Here's the real story behind General Tso's CHicken

[yuiyoshida]

[pangaia]

1. The dish has made its way back to China, albeit in a quite different version.

Fuchsia Dunlop has a further history and description of it in her wonderful book, REVOLUTIONARY CHINESE COOKBOOK, Recipes from Hunan Province.

[DonCoquixote]

2. this could be ironic

But one of the reasons Mao had such a hard time is because he had a very strong Hunan accent, which marked him as a farmboy. Imagine if this was reworked to honor Hunan's favorite son, Mao.

[pangaia]

3. That would be interesting...

Mao is still in many ways part hero, especially in Hunan, which is understandable.

I've had the dish, although in Chengdu in Sichuan and not in Hunan.

Dunlop gives a very detailed history of the dish and says the vast majority of Hunanese have never heard of it and that as of 2004, she had never seen it on a menu in Hunan.

She gives both Peng's Taiwanese recipe - that is more heavy,hot and sour in the style of Hunan cuisine and is not sweet as is the Americanized version -- AND the recipe for the version she had in Changsha - which DOES have more the Americanized sweetness. It was not on the menu but the chef taught her how he learned to make it. So it seems the American version is the one that has infiltrated back to Hunan.

She learned Peng's version from him in Taiwan, I would guess Taipei, but she doesn't say.

I've been cooking Sichuan for over 2 years and just expanded into Hunanese cuisine..
Ummmm.. time for another trip, I think....I've never been to Hunan...

[Atticus]

4. Stop saying "General Tso's Chicken"!!! Not all of us are brave! Who knows what the General has

been through in his past that might have made him easily frightened! Cowards are people too and it is just wrong to call them names and-----------------

What? Oh, really? Then------I suppose--------

Never mind.

(RIP "Emily"!)

[Wednesdays]

5. Who ya calling chicken?