@@TheGreatAtario I think they're both weird, tbh. I've never felt bad after Chinese food and I'm usually not hungry soon after. I think they're both just conjecture like the MSG thing.
I hate it when people give blended cultures hell and say it's "not real" like Italian-American or Chinese-American. Like, yeah, duh, it's not the same thing as the source culture. It's a culture in its own right and deserves respect.
People who give that hell probably wouldn’t like their culture being invalidated if they traveled to France or Russia or Mexico for a bit and cooked with what was available. Hell, this fusion style broadens food, and trying to invalidate it is stupid. If it’s yummy, then it’s yummy. And now I want Panda Express for dinner even though I had it last night.
I was just about to bring up Italians and the fury some seem to have about Italian-American cuisine... I don't even know how to properly wrap my head around some of it, because so much of it seems to be based in getting upset about techniques to make the food easier to prepare for the region.
I'm a little torn on that. I mean it's to take inspiration and create new things based on that. But it's not okay to pass off those new creations as something they really are not. I cannot judge how authentic the "Chinese" food I've had actually was, so I'll stick to an example where I can: Chicago deep dish might be delicious (never had an authentic one in/from Chicago) but calling it pizza (I had authentic Italian pizza) just rubs me the wrong way. The word "pizza" invokes certain expectations with me, and Chicago deep dish goes against those. That's less of an "it's not real" thing than it is a "that's false advertising" thing.
I remember watching a BuzzFeed "Reacts to" video that recorded the reactions of 2nd/3rd-generation Chinese-American teens vs their 1st-gen grandparents taste-testing American Chinese food chains. The American-born teen/s were constantly making disparaging remarks about American Chinese quisine not being "real Chinese food", but their own grandparents were very non-chalant and rather okay with it. Some even said the Panda Express they were served wouldn't raise any eyebrows if they were served it when visiting a friend's house. (Depending on the region of course.)
@@rayquaza5001 Makes sense since most of the immigrants at the time were from Honk Kong, Guangdong, and Guangxi. I lived in San Francisco just outside of Chinatown and grew up speaking Toishanese a dialect of Cantonese. I can still go there or here in NYC and spark up conversations with the eldest residents, especially the cranky old cooks
To be fair, I'm from Vancouver, 1st gen and most of the Chinese population here is 1st gen. No one eats Chinese American cause there are so many good traditional Chinese restaurants here. The food is often too greasy and sweet, it doesn't appeal to Chinese tastebuds.
Panda Express is a different breed of American Chinese food, that has been franchised and corporatized. (If that's a word) You will see people that are NOT Zchinese cooking and Americans running the front. It's just another American chain, that is INSPIRED by Asian cuisine. Kind of like PF Changs. American Chinese cuisine, in this sense are the food cooked BY Chinese, ESTABLISHED by Chinese, The English is Shaky. With names like Evergreen Chinese Takeout, or Dragon House Buffet, or China House 😅
"You know what causes Chinese Restaurant Syndrome? Racism." --paraphrased from Anthony Bourdain Americans put MSG in a lot of American food, especially in American junk food, as you mentioned.
Actually, MSG in Cheetos or Pringles is like at the astronomically high level compared to a normal Asian dish, but they just make it obscure (using MSG alternate chemical name). And, voila, almost nobody complains about it.
@@undeadmeats Accent is a brand of MSG "seasoning" you can in most stores in the US. You don't need much of the stuff to add just a little something extra to a dish that may not seem quite right. It won't save everything but, it can help.
I have a handful of vintage cookbooks, and like 50% of the recipes call for literal "MSG" like you had to go buy it from the store and add it to food. I found this perspective fascinating given the circumstance of how the "scare" started.
I was adopted from China, one of the “lost girls” because of the one child policy, and I’ve never really been able to connect with my cultural roots as a Chinese American, because I’ve never been sure where to start, and your videos are so informative and funny. Thank you for your work!
When immigrants like us try to connect with our roots, it’s never easy. I found the most success when I was on the lookout for stories. There are stories everywhere. In food, in history, in language, in names, and of course with the older folks in our communities. It’s important to try to nurture a sense of ownership over your heritage. You have a fundamental right to your own background. Only you can decide if and how you want to exercise that right I hope that you take your ancestral heritage as a gift that is meant to strengthen your ties to your own present, in your own new circumstances. Similarly, the stories and struggles of fellow immigrants from your part of the world who built a place for themselves in America are also yours to draw strength and inspiration from. Sometimes you might feel like you’re almost play-acting your own culture, and that can be hard. Just remember that your heritage exists for your sake, not the other way around
@@Miskamouskamikumouse My family is wonderful, despite people treating adoption like a nasty word. I've never been able to connect with my identity as a Chinese American, but my mom is Cuban American and I am strongly connected with those cultural roots. I'd consider myself Cuban American before Chinese American, honestly.
@@Blueeyesthewarrior Ah, i didnt mean adoptation as bad. Unless u werent implying it. Im actually happy for u Also, glad u found a way to be able to connect with your roots and stuff.
@@Blueeyesthewarrior tbh i think the culture you grow up in is more important than the culture your ancestors were part of. I feel like "reconnecting with your roots" is a big thing in America because theres no real american culture. Not saying it's a bad thing tho-
Yep, American Chinese food is as valid as any other regional Chinese food. Because even traditional cuisines in China evolve and adapt new foreign ingredients through time. Even Sichuan cuisines, well known for its liberal use of chilli only appeared less than 1000 years ago. Chilli was not a native plant in China, and it was brought in from the new world through the Columbian Exchange. Sugary food only become popular during the Tang dynasty because sweets were brought in by Persian & Arab traders. American Chinese food is just another regional expression of Chinese culinary culture.
And don't forget about Cola Duck! (yes it is a real popular dish in china using coke to color and sweeten the dish and it's been around before I was born, as far as I know)
As a Chinese-born naturalized Italian and living in Italy, I always see the outrage about Americanized Italian food, meanwhile, the Asians are pretty chill about it.
As an Italian myself, you are right. However, personally, I am not mad at the dishes themselves, but more on the fact that americans of Italian descent genuinly believe to be Italian. Therefore, they propagate a fake image and idea about Italy and its cultures.
Beh, in teoria diventi un traditore della patria solo se ti passa per il cervello di mangiare la pizza con l'ananas 🤣 Poi ci sono io che italiana non sono, sono nata in Romania ma ho passato gran parte della mia vita in Italia, e nonostante tutto sono ancora curiosa di sapere com'è la pizza con l'ananas
@@lingyu9126 If you do want to try a pineapple pizza. I recommend pineapple, tomatoes, green pepper, and spinach. No meat to complicate it. Green peppers and tomatoes have a sweetness that pairs well with the pineapple and spinach surprisingly just adds to it. However you get it, it's not nearly as sweet as you think it would be. It's surprisingly good.
Similar thing with Tex-Mex. Hate when people go "Oh, it's not *real* Mexican" and it's like... yeah, it's in the name. It's Tex-Mex, it's awesome, and its own culture within itself.
@@drewgehringer7813 The Texan area was under Spanish rule from 1716 to 1821 (105 years). Texas/Tejas was only a part of Mexico from 1821 to 1836 (15 years). That's a total of 120 years of Spanish/Mexican heritage, so not quite centuries but it is still a long time. The more you know :)
My partner's mom was complaining about how the "MSG in Chinese food triggers her migraines" and I walked to her cupboard, pulled out a bottle of Accent and told her she better throw it away because she puts it in all her cooking and it is just straight up MSG. People truly have no idea what they put into their food.
Adam Ragusea actually does a good analysis of it on his channel. It’s mostly okay but not for all people; some people really are sensitive to it. I’ve had problems but only when there’s a large amount. A couple times I’ve had dishes where they had clearly dumped way too much MSG in - tasting overwhelmingly of it - and half an hour later broken into a cold sweat and had my heart racing. Neither case was normal use; and I eat lots of food that undoubtedly contains it with no problem. But too much is definitely bad news for me.
@@bilbo1778 Well, maybe a headache but not necessarily a migraine; migraines are a very different thing. But lots of people call every headache a migraine, so there’s that…
Great video!! I nearly yelled "YES!!" when you talked about how people in America think of international cuisine in terms of unusual or dirty qualities. I'm French and we use ingredients that people think of as super weird, but whenever the topic of just french food in general comes up, people get weirdly starry eyed. Unfamiliar isn't inherently gross or weird - maybe your tastes don't include my dad's stir fry of whatever he could snag from his local river, but so what? I've had the joy of getting to know other cultures' food and culinary techniques and I have nothing but respect for the history and cultural significance in each dish. One of my favorites is to point out how French toast is a peasants dish in origin, born of leftovers. I think pricetags definitely influence people's expectations of food quality, and I have heard that some Chinese-American restaurants have to significantly undercut prices despite the painstaking prep that goes into their dishes. Definitely hungry for Chinese-American food now ..
Two things I learned about Chinese food from living in Peru: 1) Chinese food restaurants are very different depending on the region, given that they play to different tastes. Peruvian Chinese food is called Chifa and is super good in ways distinct from how it is in the USA. 2) MSG is fine, you can literally buy it at the store and it enhances your food.
I grew up in a culturally jewish family and spent most of my childhood in New Jersey ordering from Chinese-American take-out and I always get excited when we have it for dinner occasionally. When we moved to New York, we go to local asian restaurants that promote Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine and one of our favorites is a local Chinese restaurant called "Red Chili" because it has both traditional and Chinese American cuisine on their menu. Thanks so much for the history lesson. Chinese-American food deserves a whole lot respect because it's part of American culture.
Yes it IS! Did you know the 🥠 fortune cookie was invented in America? I think San Francisco. American Chinese food, like you said, is very much a part of American culture, and if you get Chinese food from other places like Mexico, Brazil, or France, it is different there too! To reflect the local tastes and availability of ingredients! Isn't it fascinating? Kind of like languages reflect the evolution and exposure of different peoples
I love history like this when it comes to food changes! I’m part Irish, and I hate when people get up in arms about corned beef and cabbage not being “rEaL iRiSh FoOd.” The reason we eat it in the US for St. Patrick’s day because Irish immigrants couldn’t easily get lamb needed for traditional dishes. They ended up forming friendships with Jewish immigrants as both groups were discriminated against. Jewish butchers sold to the Irish, and over time, that relationship created unique Irish American dishes.
That’s so cool 😲I don’t remember exactly but i think historically the Chinese immigrant community has also had a lotta ties with the Jewish immigrant community as well.
It was also because Beef was a rare luxury in Ireland because all their beef was exported to (stolen for) England. Beef being cheap and easily available in the US meant they could actually have it basically as much as they wanted.
@@andyzhang7890 From what I’ve heard, Jewish communities used to go to Chinese restaurants on Christmas since basically everything else was closed, and that’s where the close ties started.
@@ForgottenSonata And that tradition bleeds into non-Jewish families in the NY/NJ area. I grew up in an Irish-Italian Christian American family eating Chinese food for either Christmas Eve or Christmas and I never questioned why until I moved across the country and it just wasn't a thing out here.
I remember once I watched a show where this woman was insistent that she was allergic to MSG and was insistent she could taste it when it was added to any dish. They gave her two plates and lied about which one had the MSG and basically proved that her symptoms were, at best, psychosomatic. The really funny part was when she was eating the MSG dish and thought it was the non-MSG one she went on and on about how great it was and how you can clearly cook delicious food without "artificial chemicals" and then the second she was told about the switch she suddenly had all these "symptoms"... It was really eye-opening about how ridiculous some people could be.
I had a coworker that claimed he was allergic to it while eating a bag of chips, I just flipped over the bag and pointed out that monosodium glutamate was listed in the ingredients. The idiot didn't even know that's what MSG is, it took 5 minutes to convince him then he suddenly claimed he had a migraine and went home.
Thank you so much for this video! As a Taiwanese-French I had always felt contempt for Westernized Chinese food, but this brilliant video essay made me think about how my internalized racism and aching desire to distance myself from "other" immigrants had a play in this. In France, the Chinese diaspora has a distinct history, because up until the 90s/2000s, a lot of the Chinese community in France were actually Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian people of Chinese descent, fleeing war and turmoil in the 70s/80s. They opened restaurants that mixed together Chinese (mostly Cantonese or Teochew), Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian cuisines, reflecting their mixed cultural heritage, and adapting it to France. Wenzhou immigrants that held restaurants then also incorporated Southeast Asian elements to their menus, to cater to the French palate. So, obviously, it wouldn't taste the same at all as my mother's Taiwanese cooking, but it doesn't mean it doesn't have a unique history and doesn't deserve respect for all the struggles it has faced. In the last 10 years or so though, there has been a sort of panic surrounding the hygiene level of these restaurants, so many of them had to close, and Chinese restaurant owners opened cheap sushi places instead, because Japanese food was enjoying an image of a "higher" cuisine. Nowadays, most local Asian restaurants in small-ish French cities serve the same mix of Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Japanese dishes. Thought I'd share a bit of diasporic Chinese history!
This was really eye- opening. As someone who studied Chinese language and culture extensively in college, I always told my friends that the Chinese food they ate was not "real Chinese food", not putting into context the history of American Chinese food. I'm totally ashamed for having ever said that.
I don't think you need to worry about that. Sounds to me like you're out here knowing better and doing better. Everyone is guilty of ignorance. Far fewer people are humble enough to learn from their mistakes.
My uncle (Chinese American, immigrated but grew up mostly in America) will drive for hours whenever he visits somewhere to find the "real" Chinese restaurants. And really, there's nothing wrong with him seeking out food similar to his mom's cooking that he grew up on; but it's the dismissive way he talks about the "bad" Chinese restaurants that I find annoying (especially since I'm pretty sure some of them are actually authentic food catered to Chinese immigrants, just from a different region of China than what he's looking for...) Thankfully my mom is way more laid back about food lol
As a Chinese in Southeast Asia for all my life, when American-Chinese food reached my shores (Yes, it came full circle) I jumped to try it and really enjoyed it. Stop bothering about authenticity when it comes to food, enjoy the flavours for what they are!
i feel similar to this when watching Mulan. The video might not be authentic but the story is still great and seeing Liu Yifei bathing has me coming back for more.
