owner]

Back in the Communist era, many families only get a set amount of meat tickets/coupons/stamps. These severely regulated how much meat they can consume in a month. So, whatever meat they have is usually saved up for Chinese New Year or eaten in extremely small amounts during the rest of the year. That's the kind of life my parents and grandparents had to live under. I can't say that it applies to all Chinese in China throughout history.

[Tarvold]

Yeah, well... that's a real shame.

The truth is, the first thing the communists did when they took over was to systematically destroy all aspects of Chinese culture. This included much of China's food culture too.

It's really unfortunate, but the truth is, today's generation of Mainlanders have about as much understanding and appreciation of true Chinese culture as white people.

[myTake Owner]

Rural life is still quite traditional. It's the urban Chinese that has been separated from their families in the great urbanization that are most separated from ancient family traditions.

[COCOCHANEL]

i wanna eat those now !

[TatyanaTheEmpress]

There is Chinese version of Sushi called Shòusī: media.timeout.com/.../image.jpg

[myTake Owner]

That's just the linguistic cognate of Sushi. It does not change the origin.

[TatyanaTheEmpress]

Chinese cuisine is older than Japanese, the origin of Sushi is Chinese: s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/.../...a5ff460387.jpg

[TatyanaTheEmpress]

There is also Korean type of Sushi, called Gimbap or Kimbap: www.maangchi.com/.../gimbap_blog.jpg

[vishna]

I love Chinese food and American food. I only wish to eat more traditional dishes. My friend made this yummy cooked cucumber and mushroom dish, I don't know if it was traditional, but it was so good.

[myTake Owner]

I think what happens is that many Chinese families don't necessarily operate on written recipes. They just take whatever raw vegetables that they have in the refrigerator, stir-fry them, and hope the dish tastes well. If it does, then that dish will be lodged inside the memory.

[Anonymous]

good take but your missing some facts such as other ingredients put into chinees foods and these cheap ingredients are now being used all over Asia in traditional cuisine much like what happened in Mexico and other countries. The french have a ban on American food chains for this reason and in France you can still buy genuine healthy western foods without American bastardisation such a real bread, cheese, milk etc

[Phoenix98]

All of these are true except 2# as I've eaten in traditional Chinese restaurant not a chain or anything but just a small one owned by some Chinese immigrants and they used meat in quite a few dishes.

[myTake Owner]

Consider the time frame. If you live in Communist China a generation ago, then you'd find that meat would be severely rationed. For all the rationed meat that a family can receive, it may be saved up for Chinese New Year. Now, they don't need to ration meat, so they can use meat more liberally.

[Phoenix98]

Except this isn't china a generation ago, and I am also referring to recipes that go back to ancient china as well not just modern china.

[Bandit74]

IDC if they're authentic, General Tsao's Chicken and Beef Teriyaki are delicious 😊

[QuestionMan]

I'm pretty sure fortune cookies are also not traditionally Chinese.

[COCOCHANEL]

i've heard from people living in china that fried foods are plentiful and extremely popular there

[myTake Owner]

That still doesn't change traditional Chinese cooking.

[COCOCHANEL]

but i like it :(

[ImaginativeDreamer]

Don't forget the fact that some original Chinese dishes are made of dog and cat meat :P

[Anonymous]

I already knew that Chinese American food is different. Some Chinese places in America serve cheesecake and tiramisu. Obviously the Chinese culture in America is not going to be the same as in China

[ElissaDido]

I really like Americanized Chinese food!

[LittleSally]

I love this mytake. =)
Very informative.

[lime_rampljuset]

I knew that.