General Tso versus General Ching - the Chicken Wars!

[KurtNYC]

A little known chapter in Chinese history involves two famous Chinese Generals who both followed their military careers by opening small restaurants for the many rickshaws of the the main roadway in Hunan. They were located right across the Silk Road from each other and served a nearly identical chicken dish...

Not true but no apparently no one can identify an actual General Tso from the Hunan province in the 19th Century. And there are a huge variety of names for the dish all involving military figures in their names:

Eileen Yin-Fei Lo calls General Tso’s Chicken “one of the most well-known dishes of the transplanted Chinese restaurant.” She has seen it referred to as “not only the chicken of one General Tso, but of General Tsao, General Taso, General Toa, General Cho, General Gau, General Ching, General Kung, and General Tseng.” As if this list weren’t varied enough, Eileen even says she has also seen it attributed to a “General Ciao.” As you know, that’s an informal “goodbye” in Italian.

Eileen, giving a brief history lesson, tells us of a General Tso who lived in Hunan in the 19th century and who was rumored to have a “good appetite.” Whatever the dish’s actual origins, Eileen describes it as “some version of a classic recipe from Hunan” that is usually called jeung bau gai kau. Here in America, this dish has become known as Tso chung tong gai which translates into “Tso ancestor meeting place chicken.”

http://www.thefoodmaven.com/diary/archives/00000222.html

Then of course there is Colonel Sanders. What is it with the military / chicken thing? Did they ever use chicken in battle, you know like, they are negotiating surrender and old General Tso says 'okay if you surrender right now, we are cooking up some chicken that is unbeatable and you can have some.' Other commander: Do we get soup and egg roll? etc.

[underpants]

1. Sanders opened his first restaurant with his first Soc.Security check

to that point in his life he had been a fry cook in many restaurants. He also once tried to abduct his son from his estranged wife, hid in the bushes- the whole bit but didn't do it.

I read that in a Paul Harvey book. Hey I was in the Army trying to kill time on guard duty.