Often times, friends ask me to recommend an authentic Chinese restaurant. The truth is that many restaurants in the United States have altered their menu for Western taste. Chicken feet would not be a popular item or cow tripe.
On a business trip in Chicago, I met a Caucasian man and he said that he loves the Chinese buffets in Minnesota.
“I love crab rangoons.”
These are fried wontons filled with shrimp and cream cheese. I told him that Chinese people don’t use cream cheese in their cooking and most of us are lactose intolerant. I had to burst his bubble and tell him that crab rangoons was not an authentic Chinese item. Fast food outlets such as Panda Express have given Americans a mainstream taste about Chinese food.
Another food item not found in Chinese restaurants in China is the fortune cookie.
As seen in the video above, fortune cookies are foreign to the most populated country in the world. After a meal, a check is all that is presented. And if lucky, a smile from the waiter. No fortune cookie with a few lines of wisdom or randomly picked lottery numbers.
Books: A great book to read is the Fortune Cookies Chronicles by Jennifer Lee. It goes into more details into the world of the Chinese restaurant industry in America. Quoting from her website, “There are more Chinese restaurants in this country than McDonalds, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken combined.”
Note: Thanks to Steve J for resource
But you have to say Fortune Cookie is such a great invention. It is fun. I think someday even restaurants in China might serve it too
I think western taste buds can handle authentic Chinese food, they just can’t handle the presentation. Most of my Caucasian friends cringe when they see a plate of chicken hearts, beef tongue, pig intestines. But little do they know, these same ingredients are in hot dogs & pate.