My issue is that it's so hard to find authentic Chinese food. I am obsessed with inland Chinese cuisines, but all I can find is 50 restaurants with the same exact menu
@@Michael-ju7xuSounds like you just need to move somewhere with more first-generation immigrants from China. I have no problem finding authentic Chinese food where I live.
@@Michael-ju7xuthat when you learn how to cook it yourself. The internet is a wonderful place where you can learn a lot if you're willing to put in the simplist amount of effort.
As a Hispanic family we eat alot of Chinese American food it's great as a kid I didn't eat it much, bc I was a picky eater, how ever my sister and everyone loved it. As I grew I learned to love the taste all of the different flavors and ingredients its what I love. From there my friend, a Vietnamese America, and a Laotian American friend both have expanded my palette to different Asian cuisine and I love them all the same. Just like from different cultures and regions middle eastern and European, and different Latin American foods, its something that unites us as one people the love of food. The complex flavors, smells, textures they all are amazing and for all of the issues in the world I'm glad I'm able to experience all these wonderful tastes. Sorry for the long crazy post/tangent 😅
I can't believe some US people still have that "foreign people eat weird disgusting food" mentality when there was a craze in the 1950s or 60s of putting chopped up hot dogs in gelatin and serving it at parties.
Calling Asian food strange and bizarre is so weird because I’m sure if Americans knew just what they eat all day everyday, I’m sure eating wildcat is probably very low on the list of “weird foods”
i also cant believe how these same people dont have the critical thinking to realise theyre foreigners to other people. foreigner isnt instantly "not american,' it's a relative term to wherever you are and wherever you are from. the way these people use this neutral term in a almost derogatory way is pretty telling of how they see the world
@@mingchenwei1978 ikr, to me it's mindboggling how there are places there where fresh food is simply and plainly unavailable. I'm from brasil and i get that poorer places here have it better food-wise than others, but really having no fresh vegetables and fruits available not even for your money, but having it selling at all close to you is alien to me. LATAM as a whole lives off of fresh food, you wont go 3 days without one of your meals being fresh rice and beans and there be people out there going weeks on ihop, applebees, mcdonalds or smt
I’m Jewish and we traditionally love American Chinese food, myself included. I’ve always been a little ashamed to admit that I like American Chinese food but now I’m glad to know how respectable it’s history is!
@@jacob_and_william There's actually a direct contrast between jewish and chinese: The chinese eat anything that moves, while jewish dietary laws are super restrictive. (source: I'm jewish)
In regards to Chinese food being seen as "dirty and suspicious": check out health inspection reports. Any type of restaurant can be horrifically dirty. It's a matter of who is careless, cheap, or uneducated regarding food safety. Either that, or go with my dad's philosophy of "if you like the food, don't look in the kitchen."
I went to a seafood place once that smelled so badly of fish the moment you walked in the door. I will never go there again Edit: the restaurant is the chain called Red Lobster lmao and is the fanciest restaurant around when you live in a small town
Can confirm, I worked in a highway restaurant kinda thing that tried to be a fancy version o fa fast-food place. There's a reason the only I took for lunch was soup, because at least I know I made that, and it was heated through and through permanently at more than 65 degrees. I remember my colleague touching raw meat, not washing hands, and then working on already prepared stuff. He only washed his hands when he took a break so his phone wouldn't get dirty.
The worst thing is when people’s marketing is “respectful” of Chinese food being cheap and dirty, then they turn around and call it “street style” or “rugged and casual”, thinking it’s a form of praise.
American Chinese food has always been my comfort food ever since I was little. When ever I've moved I always look for the local Chinese restaurants and trying to find the best one. After moving to Texas I found this one within walking distance and their food is sooooo goooood. Even when Corona was first started and the anti-chinese bs started up I continued to order from them not only because it helped me feel better during these hard times, I also wanna support them as best I can.
Same here, Houston has a bunch and there's a lot in my county that I can just walk or bike to. And during the major quarantine we ordered out a bunch and it was so good (a lot better than the frozen pizza's I had been eating for a week straight)
Same! In my family we would only get takeout every one in a while and it would almost always be Chinese food. So even though it's usually not expensive, it still has this sense of being special like expensive food. It's a type of food where when I need something, I know I'll always be happy with it no matter the restaurant
Chinese takeout also got me through quarantine. I always love getting a whole bunch of different dishes so I can both have the variety on my plate and lots of leftovers.
My family always went to this place called Hunan L'Rose. It always felt super fancy to me because we never went out to eat and they had cloth napkins, hot towels after your meal, and a tiny cup of sherbet that I'd dip my fortune cookie into. Plus, I was allowed to have a Shirley Temple that came in a cool glass with an umbrella and a cocktail sword thing. Used to save those and play with them lol. Man, I'm practically there right now
Shout Out to Sam. The local Chinese food shop owner who served both American-Chinese and native Chinese food. And Added Vegitierian options when Me and my mother became Vegan. He's the real MVP.
As a latin american that has guavas growing in the trees in the sidewalk, so it is super hilarious to see them (and other tropical fruits) seen as "strange" and "exotic". Like, to me a sweet orange is exotic! It's freaking imported! also, yellow lemons? Odd. Exoticism is subjective!
It is, I think, the most strange case was when I was visiting a zoo in China. It was a bit odd to see raccoons in a display, but it kind of made sense as they aren't found in China. But, the really weird exhibit was the "laboratory rats." I'm pretty sure that's not even a specific thing, it's a use of rats. It was also kind of weird that their doves are actually white when ours are mostly pigeon looking, and the complete and utter lack of crows took some getting used to.
I mean, that is the literal definition of exoticism... If something is from another country, it is exotic. Hence, Chinese food may be exotic to Americans, and American food may be exotic to Chinese and neither are wrong
I'm an American, but I lived in Brazil for a while so it cracked me up when I saw a bunch of fruits I knew from Brazil being used as literal alien fruits in a sci-fi TV show a while back.
That’s funny cuz where I live lemons are like the most mundane fruit like pretty much most people I know just have lemon trees growing in their yard. I think my favorite example of this is when my little cousin came visiting from Spain and he was just in complete Aw of like just the costal redwoods that are everywhere around here. Not even particularly tall for redwoods but then I remember that these trees pretty much only grow exclusively here on the American west coast and are pretty exotic to the rest of the world.
As an American who loves Chinese American food (and an anthropologist), I really appreciate the detailed treatment of the historical developments that led to the cuisine we see today. Food is really interesting and a great way to learn about culture! Also, I learned about an interesting community of Mississippi Chinese grocers who served many black communities because of the Jim Crow discrimination. They have really interesting food!
I feel like some of this thinking about American Chinese food being ‘less than’ ‘authentic’ Chinese food from the mainland is not only perpetuated by diaspora but also Asian Americans and also people from Asia, I remember this old buzzfeed video where they had asian parents try Chinese takeout with their children and ironically the asian parents all thought it was fine but their children were criticising it. Chinese American food is definitely a culture of its own deserving of respect, it’s an beautiful amalgamation of lived experiences and shifting geography and demographics. Plus it still tastes good so who cares.
Wow I'm here crying watching this. I've never heard someone stand up for my culture the way you do. As someone who grew up with a lot of internalized racism, it's really powerful to hear you critically analyze what I've been thinking about for years but never had anyone to talk to about it. I've said this before, but I really appreciate finding you. I think we have a lot of similarities, and I feel very validated in that. You're awesome, hope you're eating some yummy food rn
I grew up eating Chinese American food, but I've also lived in Taiwan and I've grown up with home-cooked authentic Taiwanese/Chinese meals, which can be done pretty easily now because Asian supermarkets can be found throughout North America. So I was raised with Chinese American food, and think it's delicious, though I also appreciate that it's quite different from more "authentic" Chinese food. On an interesting side note, I like Taiwanese beef noodle soup, but even after living in Taiwan, I've never tasted a version better than my mother's. My mother has always made her beef noodle soup from Italian spaghetti noodles, since they were just easier to buy when she first immigrated to this country.
There's also a parallel story for Chinese-Canadians! (The Chinese Tax, the Spanish Flu, the Canadian Railroad, etc) a fantastic part of history that really needs to be in our own curriculums.
"Hyped about discrimination" is not the vibes I wanted to give off I'm very sorry that it came off that way. My intent was to spark interest in a niche of history that is often overlooked. Discrimination is a part of that history and leaving it out would disingenuous (as well as complicit in whitewashing).
I feel so seen, as the kids say. My Chinese grandmother's own grandfather was BORN IN CALIFORNIA. Her great-grandparents arrived to San Francisco from Toishan via the Kingdom of Hawaii not too long before the Chinese Exclusion Act. They created a restaurant along the railroad line not too far from Sacramento. These OG Chinese immigrants and their descendants are and were always extant and by design with laws preventing Chinese women from immigrating in large numbers, and with anti-miscegenation laws, the countless Chinese bachelors could only marry non-Chinese women illegally (which many did much to the horror of non-Chinese men). Or if they could afford the trip back to China, find a wife and return to America. Not to mention the brazen lynching of Chinese-Americans. I believe the largest mass-lynching in American history was of Chinese-Americans. I am proud to be a descendant of these people. It always bothered me how newer Chinese restaurants with more diverse regional cuisines from across China branded themselves as "authentic" as if our cuisine was inferior or "fake." I'm happy we now can enjoy Chinese food from all across the homeland now, but that doesn't make our Chinese-American cuisine any less real or enjoyable. Thank you so much for making this video!
Mostly like Iron Man 2 proving the pop culture that Fortune Cookies aren’t Chinese. I know it may have been done before but that movie may have debunked Fortune Cookies mythos.
I recently became aware of a similar food diversity with Mexico! My dad was talking about wanting tamales in banana leaves instead of corn husk. When I asked if that was a thing, he went into a whole thing about the differences between northern MX and southern and gulf coast, etc. I had never thought about it!
@@ucklin8025 They do taste different! My dad is from the south part and my mom from the north. We eat both versions of tamales, and they are both delicious. Idk if it the leafs that changes it tho, but the kind of dough, meat and preparation do make the difference for me Definitely something you have to try when going to the south or north of Mexico.
I'm Mexican and a big nerd of Mexican food and history. I can go on and on and on about the diversity of Mexican food and how in Veracruz we believe we make the best antojitos in the country. (we probably don't but our food is sooo good)
It's really interesting how practically every culture that has settled in America has created American versions of their native cuisine. There's American Chinese food, American Japanese food, American Irish food, American Italian food, American Greek food, and a million others. They're all rooted in their own traditions, but they become their own thing. Plus, many of them have shared American roots of poor immigrants trying to adapt their home recipies with whatever American ingredients were cheap and available. I'm lucky to live in an area with restaurants from a lot of different nationalities, and so many of them like to split their menus according to which dishes are more traditional and which are more Americanized. It's so interesting to compare.
There’s a restaurant franchise in western Wisconsin called Norske Nook that combines Norwegian food and diner fare. Honestly, it’s way more approachable than the American Norwegian food I grew up eating on my great grandma’s farm (everyone wants to be a Viking until it’s time to throw down with some lutefisk and lefse with lard). A breakfast wrap using lefse though is definitely better.
Any type of restaurant opened in any country other than where that cuisine comes from will be adapted to local tastes. The most beautiful Chinese food I ever saw was in Japan. Taiwan loves Japanese food but it's going to be a little different from in Japan. And American food anywhere outside of America can be quite different than what you would expect. This is from my personal experience.
Exactly! Just like American cuisine isn't all the same Chinese cuisine isn't all the same! If Americans have many region style distinctions of Fried Chicken (New York Buffalo, Southern Country-Fried, Louisiana Cajun, Midwest Broasted, New England Buttermilk), it stands to reason that other countries have similar distinctions! I love this video TOTALLY because it's a well-presented and fascinating dive into history and culture and absolutely NOT because I'm extremely defensive about my love of Panda Express's Orange Chicken.
well said Josh, from a fellow Josh to another, I hope you're doing well and can't wait for more stuff from your main channel as well as from the FOBEquestria channel!
Tex-mex food gets a lot of hate too, people call it non-authentic but like people have different resources. Specially back when things couldn't be taken from one place to another as easy as it is now. Plus sometimes Mexicans that opened restaurants had to change the taste of their food to better suit American taste buds if they wanted to survive. It should not be a bad thing, it should be seen as awesome thing on how our Mexican ancestors worked with what they could and created new dishes, and on the tenacity to survive.
"the pandemic could have easily started from an american eating a bear they shot" yes!! i keep saying this. i'm from pennsylvania where deer hunting is super popular, and a few years back in my area, a few cities put bans on hunting them due to a disease they were contracting that was killing some off. what if someone had eaten one and it mutated in them? PA could have been ground zero for a pandemic instead.
True. People blame and make fun of China citizens for eating bats, but China is far from the only country that enjoy exotic delicacies. It's too easy to blame China.
Glad to see that there are some logical people who aren't narrow minded about how easy it is for ANY pandemic to happened, and does not need to come from across the continent.
I had felt conflicted about finding out that Ginger Beef was invented here in Canada. It tastes sooo good, but I was sad that it might have been "unauthentic". But you got me to look it up, and it was pioneered by George Wong from Northern China in the 1970s! You're so right, the food is still good and I can still enjoy it knowing that the history behind this delicious dish still has weight to it ♡
I'm so glad someone finally said normal things about MSG. It's in use in my house since I was small and I've always heard from outsiders that it is so bad, it's not natural, it's basically toxic. All because someone read or heard something in internet a long time ago, even tho a lot of pages now claim that a bad MSG is fake. Tbh it still made me feel bad about myself using it. Thank you for saying your part in this discussion!
