American Chinese cuisine

This cuisine defines the style of food served by some Chinese restaurants in the United States. The uniqueness of this cuisine is that this type of cooking suitably caters to Western tastes and preferences, and is very much different from the cuisine of China.

Ancestral Heritage:-

American Chinese cuisine was developed by Chinese restaurateurs in late nineteenth century as they modded their food for Caucasian American tastes. Restaurants were first opened for railroad workers, and later on were established in towns where Chinese food was completely unknown. Serving to their customers' tastes these restaurants made use local ingredients. Numbers were usually given to the delicacies in the menu, and also given was a roll and butter on the side.

In the process, chefs would invent numerous dishes such as chop suey and General Tso's Chicken. As a result of which they invented a new cuisine or style of cooking Chinese food which was not found in China.

Differences between American Chinese and authentic Chinese cuisine

1)In Chinese cuisine the main focal point is the inclusion of vegetables as a main part of a preparation whereas American Chinese food treats vegetables as garnish. Carrots and tomatoes are an example of it. Bok Choy and Kai-Ian, fresh meat and seafood are the main components of the Native Chinese cuisine. This cuisine makes frequent use of Asian leafy vegetables. As a result, American Chinese food is usually less pungent than authentic cuisine.

2)American Chinese food tends to be cooked very quickly with a great deal of oil and salt. Many dishes are quickly and easily prepared, and require inexpensive ingredients. Stir-frying, pan-frying, and deep-frying tend to be the most common cooking techniques which are all easily done using a wok. The food also has a reputation for high levels of MSG to enhance the flavor. The symptoms of a so-called Chinese restaurant syndrome or "Chinese food syndrome" have been attributed to a glutamate sensitivity, but carefully controlled scientific studies have not demonstrated such negative effects of glutamate. Market forces and customer demand have encouraged many restaurants to offer "MSG Free" or "No MSG" menus.

3)American Chinese cuisine often uses ingredients not native and very rarely used in China. One such example is the common use of broccoli in American Chinese cuisine.

Types of restaurants
Chinese restaurants can be divided into three primary categories

1)Sit-down dining:
These restaurants cater to customers who sit down in a dining room and order from a menu. They tend to provide more authentic Chinese food than fast-food restaurants or places of informal dining.

2)Take-out:
These restaurants, which cater primarily to call-in and take-out orders, serve as convenient outlets for traditional American Chinese dishes. Nearly all of them feature delivery to customers' homes, thus allowing the folded, waxed cardboard boxes (oyster pails) that are commonly used to attain similar recognition as that of the pizza box.

3)Buffets: Buffet-style American Chinese restaurants :
Which have recently seen an increase in popularity, tend to serve a wide variety of food in buffet style; the authenticity of the food varies from outlet to outlet.


American Chinese dishes

a) Dishes that often appear on American Chinese menus include:

General Tso's Chicken
Sesame Chicken.
Chinese chicken salad\
Chow mein
Crab rangoon
Fortune cookie
Fried rice

b) Regional American Chinese dishes:

Chow mein sandwich
Chop suey sandwich
St. Paul sandwich

c) Americanized versions of native Chinese dishes

Batter-fried meat
Chicken balls
Egg drop soup
Egg foo young
Egg roll
Fried rice
Kung Pao chicken
Lo mein
Mei Fun (see Rice vermicelli dishes)
Moo shu pork
Wonton soup
Cashew chicken
Meat "with" a vegetable
Broccoli beef