As someone from the UK I always found it amusing hearing Americans talk about MSG as if it were dangerous when so much food in the US uses ingredients that are genuinely unsafe to eat in large amounts but the deregulation of the markets means food companies can get away with it. I've eaten Western Chinese food most of my life, the only bad reaction I've ever had is gaining weight if I have too much.
I have a friend who will talk about how he can't eat at that restaurant, they use MSG! MSG gives him headaches and shooting pains in his neck! He will then proceed to eat an entire family sized bag of Ranch Doritos. If you go read the packaging on those, you'll notice that MSG is the fifth or sixth ingredient. I have had no luck in trying to get through to him on this matter. Anyway, I started slipping MSG into his food. I keep a great big jar of it around, for making food taste good. So far, mysteriously, he has not complained of headaches.
@@haileybalmer9722 It's the weirdest form of racism, and can be adopted by people who have absolutely no racist views on any other matter, they are just utterly convinced Chinese restaurants are deliberately poisoning the food they serve.
@@haileybalmer9722 I mean, I get the sentiment, but please don't start adding things to your "friend's" food without his knowledge or consent. Even if you're trying to "prove a point" to him, that's basically a step above someone drugging a person's drink/food to r*pe them. Sure you might not be intending to trick them into having sex with you, but what you're doing is no less fucked up, and I highly question people who claim to be "friends" with anyone and they're deliberately putting shit in their food or drink with their "friend's" knowledge. Fucking yikes dude.
This is how I feel about sushi, sushi rolls aren't traditionally "sushi" and are mostly served in Japanese American restaurants, but that doesn't make it any less Japanese or delicious.
I come from the Korean community of Russia and Central Asia (sometimes referred to as "Koryo-saram"), and this reminds me of how "Korean carrot" became a popular salad across all nations and ethnic groups in the (former) Soviet Union when the only reason this dish exists is the fact that Koreans deported by Stalin from the Far East to Central Asia in the 1930s had no access to napa cabbage to make kimchi and had to improvise.
As someone from post-soviet country I can attest that yeah, we still call that specific carrot salad dish as korean carrots and its still eaten widely :D
My mom is Russian and she used to make this fermented sauerkraut-type thing (not as fermented though) with cabbage and carrots called kvashenaya kapusta (pickled cabbage). I wonder if that's similar/related.
@@random23287 If it has chili, then it will be more Korean; strangely there is "Korean carrots" in Beijing's Russian restaurants but they use a lot of mayonez
Honestly, I didn’t realize there was so much stigma around Chinese food. I just thought it tasted great. It’s very enlightening knowing that Chinese food, while not based on the culinary practices of mainland China, is still very much rooted in western Chinese culture and history.
It may not be traditional, but it's tasty AF and a lot of families have made a lot of money and have done pretty well for themselves in America because of it and that should always be supported
This is what I say about taco bell. It's not authentic but still good af. Americanized versions of cultural foods is their own separate category of cuisines and they usually slap hard
Did we not just watch the same video? You make it sound like the only kind of "traditional" food comes from mainland China, which I don't think is what she said at all.
@@MrDemonWorm thanks but we don't want them. We love our food culture here and if you can't get a green curry chicken in an outback pub, you've found where the outback begins. That said, the drop bears could use a new food supply. With the pandemic we're fresh out of tourists...
Chinese food was me and my dads thing. After my mom left, every birthday we’d get Chinese food. We would have it for New Years, and eventually we started getting it for Christmas dinner too because more people got busy around the holidays and it made more sense than cooking an entire turkey dinner for just 2-3 people. Chinese food, however Americanized or not, will always bring a warm, fuzzy feeling back to my life Cus it reminds me of my dad, reminds me of how excited he would get when he smelled it lol
I did a whole project on this! Fun fact: there was a moral panic around Chinese restaurants in the early 1900s. As usual, it was all about protection from scary foreigners trying to "corrupt our women" *insert caveman sounds *. Local governments proposed bills to make it literally illegal for white women to work at or even dine in Chinese restaurants. Many found it a bit ridiculous and no bills passed. Still, you had police or just groups of men sometimes stopping white women from entering establishments or literally trying to pull them from the building. Absolutely whack. As a white lady I think about all the Edwardian pissants that are rolling in their graves every time I tuck into my sweet, sweet lo mein.
As you should. As a Chinese person I approve. (And while you’re at it, check out some dim sum and dry fried beef noodles ( 乾炒牛河 idk the real translation so that’s the best I can do right now 😅) That shit gooooood)
Gotta love the old “one doctor said something stupid, and everyone decided they were right even when they were thoroughly proven wrong!” My family had exchange students coming through our house for most of my childhood, and I remember once the girls’ parents came to visit from China halfway through the time they were staying with us and invited us to a Chinese restaurant where they ordered the food for us from the Chinese menu. I don’t remember much about the food, unfortunately, because I was so anxious about being in a strange place with strangers offering food I wasn’t familiar with that I hardly ate lol
@@emtims1670 It's even worse, it was a doctor purposefully saying something wrong in order to make bank selling his own version of a vaccine. Pure greed which has indirectly caused hundreds of children and adults to die, it's horrible. Hbomberguy made an amazing video about it.
The doctor who wrote the original letter isn't to blame. It was an inside joke that doctors would write letters to the journal in question about fabricated "syndromes", in this case one which was basically a description of overeating at a Chinese restaurant. The problem then (and now) is that the media distorts things either out of ignorance, prejudice or some other agenda and that's what works it's way into the public consciousness.
@RandomPikmin doctor *s* I'm disappointed how it really only went after the origin. It came to the US through two sources, Dr Mercola, who sadly once was _very_ respected especially for advocacy against Donald Rumsfeld's Searle but sold out for the cash, and a highly unethical pediatrician family, the Sears, who made much more profit, because they were already in the business of selling hokey "children's cures and therapies that Big Med doesn't want you to know about" and had a wide 250,000 subscriber reach, mostly very upper class stay at home moms, who would then spread it to other moms in their own groups. Mercola is the reason so much antivax was accepted as "legitimate" while the Sears family was why it spread so quickly. Wakefield only came away with _a mere_ $40 million, the Searses have milked it for over $350 million. www.latimes.com/local/orangecounty/la-me-adv-vaccines-doctor-bob-20140907-story.html respectfulinsolence.com/2016/09/09/the-medical-board-of-california-initiates-disciplinary-action-against-antivaccine-dr-bob-sears/ Ringleader Bob Sears isn't *just* antivax though, he teaches parents and patients how to abuse HIPPA to evade all sorts of medical restrictions, like working in the nursing community without TB or Tetanus shots, or going to school without an MMR, so the unvax'd are only known to be so by the direct employer or the principal and no one else. He's not just an "antivax doctor" but kind of a lawyer for it, too! *“We eliminated endemic measles in the U.S. in 2000. It’s now 2014 and we’re at 400 cases. Why?” Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in an interview in June. The number of cases has since risen to nearly 600. “Because people listen to Bob Sears. And, frankly, I blame him far more than I do the Jenny McCarthys of this world. Because he’s a doctor. And he should know better.”*
If anyone needs a documentary that talks about this, "The Search for General Tso" addresses this directly and provides cool history. Also Padma Lakshmi's Hulu Series "Taste the Nation" has an episode that deals with this topic as well!
The Search for General Tso is really fun, I also recommend it. I love how they tracked down the dude who invented it and showed him pictures of modern American General Tso's Chicken, and he's sort of cranky about it. I guess he feels pretty strongly that it shouldn't have broccoli in it!
As a french, your anecdote about escargots was hilarious. Yes, we're the best at overhyping food, even more abroad. I noticed that when I went in a creperie in the States. Creperie is not considered fine dining is France, but there it was all "authentic french crepes and galettes" and "real breton cider" from Normandy, lol. It was tasty, though^^.
Vancouver here. Once went to a Chinese restaurant with my friend, he asked for a certain dish (in Cantonese). The waitress replied "sorry, all our customers are Canadian so we don't serve anything good".
That said, most Chinese restaurants in America do have a secret menu, which is just ordering in Chinese. When I was road tripping with my grandpa who only eats familiar foods, we could go to almost any general tso's place and ask for some stir fried bean sprouts or snow peas or tomato and egg or potato strips and they knew what we were looking for. Most Chinese people in America still eat actual Chinese food at home the restaurant deep fried syrup meat is just for the whites.
I feel like every culture has some kind of "freaky" food, because every culture has gone through periods of having to experiment with food preparation and preservation to survive long-term. Very informative and interesting, thank you!
Sometimes I will see food and wonder who looked at it and thought "I wanna eat that." then remember that before supermarkets people couldn't afford to be choosy and had to make due with what they had. However that explanation does not work for pineapple pizza.
It honestly makes me wonder how many of those "freaky food" snobs have eaten boogers or earthworms on a dare as a kid. I still wouldn't eat snails though. Nor could I find the heart to partake in consuming cats and dogs because I have that association of human-pet connection. Though I will acknowledge the same argument could be said in regards to pigs, sheep and cows. I acknowledge it's a culture thing no matter how I may feel about it. I also hate said livestock being cruely treated while they are being slaughtered. So I always try to go for ethically sourced when I can.
This has reminded me a lot of being Chicana and having to defend Mexican American food. Things like Tex-Mex get shit on a lot as being "fake", even though that food has a long history with Mexicans in the United States. I've even had people tell me that my fondness for tortillas with butter on it, a thing that my Spanish speaking Mexican family just does, is just some weird fake thing white people do. This is at its worst when people don't actually know anything about the different states in Mexico and the fact that the food varies a lot from state to state. And while it's not as common where I currently am, it's pretty common in California to make fun of things like menudo or lenguas because they are "gross" and "weird". There was an issue a while back with lead in some candy that's also kind of tainted the image of Mexican snack foods in a lot of people's minds. That along with the ever constant joking that Mexican food destroys your guts, there's just this seeming idea in people's heads that our food makes people sick. It really sucks that these kinds of attitudes towards diaspora foods in the States are just so common. Like it's just food made by immigrants with the ingredients and circumstances they have. So this video was very cool to see. Getting to learn even this small bits about the history of American Chinese food has been cool.
Fresh tortillas with butter is the best. My family is from Durango before immigrating to TX. My town has alot of mexican restaurants that combine tex mex and different states of mexicos cooking. They are owned mostly from either 1st gen immigrant families or 2nd gen. I didnt really realize that people didnt like menudo that much, till i left my hometown, cause they thought it was a weird tripe dish, or pigs feet depending on region of Mexico. I was spoiled with my grandparents style of cooking and my hometowns style.
@@darechick0894 Oh yeah pig's feet get to a lot of people too. Though those aren't as well known as menudo is in California. Menudo's the big one everyone knows about.
I am from the border and I grew up with tortillas con mantequilla, which is just a snack, I don't get why they are telling you not to snack like that. And I don't like menudo ( I used to but I stopped liking it). Mexican food is not a monolith. In the north, it's way more meat-based than in the south. And in the north we definitely have more US influence because we are right next to it. My estranged sister from the South didn't know what burrito was, which was created in border city Juarez during the revolution to carry food conveniently.
I've lived in Texas my whole life and I have only recently started hearing Tex-Mex being called fake. A lot of the families around me when I was growing up were either immigrants from central America or their descendents and Tex-Mex was just what they ate. It is just generally familiar food adapted to the tastes and ingredients of Texas. It's not meant to be "real" Mexican food, look at the name it's Texas food. Also the idea that putting butter on a tortilla is somehow inauthentic is hilarious. It's butter. You put it on bread. Tortilla is bread.
It always happens that when cuisine is moved from one culture to another, it gets changed. New ingredients get introduced, new processes and tools are adopted, they get adapted to local tastes. This is NOT a bad thing. This is how new cuisines are developed. Purists from the old country say it's not "right" or "authentic" but attitudes like that are what leads to stagnation. The rich, delicious foods from New Orleans is a perfect example of this. French, Spanish, African and Indigenous blended together to perfection!
This is a internal conflict that I have as a migrant. I love traditional cooking but often I cannot find the ingredients or I simply dont know their names (its so difficult to find equivalences to meat cuts for example). I often also need to adapt my dishes to the tastes of my partner who is from a different culture. I love cooking my food but I feel that I am 'butchering it' cooking it in this way. This video made me apreciate my cooking much more. Thanks
@@anvime739 Just think of all the new, wonderful variations you can create. If we all stuck to "how it's supposed to be done" all the time, nothing new would ever be invented. 😀
Americans imagine "Chinese food" as cheap junk food while they think Japanese is "fine dining". Most Sushi joints outside the West coast are actually run by Chinese people pretending to be Japanese because it's more prestigious.
A lot of iconic American food came from poverty and necessity, such as corned beef and cabbage. So the origin of American Chinese food does not surprise me!
And meatballs! Italians did make meat sauces and “popletta”, but they weren’t nearly the size of meatballs you'll usually find in America. Turns out impoverished Italian immigrants were just using the most abundant ingredients of meat and bread to make filling dishes.
I'm Jewish. My wife is half Irish. Corned beef was invented when her people applied their corning process to my people's brisket cut of beef in the town where we both grew up, NYC. They do not have corned beef in Ireland, Israel, or other parts of their respective diaspora.
I put msg in my gravy at Thanksgiving. My friend asked why it was so good and I said homemade turkey stock and msg. My mom was shook! My friend told his Korean wife they needed to get some. She was like we totally have msg and I use it all the time lol I use msg whenever I feel like whatever savory thing I’m cooking is missing something.
I f*cking love Panda Express and I have NO REGERTS! (and seriously love this--food snobbery annoys the heck out of me, including diaspora food shaming! There are tons of great examples across cuisines of incredible food innovations created by immigrants to utilize local ingredients and palettes including chicken tikka masala, pad thai, lomo saltado, taquitos, etc.)
I live in England and people can be so weird with curry sometimes, like any curry that was invented or popularised in England either by English or Indian nationals is inherently inferior to any curry that was developed in India. I love balti & tikka massala because I love the taste of tomatoes with spices, and the idea that it's not "pure" Indian food so its bad is so weird. It's food, it tastes good, bite me
While I agree with you, I'd encourage you to pick more localized family owned restaurants if they are available! Panda Express is a large scale corporate business and to my knowledge does not benefit the Chinese or Chinese-American community in any way, by all means continue eating it if it's what you love, but if we're commenting on family owned Americanized Chinese food Panda may be a little off the radar. No hate or none of that nonsense! Just offering food for thought! :^)
@@FallFluff No worries I live in Los Angeles--TONS of localized food here, frequented often! (We have more locally-owned restaurants than chains here, period, happily.) Just don't like hate on Panda as a matter of course :)
I love how "escargot" is exactly the same idea as "chop suey": basic things sometimes just sound "classier" in another language. Escargot wasn't really an special dish in France. It's good if you cook it well, and add garlic butter. Probably because it sounded exotic, other countries associated it with french cuisine and restaurant adapted, 'cause why not. Thank You for your refreshing perspective showing that culture (and cooking) changes and evolve. Now I crave some... we call them "chinese ravioli" in french, no idea if the connexion between both cuisine work also in english. (EDIT: dumplings !)
"MSG gives me health problems! Now, I'm going to eat this entire giant plate of mushrooms...." (lots of MSG naturally occurring in mushrooms, for anyone that didn't know)
I do know ppl with legitimate health issues from chemical MSG but not natural MSG; these kinds of disparities are prevalent amongst sugars, fats, etc too. Like we know too much chemicalized versions of food can have negative health effects compared to otherwise. But of course most of the ppl in your examples can't be bothered to do simple google searches
@@dark_neverland " chemical MSG but not natural MSG" It's the same compound. Exactly the same. They may have an issue due to the *amount*, but there is no legitimate distinction between "chemical" MSG and "natural" MSG. The molecules are identical, regardless the source.
@@SiriusMined The issue is the concentration used. Naturally occurring MSG is in much lower quantities. A careless chef can easily over do it, as it's not as noticeable as table salt.
As an Italian-American, Chinese food still has such a close place in my heart. When we want to eat as a family all together, whether that means family is in town or we want to treat someone, we will eat either a huge pasta and meat sauce dish shared with everyone or Chinese food. My grandparents' first ever date together was Chinese food, and the only takeout my grandma could ever afford was Chinese!
I love how first association with Italian cuisine are pizza and pasta while that food is not traditional "real" Italian food, but dishes that Marco Polo bring from China and developed on the sea during the long journeys. All people I know that went to Italy and tried pizza there was very disappointed, it's a thin crust very basic type of pizza while you can find more interesting flavors in America or even here, in Croatia (we are neighbors to Italy) while traditional Italian diet is Mediterranean with a lot of fish dishes, diary products, many types of cheese and usage of aromatic plants and olive oil.
@@incanusolorin2607 I'm sorry you're incapable of coming up with any flavor other than the one you dislike, it really speaks to a deficit of both creativity and enjoyment of life and that is deeply sad
@@zljmbo It's a pervasive myth, but neither of those foods have a Chinese origin. Pizza probably evolved from earlier Persian and Greek flatbreads, and there's documented evidence of pasta in Italy well before Marco Polo's journeys.
I’m black and grew up in the South and I couldn’t agree more about Chinese American food deserving respect. There was a spot in my hometown called The Chicken Shack. To this day it’s still the most delicious food I’ve ever eaten from a restaurant. Better than any gourmet food I’ve eaten in New York or LA. Also no disrespect to other regions but the South has the best Chinese American food in the US.
Thank you from one marginalized community to another. (Shout out to soul food, which doesn't get the respect it deserves either! Racists have no taste, it's sad lol.) I grew up in NYC but I always wanted to try Chinese American food in the South. A lot of people think the only Chinese immigrant communities are in the coastal cities but there's a long history of Chinese immigrants who established themselves in the South & along the Mississippi.
theres some good places in the Hamptons, really upscale i really just like upscale food ive worked at Chinese restaurants before and been called accused of Sinophobia by my leftie cousin for criticizing the ccp a totalitarian regime isnt a race, great people great sense of humor some of the best food ive ever had
When they have nothing not do with it and the disease could have been brought over by some white guy who was on vacation that literally all it need but it need a Chinese person when virus don't be discriminate lol
the chinese food restaurant near my job stopped accepting people in their stores just after the shutdown started....they are still in business..but you have to order through what is basically a radio..... my boss is like "they knew the virus was coming" uh...yeah, tim...we all did....they are just protecting themselves from the ASSHOLES that want to cause them harm....
yeah, that was so fucking evil for people to do, seriously. the Chinese place in town was literally the only and best restaurant who took precautions when COVID hit. they put up massive plastic screens, set up fully contactless pay, even with cash, and required you call in advance to place an order so they could tell you when to come in to avoid more than one customer waiting inside at once. God I wish it wasn't so late they were closed. I want their mapo dofu so bad.
I'm part Chinese, but never grew up around Chinese culture (in the US). When I went to college, I joined the Chinese Student Association and made many Chinese friends. My more Americanized Chinese friends thought Panda was "fake Chinese food" and hated it, as well with other local Chinese restaurants. My more traditional Chinese friends LOVED Panda and every Chinese restaurant around. It was so strange witnessing this first-hand.
Icelandic person here we eat conventionally weird food because our ancestors had to eat anything they could to survive we even have a midwinter festival called Þorrablót where we eat a congregation of these dishes. we still eat the heads of sheep, dried fish ,blood pudding, sting ray, etc people that don’t understand why others eat “weird food” is often because their ancestors weren’t subject to harsh climate and food shortages of other cultures. Great video, I’ve always been a sucker for Chinese and Chinese-American food. One thing I made myself to try this year was chicken feet during dim sum and it’s now one of my favorites and something I always order with lunch service
“I cool massive amounts and stick in the fridge to eat for days.” Ah, so you have mastered the Puerto Rican college student method. I’d make a huge cauldron of rice with spices and seasonings, beans and a meat in it and that would be my linch for a whole week. Good times
My stepdad would fill a whole turkey pan with cooked rice, various vegetables (most often corn, peas and green beans), seasoned meats (ground beef and dinner sausage unless stew beef was on sale) and occasionally some other random things for texture or flavor and that would feed our family of 4 for about a week.
Pretty much how I cook too. I make a serving of 8-10, portion it, fridge it, and eat for at least one of my meals for the rest of the week. Sometimes, I might even cook two different meals. Because eating the same thing every day eventually loses its charm... or I just add sauce. 😄
Dutch Chinese food also has a quite interesting history, because it's bascially a form of chinese-indonesian fusion cuisine. If you say chinese food in the netherlands, indonesian dishes and indo-chinese food will come to mind. Like bami goreng, nasi goreng, loempia spring rolls, babi panggang, sate, and krupuk. And even these are made differently than they would be in indonesia. It's food you can kind of only get here, they wouldn't have it anywhere else. It stems from our history of colonization of course. People came to the Netherlands after indonesia gained independence in 1945 and brought the food with them. At the same time, chinese restaurants operated by immigrants were growing in numbers all over the world. Somewhere in the 50s, they started to merge and form the dutch indo-chinese cuisine that's so ubiquitous here today. There are more authentic chinese and indonesian restaurants, of course. But the classic takeout stuff? That's still fully mixed.
MSG is something that I was taught about in highschool for Culinary(I’m working to becoming a red seal chef) and we had units of different styles of cooking, including Americanized Chinese food, and MSG was covered in that unit, and it really is in almost everything. On another note, thank you for sharing this bit of history! Also, contact a butcher for the blood hon, they may be able to find it for you.
“Don’t fall for that strategic incompetence, okay?” Why is this actually good advice in general lol. Also idk why this was recommended to me but it was really interesting. I love your energy. Also I never understood people looking down at “fake” food from other cultures. Like… I think it’s super interesting how dishes vary from place to place and how the same dish may vary depending on who cooks it. Y’know?
Chinese food is kind of interesting in the sense that it's not really a food, it's a set of techniques and tools that can be adapted to use virtually any set of ingredients. The whole business of calling Chinese-American food fake makes little sense when you consider just how different the local cuisine is from various parts of China. What's eaten in one area may have virtually nothing in common with what's eaten in another area.
It's because of identity. If a culture can change and adapt to other cultures, what still constitutes the culture? It's just a natural human reaction which is why it's so prevalent
@@SmallSpoonBrigade most french cooking. Is French techniques, so it's really the same logic. Parts in the south of France have different cuisine to northern. Well until globalization became a thing of course.
The VAST majority of Americans have no clue about the West Coast's history of anti-Chinese racism, all they know about is anti-Black racism east of the Mississippi. They learn about the Gold Rush and nothing else. This was a phenomenally well made video essay, and I highly respect the craftsmanship. Subscribed!
California has a long history of racism Spanish came in the 1600s and enslaved or slaughtered natives. When white Americans settled they brought slavery with them. Native reservation schoold There is Asian immigrant ban, black segregation and Japanese interment camps, California voted against same sex marriage. California is hardly the landmark for acceptance
I must have gone to a very good school because I always hear people say that Americans weren't educated about a certain subject, and 99% of the time I was educated about it. I did learn about manifest destiny, the expansion west, the gold rush, the Anti-Chinese sentiment and how that influenced both our immigration policies and our drug policies.
I honestly thought the internment camps, the anti-Asian history in California was taught in CA schools. In Oakland this is part of curriculum well maybe just my school.
They dont really teach it but I found that out pretty quickly. In the town that I grew up in, i think it was my middle school history teacher who said it, but apparently next to the town graveyard there is another graveyard where they used to bury Chinese immigrants. The graves are unmarked though. Probably not all surprising though, unfortunately. Im not 100 percent certain that this is actually true though, but I think it is. I think there's also a burial site of a similar nature over by Sutter's mill. I visited that place when i was very young so my memory is probably not all that reliable. Also I don't think that I actually visited that burial site either. I merely passed by it. Again might be very wrong so take that with a huge pile of salt
Me: "yup, Chinese, French, and Icelandic cuisine sure can be weird!" The southern US grocery store across the street from me: *has fried chicken gizzard, picked pig's lips, alligator sausage, and canned turtle soup on the shelves*
So two of those things (gizzard and pickled pig lips) come from southern culture of trying to waste no part of the animal from poor communities. So of course it looks weird. Turtle soup, however, as far as I know isn't just an american thing. I'm pretty sure there's a few other small countries who do the same. But the alligator sausage I find the most interesting to talk about, because in a way, farming alligator helped preserve the species and drove businesses to actually protect alligator breeding grounds and natural habitats. Which, like, yeah, you're eating animals and many would find that unethical, but, if it means a species keeps living I see it as a net positive. Though factory farms are still, like this whole issue.
@@Channel9001 and it kind of continued past slavery into the sharecropper era which wasn't great either and often gets overlooked. Slavery was huge, but very little is talked about post slavery where cajuns, blacks, and whites were basically thrown right back into virtual slavery with low wages and grueling work to farm a half acre of land they didn't even get to own. Like, Louisianna is still dealing with those things today as a state. To be freed only to be told you get to be a half or quarter-pay slave like the rest of the poor people is a bum rap and a horrendous period of history.
@@naraku971 specifically the arcadian french who were basically either imprisoned by the british when france sold the colony, OR went on the run farther south until finally settling in the louisianna region.
One of the first things I learned in neuropharmacology was that MSG literally cannot cause the symptoms alleged by people who say it affects them. I now put it in most of what I cook. :-)
The MSG thing is also a general issue with how people understand food, especially "natural" or "organic" food and the lack of understanding about chemistry and the science of food. If you take that ignorance and add racial bias, you get a huge stigma based on lack of knowledge,
For a few people like me there is a valid reason to avoid it, I have a sensitivity to it that causes migraines (and yes it happens even when I don't know it's in the food and then find out later). But I ain't gonna tell people not to eat it because of that, for 99% of people it's perfectly harmless, all I want is for restaurants to put it on their allergen list because that's essentially what it is to me ^^; I'm wary of MSG in any restaurant personally, essentially any restaurant that makes savory food has a chance of using MSG, so it's always my first question when entering a new restaurant, but again, only because I have what essentially amounts to an allergy to it. Fun fact to all the people who freak out about "Chinese restaurants all using MSG", in my experience, restaurants like Chick-fil-A and Golden Corral have a million times more MSG than the Chinese restaurants in my local area.
@@dragonspirit996 having actively avoided all code names for MSG natural flavouring, yeast extract etc i now also have a slight reaction to it as well. Will go for naturally occurring glutamates however like mushrooms, aged cheese, fish sauce etc
@@qwertyasf one of my friends can't even have those and has to almost totally avoid cheese, potatoes, fish etc so that they don't get too much glutamate.
This reminds me of how Hawaii local delicacies became a thing. All of our foods were influenced by plantation workers from different ethnic backgrounds in one way or another. For example, our version of American's Chop suey, was Saimin. It's non existent in both chinese and japanese culture, it was similar but unique. As the word was derived from chow mein except, it's more soup based before Japan developed 'ramen', in 1950s. Not only its influenced by these two cultures but also, Koreans, Portuguese, Filipinos, etc. I was very surprised when i learned this fact. Even then, asians were segregated since dominating the population, these foods was served in many local businesses for generations and given respect by people from all backgrounds. It was a comfort food since the plantation era and growing up. Sadly, i'm hearing some of these businesses closing down due to covid. So, if you're still in Hawaii, pls check them out while you still can
TexMex and american sushi rolls are the best damn things ever and I’ll fight people on it. There’s a sushi place near my house with this roll called the smokin philly which is a giant philly roll (salmon, cucumber, cream cheese) and they take that and fry it, and then cover it in spicy mayo and eel sauce and it tastes like heaven
Tex Mex has alot of history that goes back to the Texas Revolution where mexican ranchers would make quick meals in the style that was popular around. Its no different from the Tex Polish and Tex German cuisine that is enjoyed around Texas.
@@darechick0894 - I know they have history similar to Chinese-American food, it’s just a comment on how people will say American Chinese food is “fake” but they’ll eat gas station sushi or TexMex and say that that’s “real” Mexican or Japanese food when they’re just as blended
Thank you so much for this video! I used to be rather snobbish about American Chinese food after spending time in Singapore and falling in love with the Chinese (and every other) food there. But then I realised that cuisine always adapts, and why should American Chinese food earn any less respect than, say, Tex-Mex? I now enjoy a wide range of "fusion" cuisine. I love it when cultures come together and enrich each other, be it in cooking, art or anything else. Keep up the great work! PS: I love that you named your cat Temujin after Ghengis Khan! Also, I never thought about the history and struggles behind American Chinese food. Thanks for opening my eyes! PPS: One thing I enjoy when eating out with my Chinese speaking friends is ordering from the Chinese menues, which often list some delicious dishes not on the English or German menues.
Loved this video! So many times people complain and look down on diaspora food for not been "equal" or "authentic" enough. Of course food made miles away and with different ingredients will not be the exact same, but it's still part of a culture.
I had no idea "Chinese/Italian/Irish/etc American" foods were being mocked or labelled as "not real Chinese/Italian/Irish", I mean it's literally in their name that they are also American, the fact that it is a part of the diasporas culture is obvious.
I remember once telling a friend that my favorite dish at our local Chinese restaurant was the kung pow shrimp and she got so snooty with me about how it wasn't "really" Chinese food... hon I didn't say it was, I said I liked to eat it. I wish I'd known all this then. Also I want kung pow shrimp now 🦐🦐🦐
Your cat's name is Temujin?! My ancestors might not be happy about it haha. I am partly Mongolian from Xinjiang and Japanese but I was born and bred in Malaysia before settling in Australia. Chinese food to me is quite diverse. In Malaysia where I grew up, Southern Chinese food is very common, especially Cantonese, Hokkien (Fujian), Hakka and Teochew cuisine. When I moved to Sydney in 2012, Southern Chinese people had already made a foothold of their own culture here but there is an increase in people from Shanghai, Beijing, Sichuan and their surrounding cities moving down to Australia and introducing dishes popular up there like Sichuan Malatang, Xian-style lamb dumplings and Shanghai style cuisine. Nowadays Chinese cuisine in Sydney is much more attributed to Malatang rather than Dim Sum because of this new wave of migration. I don't mind eating any type of Asian cuisine. However, I once had an Asian-American customer here in Sydney who told me how amazed he was at the availability of different type of foods here compared to the USA. He couldn't make up his mind on what to choose, which probably tells me that the food selection in the USA might be lacking diversity, however I can't confirm that because I have never been in the USA before.
@@Noname-lx2gq historically, finnish people LOVE blood. Blood pudding, blood sausages, blood pancakes, blood dumplings, blood soup, you name it, we got it. To be honest, It's not so popular anymore, since our culture has become very integrated with the rest of Europe and we've kinda moved away from the "every part of an animal can and should be eaten" mindset, but there's still a lot of blood products on store shelves and the older generation loves them.
This is a good discussion with a point I really appreciate. I came to the conclusion of "this is what came from Chinese people who live in the U.S., so it should count too." a few years back, but this has more research behind it and feels more articulate. Love your work as always.
This was eye-opening, thank you! Interestingly, in Germany most Asian restaurants (generalisation intended) with the exception of Indian and high-end restaurants of other Asian cultures are somewhat monopolised by Vietnamese people. I wonder what the history behind that is.
My favorite version is Mexican-Chinese food. Back in my hometown in Mexico, we have two Chinese restaurants owned by Chinese immigrants who’ve been here for 40+ years, and their food is freaking delicious. I always make a note to order from them whenever I visit my parents.
I have had Chinese food in Mexico*, and it's wildly delicious. *I highly recommend you check out ethnic cuisines whenever you travel. You can learn a lot about the food in France by learning what and how Indian immigrants cook there, for example.
I always wondered why so many "Chinese kitchens" have food from like 8 countries China, Taiwan, Thailand, Mongolia, Laos, both Korea's, Japan and maybe that's because of how Americans try to group so much of east and southeast Asia together so I wonder if people were like "well we're already neighbors, let's maximize our business together"
there's also a lot of Chinese diaspora in other countries, for instance my local American Chinese restaurant when I was growing up was owned and run by a family that was ethnically Chinese but immigrated from Korea. they made the best food and nothing else in the area has ever compared since they closed lol 🥲 rip
I've watched this video on multiple occasions and it always makes me feel oddly emotional and touched, even though I'm not Chinese; I've always felt such a draw to americanized foreign cuisine as someone in a diaspora group, and I find the cultural resilience to be one of the most inspiring, however often tragic, aspects of life on earth
It's interesting how "glutamate sensitivity" is still a thing. I have a friend who was told her migraines were from sensitivity to MSG, so she basically avoids it in everything. It has helped her migraines, but I wonder how much of that is psychosomatic (like my friend with the bell pepper allergy who only reacted to them if she knew it was in something). I looked it up and there really is no conclusive research that people have this sensitivity. I don't think I should tell her that her doctor was inadvertently racist though since it seems to work for her.
I get migraines from foods with too much msg but... it's because it raises my blood pressure which too much salt does in general. And that's on me for not keeping track of my salt intake. Lol
Its like the whole "gluten allergy" thing. People believe gluten is making them sick and feel worse, but other than celliac disease, there's not really any data on this. I personally think its either all in their head or they were eating too many carbs in the first place. Jokes on them, gluten is what makes bread and sweets so fluffy delicious.
@@abiwonkenabi7027 you can have gluten allergy and sensitivity without having celiac disease and yes, there is data on it. There’s just not a lot of data as to what causes the sensitivity alone yet. It’s like IBS. No one knows what causes it and it can’t be tested for but its still very real and can cause serious problems. Yes, there are people for whom it probably is something they’re imagining the problem. Or others who believe it’s bad for you regardless of its effects, but if it weren’t for the “fad” then access to gluten free foods for people who need it would be a lot more difficult.
I don’t have migraines, but I do have horrible allergies. My lips puff and redden pretty much immediately when I eat msg which SUCKS because I’m Japanese and I can’t eat fucking soy sauce. Please pray for me
@@Sporezlol … the fad of gluten sensitivity has actually made it significantly harder for people with Celiac. Many things marked “gluten-free” are only wheat gluten free, making it significantly easier for someone to accidentally give gluten to someone with celiac. Also, while there has been some evidence that some people actually have an allergy or sensitivity to gluten, the numbers are extraordinarily low and there’s no clear evidence why so many people “feel better” when they stop eating wheat gluten. There are many theories, but they are quite hard to test due to the fact that eating “gluten-free” inherently also means eating less sodium & processed foods.
Same here, my parents are both immigrants to the US (dad is from El Salvador and my mom from Iran) and thanksgiving just never really took hold. They tried but I thought it was the most boring holiday ever.
@@Seek1878 I’ve cut off the majority of my extended family for reasons and the past 3 years my mom and I went to Chinese restaurants instead of my grandparents for thanksgiving. We still do thanksgiving but honestly there’s only like 4 good dishes and they’re all boring
The whole bit about chop suey made me laugh. there are so many dishes praised as fine cuisine nowadays, or that people, especially americans, love and get served in restaurants as staples that were originally just leftover food reworked into a full meal or a way to not waste food a little past it's prime. Every single stew you can think of, pizza, paella... I'm french and americans love to tell me how much they like French toast, and the look on their faces when I explain that it's name in French translates to "lost bread" because it's what people did to bread that had gone super stale to make it edible. My grandmother even told me it was better if the bread had a bit of mould on it.
LMAOO, that’s amazing. It’s hilarious seeing American dine on pasta in high class restaurants knowing it could be considered peasant food in Italy. Even within their own countries, these things can change in status over time, like Lobsters going from trash to high class, or such going from street food to 3 michelin star restaurants.
Reminds me of my family, whenever a partial loaf of bread went stale we'd make French toast with it. I didn't know it was meant to be made with stale bread.
I had no idea about the fortune cookies.. that gave me chills. It may sound trite but we had the sweetest neighbors when i was a little girl. They met at in a concentration camp. They were my adoptive grandparents. They let me sneak over and steal the coffee candies off of their coffee table, ride their german shepherd, and play "around" their koi pond :) I got away with things their own children never would have but they were so loving. I cannot imagine how anyone would have considered them a danger to this country. Despite that he ended up being one of the largest strawberry growers in the Pajaro Valley. I still miss them to this day and think of them often
Hilariously, we had same thing with Myanmar. We had our diaspora food being closer to Chinese (due to lack of Chinese Exclusion Act until the 60’s), cultural exchange , and similar climate to Southern China for many ingredients used in it to grow there. I mean Kung Pao is closer to original Kung Pao (black sauce) but it had cashew nut and use pork along with beef for varieties.
Imo, "real" Chinese restaurants in actual Chinatown when I was growing up were meant to serve Chinese Americans. They weren't meant to be exotic food for Americans or brand new showy restaurant food for mainland Chinese; they were meant to be nostalgic food for immigrants, and I feel like neither Americans nor mainland Chinese understood that. Also ngl I love orange chicken. It's honestly a very Chinese American food. If you haven't had it at an actual Chinatown restaurant, the chicken meat quality at an actual restaurant is WAY better than takeout. The meat is actually the star of the dish, not just the breading and sauce
@@peristudd5825 I suppose it's similar but orange zest and lemon zest are definitely very different. They just both happen to be citrus fruits with similar acidity levels that give them their 'sourness' i suppose. If you ever get the chance to try orange chicken i recommend it! Never had lemon chicken and now i want some here in the US.
@@sundalosketch4769 lemon chicken is actually very sweet. It's fluffy battered chicken and the lemon sauce is like the consistency of syrup or honey when it's warm. It's very sweet.
13:32 Thank you for bringing this up. My partner's mother has a lot of misconceptions about other cultures, and I found out one day when we were going to order takeout that she had some major blindspots about China. She thought any foods that involved wheat-based dough were the result of Western influence, and she didn't want to get baozi or certain noodles because they weren't "authentic" and she wanted to try "authentic" Chinese food (she hardly ever eats Chinese food because she hasn't liked it in the past, and has blamed her not liking it on it being Americanized). She thought the only grain that Chinese people ate was rice. I had to explain to her that wheat has been grown in China for thousands of years and has long been a staple part of the diet. She took my word for it. (I'm not Chinese by the way, I just know things...and I know how to Google.)
I’ve been working on a script for the past couple months covering Chinese American food history, the exclusion act and immigrant hardships which would precede our wonton soup recipe. You basically covered everything I had written and did it even better. I may just have to refer to this video.
sorry if you're hungry after watching this. go support a local Chinese restaurant 😘
I am starving bc of you, how do you feel? 😭
Vegan Chefs kiss to you
SHAHAAHWHWGZIIW
Ig it's time to go get some Chinese food 🤤
They all be vietnamese here...
The only reason I ever feel “bloated” after having American Chinese food is because I ate too much of it because it is delicious.
I find that framing so bizarre. Wasn't the stereotype of Chinese food that it left you feeling hungry again right away??
@@TheGreatAtario I think they're both weird, tbh. I've never felt bad after Chinese food and I'm usually not hungry soon after. I think they're both just conjecture like the MSG thing.
Might also be a chemical reaction in your stomach acid which plenty of food can cause.
I can't stand anything made with soy. I'll take fish & chips, lasagna, New England clam chowder or American turkey dinner over Chinese.
@@davidlafleche1142 Nobody cares
My mom used to say, Chinese food is like pornography: Everyone loves it, and then complains about it after they are done with it.
collab you cowards
It's because we're ashamed of just how much of it we consume.
i have a lot of questions about the kind of conversations you have with ur mom
@@XiranJayZhao hahahahaha you two must collaborate!
Please collab I’m begging
I hate it when people give blended cultures hell and say it's "not real" like Italian-American or Chinese-American. Like, yeah, duh, it's not the same thing as the source culture. It's a culture in its own right and deserves respect.
People who give that hell probably wouldn’t like their culture being invalidated if they traveled to France or Russia or Mexico for a bit and cooked with what was available. Hell, this fusion style broadens food, and trying to invalidate it is stupid. If it’s yummy, then it’s yummy.
And now I want Panda Express for dinner even though I had it last night.
I was just about to bring up Italians and the fury some seem to have about Italian-American cuisine... I don't even know how to properly wrap my head around some of it, because so much of it seems to be based in getting upset about techniques to make the food easier to prepare for the region.
Only exception is UK-indian food. And UK-chinese food. Cause it's just utter garbage. Just stick to indian or chinese.
except Italian fusion sushi. Mango cubes with whipped cream plus cake as skin. I was like, just say it's Swiss roll lmfao???
I'm a little torn on that. I mean it's to take inspiration and create new things based on that. But it's not okay to pass off those new creations as something they really are not. I cannot judge how authentic the "Chinese" food I've had actually was, so I'll stick to an example where I can: Chicago deep dish might be delicious (never had an authentic one in/from Chicago) but calling it pizza (I had authentic Italian pizza) just rubs me the wrong way. The word "pizza" invokes certain expectations with me, and Chicago deep dish goes against those. That's less of an "it's not real" thing than it is a "that's false advertising" thing.
I remember watching a BuzzFeed "Reacts to" video that recorded the reactions of 2nd/3rd-generation Chinese-American teens vs their 1st-gen grandparents taste-testing American Chinese food chains. The American-born teen/s were constantly making disparaging remarks about American Chinese quisine not being "real Chinese food", but their own grandparents were very non-chalant and rather okay with it. Some even said the Panda Express they were served wouldn't raise any eyebrows if they were served it when visiting a friend's house. (Depending on the region of course.)
Makes a lot of sense tbh. The immigrant's children want to maintain a connection to their homeland while the old people have one
@@rayquaza5001 Makes sense since most of the immigrants at the time were from Honk Kong, Guangdong, and Guangxi. I lived in San Francisco just outside of Chinatown and grew up speaking Toishanese a dialect of Cantonese. I can still go there or here in NYC and spark up conversations with the eldest residents, especially the cranky old cooks
To be fair, I'm from Vancouver, 1st gen and most of the Chinese population here is 1st gen. No one eats Chinese American cause there are so many good traditional Chinese restaurants here. The food is often too greasy and sweet, it doesn't appeal to Chinese tastebuds.
Panda Express is a different breed of American Chinese food, that has been franchised and corporatized. (If that's a word)
You will see people that are NOT Zchinese cooking and Americans running the front.
It's just another American chain, that is INSPIRED by Asian cuisine. Kind of like PF Changs.
American Chinese cuisine, in this sense are the food cooked BY Chinese, ESTABLISHED by Chinese, The English is Shaky. With names like
Evergreen Chinese Takeout, or Dragon House Buffet, or China House 😅
@@wailingalen Panda Express was founded and is still owned by a Chinese immigrant you beefcurtain
"You know what causes Chinese Restaurant Syndrome? Racism."
--paraphrased from Anthony Bourdain
Americans put MSG in a lot of American food, especially in American junk food, as you mentioned.
You can straight up buy MSG in a shaker bottle at most western-style grocery stores (I think the main brand is Accent?).
Actually, MSG in Cheetos or Pringles is like at the astronomically high level compared to a normal Asian dish, but they just make it obscure (using MSG alternate chemical name). And, voila, almost nobody complains about it.
@@undeadmeats Accent is a brand of MSG "seasoning" you can in most stores in the US. You don't need much of the stuff to add just a little something extra to a dish that may not seem quite right. It won't save everything but, it can help.
I have a handful of vintage cookbooks, and like 50% of the recipes call for literal "MSG" like you had to go buy it from the store and add it to food. I found this perspective fascinating given the circumstance of how the "scare" started.
I still think Harvey or one of his pals put out a hit on him and nobody can tell me otherwise! _He knew too much!_
I was adopted from China, one of the “lost girls” because of the one child policy, and I’ve never really been able to connect with my cultural roots as a Chinese American, because I’ve never been sure where to start, and your videos are so informative and funny. Thank you for your work!
Dang, troubling backstory. Hope ur new family treats u good
When immigrants like us try to connect with our roots, it’s never easy. I found the most success when I was on the lookout for stories. There are stories everywhere. In food, in history, in language, in names, and of course with the older folks in our communities. It’s important to try to nurture a sense of ownership over your heritage. You have a fundamental right to your own background. Only you can decide if and how you want to exercise that right
I hope that you take your ancestral heritage as a gift that is meant to strengthen your ties to your own present, in your own new circumstances. Similarly, the stories and struggles of fellow immigrants from your part of the world who built a place for themselves in America are also yours to draw strength and inspiration from. Sometimes you might feel like you’re almost play-acting your own culture, and that can be hard. Just remember that your heritage exists for your sake, not the other way around
@@Miskamouskamikumouse My family is wonderful, despite people treating adoption like a nasty word.
I've never been able to connect with my identity as a Chinese American, but my mom is Cuban American and I am strongly connected with those cultural roots. I'd consider myself Cuban American before Chinese American, honestly.
@@Blueeyesthewarrior Ah, i didnt mean adoptation as bad. Unless u werent implying it. Im actually happy for u
Also, glad u found a way to be able to connect with your roots and stuff.
@@Blueeyesthewarrior tbh i think the culture you grow up in is more important than the culture your ancestors were part of. I feel like "reconnecting with your roots" is a big thing in America because theres no real american culture. Not saying it's a bad thing tho-
Yep, American Chinese food is as valid as any other regional Chinese food. Because even traditional cuisines in China evolve and adapt new foreign ingredients through time. Even Sichuan cuisines, well known for its liberal use of chilli only appeared less than 1000 years ago. Chilli was not a native plant in China, and it was brought in from the new world through the Columbian Exchange. Sugary food only become popular during the Tang dynasty because sweets were brought in by Persian & Arab traders.
American Chinese food is just another regional expression of Chinese culinary culture.
yeah! I've always been scared to admit I like American Chinese food because of the hate!
And don't forget about Cola Duck! (yes it is a real popular dish in china using coke to color and sweeten the dish and it's been around before I was born, as far as I know)
What was sichuan cuisine before chilis were introduced?
Same as Dutch Chinese food, which is heavily influenced by Indonesian cuisine! Also very yummy if you ever have the chance!
@@godnoble They probably used Sichuan pepper corns only and no chilis...
As a Chinese-born naturalized Italian and living in Italy, I always see the outrage about Americanized Italian food, meanwhile, the Asians are pretty chill about it.
As an Italian myself, you are right. However, personally, I am not mad at the dishes themselves, but more on the fact that americans of Italian descent genuinly believe to be Italian. Therefore, they propagate a fake image and idea about Italy and its cultures.
Beh, in teoria diventi un traditore della patria solo se ti passa per il cervello di mangiare la pizza con l'ananas 🤣
Poi ci sono io che italiana non sono, sono nata in Romania ma ho passato gran parte della mia vita in Italia, e nonostante tutto sono ancora curiosa di sapere com'è la pizza con l'ananas
@@lingyu9126 NON OSERESTI 😱 😨
@@francescosantambrogio6421 non ho ancora avuto il coraggio di provarci, lo concedo 😂
@@lingyu9126 If you do want to try a pineapple pizza. I recommend pineapple, tomatoes, green pepper, and spinach. No meat to complicate it. Green peppers and tomatoes have a sweetness that pairs well with the pineapple and spinach surprisingly just adds to it.
However you get it, it's not nearly as sweet as you think it would be. It's surprisingly good.
Similar thing with Tex-Mex. Hate when people go "Oh, it's not *real* Mexican" and it's like... yeah, it's in the name. It's Tex-Mex, it's awesome, and its own culture within itself.
I just say my appetite doesn't need your blessing
Right? I love Tex-Mex & Cali-Mex.
Yeah, I mean was Texas not part of Mexico for centuries?
@@drewgehringer7813
The Texan area was under Spanish rule from 1716 to 1821 (105 years). Texas/Tejas was only a part of Mexico from 1821 to 1836 (15 years). That's a total of 120 years of Spanish/Mexican heritage, so not quite centuries but it is still a long time. The more you know :)
Mexican food isn't even the same region to region. It's a large country with lots of local food differences based on climate and access to the ocean.
My partner's mom was complaining about how the "MSG in Chinese food triggers her migraines" and I walked to her cupboard, pulled out a bottle of Accent and told her she better throw it away because she puts it in all her cooking and it is just straight up MSG. People truly have no idea what they put into their food.
Adam Ragusea actually does a good analysis of it on his channel. It’s mostly okay but not for all people; some people really are sensitive to it. I’ve had problems but only when there’s a large amount. A couple times I’ve had dishes where they had clearly dumped way too much MSG in - tasting overwhelmingly of it - and half an hour later broken into a cold sweat and had my heart racing. Neither case was normal use; and I eat lots of food that undoubtedly contains it with no problem. But too much is definitely bad news for me.
Salty food + dehydration = migraine 🤦♂️
@@bilbo1778 Well, maybe a headache but not necessarily a migraine; migraines are a very different thing. But lots of people call every headache a migraine, so there’s that…
@@sazji Yeah I think the point here is that she was making it look like only chinese food has MSG when the Accent she uses has it.
@@wanderingarielle4796 Oh for sure! Just because we hide it behind a catchy brand name doesn’t mean it’s not there. :-)
Great video!! I nearly yelled "YES!!" when you talked about how people in America think of international cuisine in terms of unusual or dirty qualities. I'm French and we use ingredients that people think of as super weird, but whenever the topic of just french food in general comes up, people get weirdly starry eyed. Unfamiliar isn't inherently gross or weird - maybe your tastes don't include my dad's stir fry of whatever he could snag from his local river, but so what? I've had the joy of getting to know other cultures' food and culinary techniques and I have nothing but respect for the history and cultural significance in each dish. One of my favorites is to point out how French toast is a peasants dish in origin, born of leftovers. I think pricetags definitely influence people's expectations of food quality, and I have heard that some Chinese-American restaurants have to significantly undercut prices despite the painstaking prep that goes into their dishes. Definitely hungry for Chinese-American food now ..
I’ve noticed that about Chinese food, it’s very affordable with large portions
You just gotta accept that your ancestors are some weird shit. I come from the land of Cabuzel (which my great grandma loved) and maggot cheese
I love getting me some dirt-cheap American-Chinese food. Great quality for a great price.
I'm literally using this video for a college presentation, THANK YOU XIRAN
OMG I love your channel Frederic!
I hope you gave credit
Frederic?? It's funny running into you 👀
Hi Frederic
How did the presentation go did you knocked it out the park also love your videos
Kitty is being perfectly helpful - by providing moral support and cuteness!
Lmao
Two things I learned about Chinese food from living in Peru:
1) Chinese food restaurants are very different depending on the region, given that they play to different tastes. Peruvian Chinese food is called Chifa and is super good in ways distinct from how it is in the USA.
2) MSG is fine, you can literally buy it at the store and it enhances your food.
Chifa comes from Chi Fan, eat meal - I guess simply "fan" is too short for locals
Yes! I was sorta hoping that she would mention Chifa or Chinese-Cuban cuisine in this video.
I love Peruvian lomo saltodo. Probably my favorite Chinese fusion dishes. We have a restaurant about an hour away that makes Peruvian food.
@@easternizedfooddiscovery6730 yo I noticed that too XD
interesting to think about how food changes and becomes a fusion as time goes on to cater to tastes
I grew up in a culturally jewish family and spent most of my childhood in New Jersey ordering from Chinese-American take-out and I always get excited when we have it for dinner occasionally. When we moved to New York, we go to local asian restaurants that promote Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine and one of our favorites is a local Chinese restaurant called "Red Chili" because it has both traditional and Chinese American cuisine on their menu. Thanks so much for the history lesson. Chinese-American food deserves a whole lot respect because it's part of American culture.
Yes it IS! Did you know the 🥠 fortune cookie was invented in America? I think San Francisco.
American Chinese food, like you said, is very much a part of American culture, and if you get Chinese food from other places like Mexico, Brazil, or France, it is different there too! To reflect the local tastes and availability of ingredients! Isn't it fascinating? Kind of like languages reflect the evolution and exposure of different peoples
I love history like this when it comes to food changes! I’m part Irish, and I hate when people get up in arms about corned beef and cabbage not being “rEaL iRiSh FoOd.” The reason we eat it in the US for St. Patrick’s day because Irish immigrants couldn’t easily get lamb needed for traditional dishes. They ended up forming friendships with Jewish immigrants as both groups were discriminated against. Jewish butchers sold to the Irish, and over time, that relationship created unique Irish American dishes.
That’s so cool 😲I don’t remember exactly but i think historically the Chinese immigrant community has also had a lotta ties with the Jewish immigrant community as well.
It was also because Beef was a rare luxury in Ireland because all their beef was exported to (stolen for) England. Beef being cheap and easily available in the US meant they could actually have it basically as much as they wanted.
@@andyzhang7890 From what I’ve heard, Jewish communities used to go to Chinese restaurants on Christmas since basically everything else was closed, and that’s where the close ties started.
@@ForgottenSonata they still do that, it’s a Jewish tradition
@@ForgottenSonata And that tradition bleeds into non-Jewish families in the NY/NJ area. I grew up in an Irish-Italian Christian American family eating Chinese food for either Christmas Eve or Christmas and I never questioned why until I moved across the country and it just wasn't a thing out here.
I remember once I watched a show where this woman was insistent that she was allergic to MSG and was insistent she could taste it when it was added to any dish. They gave her two plates and lied about which one had the MSG and basically proved that her symptoms were, at best, psychosomatic. The really funny part was when she was eating the MSG dish and thought it was the non-MSG one she went on and on about how great it was and how you can clearly cook delicious food without "artificial chemicals" and then the second she was told about the switch she suddenly had all these "symptoms"... It was really eye-opening about how ridiculous some people could be.
The mind is a powerful thing
I had a coworker that claimed he was allergic to it while eating a bag of chips, I just flipped over the bag and pointed out that monosodium glutamate was listed in the ingredients. The idiot didn't even know that's what MSG is, it took 5 minutes to convince him then he suddenly claimed he had a migraine and went home.
Well, like you said, it was psychological. That's a disorder that needs treatment, not mockery imo.
One thing I love about living near a big city is the plethora of Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese restaurants.
Even out in middle-of-nowhere midwest highway towns, you'll be hard-pressed to not find at *least* one of those somewhere.
I live in a town of 6,000 and I get all of those except Korean.
Thank you so much for this video! As a Taiwanese-French I had always felt contempt for Westernized Chinese food, but this brilliant video essay made me think about how my internalized racism and aching desire to distance myself from "other" immigrants had a play in this.
In France, the Chinese diaspora has a distinct history, because up until the 90s/2000s, a lot of the Chinese community in France were actually Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian people of Chinese descent, fleeing war and turmoil in the 70s/80s. They opened restaurants that mixed together Chinese (mostly Cantonese or Teochew), Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian cuisines, reflecting their mixed cultural heritage, and adapting it to France. Wenzhou immigrants that held restaurants then also incorporated Southeast Asian elements to their menus, to cater to the French palate. So, obviously, it wouldn't taste the same at all as my mother's Taiwanese cooking, but it doesn't mean it doesn't have a unique history and doesn't deserve respect for all the struggles it has faced.
In the last 10 years or so though, there has been a sort of panic surrounding the hygiene level of these restaurants, so many of them had to close, and Chinese restaurant owners opened cheap sushi places instead, because Japanese food was enjoying an image of a "higher" cuisine.
Nowadays, most local Asian restaurants in small-ish French cities serve the same mix of Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Japanese dishes.
Thought I'd share a bit of diasporic Chinese history!
This was really eye- opening. As someone who studied Chinese language and culture extensively in college, I always told my friends that the Chinese food they ate was not "real Chinese food", not putting into context the history of American Chinese food. I'm totally ashamed for having ever said that.
No need to feel shame; just learn and move forward with more knowledge. That's what I'm telling myself anyway 🙂
I don't think you need to worry about that. Sounds to me like you're out here knowing better and doing better. Everyone is guilty of ignorance. Far fewer people are humble enough to learn from their mistakes.
I would tell them the same thing just do bug them. Coz they were the racist ones. Lol like if you tell them real Chinese they would freak out lol
lol I _just_ posted the same, somewhere else in here!
"Positive growth isn't always pleasant."
My uncle (Chinese American, immigrated but grew up mostly in America) will drive for hours whenever he visits somewhere to find the "real" Chinese restaurants. And really, there's nothing wrong with him seeking out food similar to his mom's cooking that he grew up on; but it's the dismissive way he talks about the "bad" Chinese restaurants that I find annoying (especially since I'm pretty sure some of them are actually authentic food catered to Chinese immigrants, just from a different region of China than what he's looking for...)
Thankfully my mom is way more laid back about food lol
As a Chinese in Southeast Asia for all my life, when American-Chinese food reached my shores (Yes, it came full circle) I jumped to try it and really enjoyed it. Stop bothering about authenticity when it comes to food, enjoy the flavours for what they are!
Then I'm sure you've eaten at a Saizeriya restaurant a few times.
i feel similar to this when watching Mulan. The video might not be authentic but the story is still great and seeing Liu Yifei bathing has me coming back for more.
My issue is that it's so hard to find authentic Chinese food. I am obsessed with inland Chinese cuisines, but all I can find is 50 restaurants with the same exact menu
@@Michael-ju7xuSounds like you just need to move somewhere with more first-generation immigrants from China. I have no problem finding authentic Chinese food where I live.
@@Michael-ju7xuthat when you learn how to cook it yourself. The internet is a wonderful place where you can learn a lot if you're willing to put in the simplist amount of effort.
As a Hispanic family we eat alot of Chinese American food it's great as a kid I didn't eat it much, bc I was a picky eater, how ever my sister and everyone loved it. As I grew I learned to love the taste all of the different flavors and ingredients its what I love. From there my friend, a Vietnamese America, and a Laotian American friend both have expanded my palette to different Asian cuisine and I love them all the same. Just like from different cultures and regions middle eastern and European, and different Latin American foods, its something that unites us as one people the love of food. The complex flavors, smells, textures they all are amazing and for all of the issues in the world I'm glad I'm able to experience all these wonderful tastes. Sorry for the long crazy post/tangent 😅
Sounds a lot like the same thing for me! Chinese American food is great and we got it a lot growing up
HEY I CAN RELATE!!
Girl shut tf up with the As a Latina BS... Let someone else have a moment for once
@@rishthefish7781 all I said was I appreciate the food, what's wrong with that? Who shit in your cereal this morning?
I can't believe some US people still have that "foreign people eat weird disgusting food" mentality when there was a craze in the 1950s or 60s of putting chopped up hot dogs in gelatin and serving it at parties.
Calling Asian food strange and bizarre is so weird because I’m sure if Americans knew just what they eat all day everyday, I’m sure eating wildcat is probably very low on the list of “weird foods”
Americans be eating chocolate coated crickets
@@CharlieCharlie88 And they eat Oscar Mayer sausages like it’s candy.
i also cant believe how these same people dont have the critical thinking to realise theyre foreigners to other people. foreigner isnt instantly "not american,' it's a relative term to wherever you are and wherever you are from. the way these people use this neutral term in a almost derogatory way is pretty telling of how they see the world
@@mingchenwei1978 ikr, to me it's mindboggling how there are places there where fresh food is simply and plainly unavailable. I'm from brasil and i get that poorer places here have it better food-wise than others, but really having no fresh vegetables and fruits available not even for your money, but having it selling at all close to you is alien to me. LATAM as a whole lives off of fresh food, you wont go 3 days without one of your meals being fresh rice and beans and there be people out there going weeks on ihop, applebees, mcdonalds or smt
I’m Jewish and we traditionally love American Chinese food, myself included. I’ve always been a little ashamed to admit that I like American Chinese food but now I’m glad to know how respectable it’s history is!
I also feel like this is a good place to say that the association between Jews and Chinese food comes from redlining. Yay racists!
It's a Jewish Christmas tradition!
@@jacob_and_william There's actually a direct contrast between jewish and chinese: The chinese eat anything that moves, while jewish dietary laws are super restrictive.
(source: I'm jewish)
@@adrianblake8876 That's shitty to Chinese people. English people eat rabbits, pigs and turtles.
@@nerveagent1905 Yeah, that's weird too...
In regards to Chinese food being seen as "dirty and suspicious": check out health inspection reports. Any type of restaurant can be horrifically dirty. It's a matter of who is careless, cheap, or uneducated regarding food safety.
Either that, or go with my dad's philosophy of "if you like the food, don't look in the kitchen."
Ah yes.... I have family that goes by these same sage words of wisdom XD as well as "If it looks like a hole in the wall... it's got the best food."
I went to a seafood place once that smelled so badly of fish the moment you walked in the door. I will never go there again
Edit: the restaurant is the chain called Red Lobster lmao and is the fanciest restaurant around when you live in a small town
This is my philosophy lol. My favorite dim sum restaurant has an "ok" food safety rating but you couldn't pry me away
I work as a cook. I can confirm. Don't look in the kitchen. There are secrets that mortal minds cannot comprehend.
Can confirm, I worked in a highway restaurant kinda thing that tried to be a fancy version o fa fast-food place. There's a reason the only I took for lunch was soup, because at least I know I made that, and it was heated through and through permanently at more than 65 degrees. I remember my colleague touching raw meat, not washing hands, and then working on already prepared stuff. He only washed his hands when he took a break so his phone wouldn't get dirty.
The worst thing is when people’s marketing is “respectful” of Chinese food being cheap and dirty, then they turn around and call it “street style” or “rugged and casual”, thinking it’s a form of praise.
Yesssssss same with people calling traditional Mexican style tacos "street tacos." I absolutely hate it
American Chinese food has always been my comfort food ever since I was little. When ever I've moved I always look for the local Chinese restaurants and trying to find the best one. After moving to Texas I found this one within walking distance and their food is sooooo goooood. Even when Corona was first started and the anti-chinese bs started up I continued to order from them not only because it helped me feel better during these hard times, I also wanna support them as best I can.
Same here, Houston has a bunch and there's a lot in my county that I can just walk or bike to. And during the major quarantine we ordered out a bunch and it was so good (a lot better than the frozen pizza's I had been eating for a week straight)
Same! In my family we would only get takeout every one in a while and it would almost always be Chinese food. So even though it's usually not expensive, it still has this sense of being special like expensive food.
It's a type of food where when I need something, I know I'll always be happy with it no matter the restaurant
Chinese takeout also got me through quarantine. I always love getting a whole bunch of different dishes so I can both have the variety on my plate and lots of leftovers.
My family always went to this place called Hunan L'Rose. It always felt super fancy to me because we never went out to eat and they had cloth napkins, hot towels after your meal, and a tiny cup of sherbet that I'd dip my fortune cookie into. Plus, I was allowed to have a Shirley Temple that came in a cool glass with an umbrella and a cocktail sword thing. Used to save those and play with them lol. Man, I'm practically there right now
We are close with this one chinese American family who owns a restauraunt and we go to eat there a lot checking up on them and so on.
Shout Out to Sam.
The local Chinese food shop owner who served both American-Chinese and native Chinese food.
And Added Vegitierian options when Me and my mother became Vegan. He's the real MVP.
As a latin american that has guavas growing in the trees in the sidewalk, so it is super hilarious to see them (and other tropical fruits) seen as "strange" and "exotic". Like, to me a sweet orange is exotic! It's freaking imported!
also, yellow lemons? Odd. Exoticism is subjective!
It is, I think, the most strange case was when I was visiting a zoo in China. It was a bit odd to see raccoons in a display, but it kind of made sense as they aren't found in China. But, the really weird exhibit was the "laboratory rats." I'm pretty sure that's not even a specific thing, it's a use of rats.
It was also kind of weird that their doves are actually white when ours are mostly pigeon looking, and the complete and utter lack of crows took some getting used to.
I mean, that is the literal definition of exoticism... If something is from another country, it is exotic. Hence, Chinese food may be exotic to Americans, and American food may be exotic to Chinese and neither are wrong
I'm an American, but I lived in Brazil for a while so it cracked me up when I saw a bunch of fruits I knew from Brazil being used as literal alien fruits in a sci-fi TV show a while back.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade I can’t even imagine not being surrounded by crows all the time.
That’s funny cuz where I live lemons are like the most mundane fruit like pretty much most people I know just have lemon trees growing in their yard. I think my favorite example of this is when my little cousin came visiting from Spain and he was just in complete Aw of like just the costal redwoods that are everywhere around here. Not even particularly tall for redwoods but then I remember that these trees pretty much only grow exclusively here on the American west coast and are pretty exotic to the rest of the world.
As an American who loves Chinese American food (and an anthropologist), I really appreciate the detailed treatment of the historical developments that led to the cuisine we see today. Food is really interesting and a great way to learn about culture! Also, I learned about an interesting community of Mississippi Chinese grocers who served many black communities because of the Jim Crow discrimination. They have really interesting food!
I feel like some of this thinking about American Chinese food being ‘less than’ ‘authentic’ Chinese food from the mainland is not only perpetuated by diaspora but also Asian Americans and also people from Asia, I remember this old buzzfeed video where they had asian parents try Chinese takeout with their children and ironically the asian parents all thought it was fine but their children were criticising it. Chinese American food is definitely a culture of its own deserving of respect, it’s an beautiful amalgamation of lived experiences and shifting geography and demographics. Plus it still tastes good so who cares.
lotta internalized racism and diaspora shame :(((
American Chinese food deserves respect as an enterprising endeavor of Chinese immigrants. As a cuisine? Fuck no.
Yes! I remember that. It's things like that that shows people have really gotten to narrow in their viewpoints imo.
@@ShredST and theres the racism
@@windows5096 oh please explain. dude with the pepe avatar
Wow I'm here crying watching this. I've never heard someone stand up for my culture the way you do. As someone who grew up with a lot of internalized racism, it's really powerful to hear you critically analyze what I've been thinking about for years but never had anyone to talk to about it. I've said this before, but I really appreciate finding you. I think we have a lot of similarities, and I feel very validated in that. You're awesome, hope you're eating some yummy food rn
I’m sorry you had to experience that. 😥 It is really hurtful to feel dismissed and discriminated against by ignorant people. ❤️
Well I’d invite you to stick to the channel, she got a lot of content like that.
I grew up eating Chinese American food, but I've also lived in Taiwan and I've grown up with home-cooked authentic Taiwanese/Chinese meals, which can be done pretty easily now because Asian supermarkets can be found throughout North America. So I was raised with Chinese American food, and think it's delicious, though I also appreciate that it's quite different from more "authentic" Chinese food.
On an interesting side note, I like Taiwanese beef noodle soup, but even after living in Taiwan, I've never tasted a version better than my mother's. My mother has always made her beef noodle soup from Italian spaghetti noodles, since they were just easier to buy when she first immigrated to this country.
Internalized racism is such a tricky trauma. Its unfortunate but i hope you can overcome. I have faith you will. Xiran is a great help with that
I recommend you watch her video about the aapi hate.
There's also a parallel story for Chinese-Canadians! (The Chinese Tax, the Spanish Flu, the Canadian Railroad, etc) a fantastic part of history that really needs to be in our own curriculums.
Maybe I'm just reading these vibes wrong but you two seem weirdly hyped about anti-Chinese discrimination lol
@@guy-sl3kr we’re hyped to learn history, I’m Chinese American and I’d love to learn about Chinese-Canadian history 🤷🏻♂️
That reminds me in Québec Shepard Pie is called Pâté Chinois, or in English Chinese pâté
"Hyped about discrimination" is not the vibes I wanted to give off I'm very sorry that it came off that way. My intent was to spark interest in a niche of history that is often overlooked. Discrimination is a part of that history and leaving it out would disingenuous (as well as complicit in whitewashing).
I'd recommend Ann Hui's book: Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada's Chinese Restaurants
I feel so seen, as the kids say. My Chinese grandmother's own grandfather was BORN IN CALIFORNIA. Her great-grandparents arrived to San Francisco from Toishan via the Kingdom of Hawaii not too long before the Chinese Exclusion Act. They created a restaurant along the railroad line not too far from Sacramento. These OG Chinese immigrants and their descendants are and were always extant and by design with laws preventing Chinese women from immigrating in large numbers, and with anti-miscegenation laws, the countless Chinese bachelors could only marry non-Chinese women illegally (which many did much to the horror of non-Chinese men). Or if they could afford the trip back to China, find a wife and return to America. Not to mention the brazen lynching of Chinese-Americans. I believe the largest mass-lynching in American history was of Chinese-Americans.
I am proud to be a descendant of these people. It always bothered me how newer Chinese restaurants with more diverse regional cuisines from across China branded themselves as "authentic" as if our cuisine was inferior or "fake." I'm happy we now can enjoy Chinese food from all across the homeland now, but that doesn't make our Chinese-American cuisine any less real or enjoyable. Thank you so much for making this video!
Mostly like Iron Man 2 proving the pop culture that Fortune Cookies aren’t Chinese.
I know it may have been done before but that movie may have debunked Fortune Cookies mythos.
You come from a family of badasses
It's a breath of fresh air to hear someone refer to the Kingdom of Hawaii. Not many folks know about that period.
I recently became aware of a similar food diversity with Mexico! My dad was talking about wanting tamales in banana leaves instead of corn husk. When I asked if that was a thing, he went into a whole thing about the differences between northern MX and southern and gulf coast, etc. I had never thought about it!
My mother is from northern coastal México and dad is Southern mountainous México, they're very different
Do they taste different depending whether they’re baked in banana leaves or corn husks? I always just assumed the husk was only there as a container!
@@ucklin8025 They do taste different!
My dad is from the south part and my mom from the north. We eat both versions of tamales, and they are both delicious.
Idk if it the leafs that changes it tho, but the kind of dough, meat and preparation do make the difference for me
Definitely something you have to try when going to the south or north of Mexico.
@@jeetbluee Very interesting! Thanks for sharing your experience :D
I'm Mexican and a big nerd of Mexican food and history. I can go on and on and on about the diversity of Mexican food and how in Veracruz we believe we make the best antojitos in the country. (we probably don't but our food is sooo good)
It's really interesting how practically every culture that has settled in America has created American versions of their native cuisine. There's American Chinese food, American Japanese food, American Irish food, American Italian food, American Greek food, and a million others. They're all rooted in their own traditions, but they become their own thing. Plus, many of them have shared American roots of poor immigrants trying to adapt their home recipies with whatever American ingredients were cheap and available.
I'm lucky to live in an area with restaurants from a lot of different nationalities, and so many of them like to split their menus according to which dishes are more traditional and which are more Americanized. It's so interesting to compare.
There’s a restaurant franchise in western Wisconsin called Norske Nook that combines Norwegian food and diner fare. Honestly, it’s way more approachable than the American Norwegian food I grew up eating on my great grandma’s farm (everyone wants to be a Viking until it’s time to throw down with some lutefisk and lefse with lard). A breakfast wrap using lefse though is definitely better.
Any type of restaurant opened in any country other than where that cuisine comes from will be adapted to local tastes. The most beautiful Chinese food I ever saw was in Japan. Taiwan loves Japanese food but it's going to be a little different from in Japan. And American food anywhere outside of America can be quite different than what you would expect. This is from my personal experience.
@@jessn.3851 I've eaten Taiwanese-Japanese food and they're 👌👌👌
@@closurehascomex CORN AND BANANAS????
Don't forget Tex Mex food
Exactly! Just like American cuisine isn't all the same Chinese cuisine isn't all the same! If Americans have many region style distinctions of Fried Chicken (New York Buffalo, Southern Country-Fried, Louisiana Cajun, Midwest Broasted, New England Buttermilk), it stands to reason that other countries have similar distinctions!
I love this video TOTALLY because it's a well-presented and fascinating dive into history and culture and absolutely NOT because I'm extremely defensive about my love of Panda Express's Orange Chicken.
well said Josh, from a fellow Josh to another, I hope you're doing well and can't wait for more stuff from your main channel as well as from the FOBEquestria channel!
Love egg foo young, gen tso chicken, fried rice, shrimp toast etc.
Tex-mex food gets a lot of hate too, people call it non-authentic but like people have different resources. Specially back when things couldn't be taken from one place to another as easy as it is now.
Plus sometimes Mexicans that opened restaurants had to change the taste of their food to better suit American taste buds if they wanted to survive.
It should not be a bad thing, it should be seen as awesome thing on how our Mexican ancestors worked with what they could and created new dishes, and on the tenacity to survive.
I'm from New York and never heard of new york Buffalo lol
I'm from the Midwest, Indiana specifically. Broasted chicken sucks.
"the pandemic could have easily started from an american eating a bear they shot" yes!! i keep saying this. i'm from pennsylvania where deer hunting is super popular, and a few years back in my area, a few cities put bans on hunting them due to a disease they were contracting that was killing some off. what if someone had eaten one and it mutated in them? PA could have been ground zero for a pandemic instead.
True. People blame and make fun of China citizens for eating bats, but China is far from the only country that enjoy exotic delicacies. It's too easy to blame China.
Glad to see that there are some logical people who aren't narrow minded about how easy it is for ANY pandemic to happened, and does not need to come from across the continent.
Th US already started a pandemic: the Spanish flu is traced back to chicken farms in US. Let other countries do their share o fuck ups..
Technically true, but wet markets aren't a thing there, and those were particularly highlighted as being pandemic risks.
@@Seek1878 Except in the Snake Roundup in Texas. Where in wild snakes are brought in, weighed, sold, and butchered on site.
I had felt conflicted about finding out that Ginger Beef was invented here in Canada. It tastes sooo good, but I was sad that it might have been "unauthentic". But you got me to look it up, and it was pioneered by George Wong from Northern China in the 1970s! You're so right, the food is still good and I can still enjoy it knowing that the history behind this delicious dish still has weight to it ♡
Who cares that it is not authentic, you like the taste. That is all that matters.
Such a bizarre way of thinking to begin with.
How can anyone think that way.
so weird thinking any recipe created in North America is not authentic
I'm so glad someone finally said normal things about MSG. It's in use in my house since I was small and I've always heard from outsiders that it is so bad, it's not natural, it's basically toxic. All because someone read or heard something in internet a long time ago, even tho a lot of pages now claim that a bad MSG is fake. Tbh it still made me feel bad about myself using it. Thank you for saying your part in this discussion!
As someone from the UK I always found it amusing hearing Americans talk about MSG as if it were dangerous when so much food in the US uses ingredients that are genuinely unsafe to eat in large amounts but the deregulation of the markets means food companies can get away with it. I've eaten Western Chinese food most of my life, the only bad reaction I've ever had is gaining weight if I have too much.
I have a friend who will talk about how he can't eat at that restaurant, they use MSG! MSG gives him headaches and shooting pains in his neck! He will then proceed to eat an entire family sized bag of Ranch Doritos. If you go read the packaging on those, you'll notice that MSG is the fifth or sixth ingredient. I have had no luck in trying to get through to him on this matter.
Anyway, I started slipping MSG into his food. I keep a great big jar of it around, for making food taste good. So far, mysteriously, he has not complained of headaches.
@@haileybalmer9722 It's the weirdest form of racism, and can be adopted by people who have absolutely no racist views on any other matter, they are just utterly convinced Chinese restaurants are deliberately poisoning the food they serve.
@@haileybalmer9722 I mean, I get the sentiment, but please don't start adding things to your "friend's" food without his knowledge or consent. Even if you're trying to "prove a point" to him, that's basically a step above someone drugging a person's drink/food to r*pe them. Sure you might not be intending to trick them into having sex with you, but what you're doing is no less fucked up, and I highly question people who claim to be "friends" with anyone and they're deliberately putting shit in their food or drink with their "friend's" knowledge.
Fucking yikes dude.
I don’t know where you are from, but I live in Singapore and most people avoid using MSG for home cooking.
This is how I feel about sushi, sushi rolls aren't traditionally "sushi" and are mostly served in Japanese American restaurants, but that doesn't make it any less Japanese or delicious.
Cream cheese in sushi is a blessing.
@@ReijiAoeGirl666 disagree with cream cheese but I’d say the same for mayo and Avacados
Not to mention, I grew up in a town where all the Japanese restaurants were immigrant-run, none of them Japanese.
@@andyzhang7890 Nah, Japanese actually use mayo in some sushi. Not in all of it, but in “corn sushi,” mayo is one of the ingredients.
sushi is a versatile food that you can eat everything with. it literally means vinegar rice
I come from the Korean community of Russia and Central Asia (sometimes referred to as "Koryo-saram"), and this reminds me of how "Korean carrot" became a popular salad across all nations and ethnic groups in the (former) Soviet Union when the only reason this dish exists is the fact that Koreans deported by Stalin from the Far East to Central Asia in the 1930s had no access to napa cabbage to make kimchi and had to improvise.
As someone from post-soviet country I can attest that yeah, we still call that specific carrot salad dish as korean carrots and its still eaten widely :D
My mom is Russian and she used to make this fermented sauerkraut-type thing (not as fermented though) with cabbage and carrots called kvashenaya kapusta (pickled cabbage). I wonder if that's similar/related.
Omg, I never new that. Now when I think about it, it really tastes like kimchi
@@random23287 If it has chili, then it will be more Korean; strangely there is "Korean carrots" in Beijing's Russian restaurants but they use a lot of mayonez
Forgive me if i am wrong but are you from Kazakhstan? There’re a lot of korean fellas over here and their food are amazing ngl
Honestly, I didn’t realize there was so much stigma around Chinese food. I just thought it tasted great. It’s very enlightening knowing that Chinese food, while not based on the culinary practices of mainland China, is still very much rooted in western Chinese culture and history.
It may not be traditional, but it's tasty AF and a lot of families have made a lot of money and have done pretty well for themselves in America because of it and that should always be supported
The owners of Panda Express is one such example. They started as family owned but have so many locations around the US now.
This is what I say about taco bell. It's not authentic but still good af. Americanized versions of cultural foods is their own separate category of cuisines and they usually slap hard
@@damnbabygirl8926 u should see the history for taco bell, because it was a white guy stealing a local Mexican owned business' ideas
@@apricotcat1542 yeah the history of it definitely isn’t good but I’m still gon eat Taco Bell man 🤷 aint no other place open at 12am
Did we not just watch the same video? You make it sound like the only kind of "traditional" food comes from mainland China, which I don't think is what she said at all.
The world needs a designated continent to send men who insist they can’t cook to.
“Strategic incompetence” is a phrase i intend to incorporate into my vocabulary from now on
Their national cuisine is Hot Pockets and luke warm tap water out of a cup they never wash.
Why get a whole continent when the UK already exists.
Australia is still sparsely populated...
@@MrDemonWorm thanks but we don't want them. We love our food culture here and if you can't get a green curry chicken in an outback pub, you've found where the outback begins. That said, the drop bears could use a new food supply. With the pandemic we're fresh out of tourists...
Chinese food was me and my dads thing. After my mom left, every birthday we’d get Chinese food. We would have it for New Years, and eventually we started getting it for Christmas dinner too because more people got busy around the holidays and it made more sense than cooking an entire turkey dinner for just 2-3 people. Chinese food, however Americanized or not, will always bring a warm, fuzzy feeling back to my life Cus it reminds me of my dad, reminds me of how excited he would get when he smelled it lol
Ah I also miss my dad when I eat Chinese American food because I associate it with those holidays as well.
Getting American Chinese food, taking it home and eating it in front of the TV with family is a whole vibe
I did a whole project on this! Fun fact: there was a moral panic around Chinese restaurants in the early 1900s. As usual, it was all about protection from scary foreigners trying to "corrupt our women" *insert caveman sounds *. Local governments proposed bills to make it literally illegal for white women to work at or even dine in Chinese restaurants. Many found it a bit ridiculous and no bills passed. Still, you had police or just groups of men sometimes stopping white women from entering establishments or literally trying to pull them from the building. Absolutely whack. As a white lady I think about all the Edwardian pissants that are rolling in their graves every time I tuck into my sweet, sweet lo mein.
As you should. As a Chinese person I approve. (And while you’re at it, check out some dim sum and dry fried beef noodles (
乾炒牛河 idk the real translation so that’s the best I can do right now 😅) That shit gooooood)
Gotta love the old “one doctor said something stupid, and everyone decided they were right even when they were thoroughly proven wrong!”
My family had exchange students coming through our house for most of my childhood, and I remember once the girls’ parents came to visit from China halfway through the time they were staying with us and invited us to a Chinese restaurant where they ordered the food for us from the Chinese menu. I don’t remember much about the food, unfortunately, because I was so anxious about being in a strange place with strangers offering food I wasn’t familiar with that I hardly ate lol
I think the anti-vaccine rhetoric started this way as well if I recall...
@@emtims1670 It's even worse, it was a doctor purposefully saying something wrong in order to make bank selling his own version of a vaccine. Pure greed which has indirectly caused hundreds of children and adults to die, it's horrible. Hbomberguy made an amazing video about it.
The doctor who wrote the original letter isn't to blame. It was an inside joke that doctors would write letters to the journal in question about fabricated "syndromes", in this case one which was basically a description of overeating at a Chinese restaurant. The problem then (and now) is that the media distorts things either out of ignorance, prejudice or some other agenda and that's what works it's way into the public consciousness.
@RandomPikmin doctor *s*
I'm disappointed how it really only went after the origin. It came to the US through two sources, Dr Mercola, who sadly once was _very_ respected especially for advocacy against Donald Rumsfeld's Searle but sold out for the cash, and a highly unethical pediatrician family, the Sears, who made much more profit, because they were already in the business of selling hokey "children's cures and therapies that Big Med doesn't want you to know about" and had a wide 250,000 subscriber reach, mostly very upper class stay at home moms, who would then spread it to other moms in their own groups.
Mercola is the reason so much antivax was accepted as "legitimate" while the Sears family was why it spread so quickly.
Wakefield only came away with _a mere_ $40 million, the Searses have milked it for over $350 million.
www.latimes.com/local/orangecounty/la-me-adv-vaccines-doctor-bob-20140907-story.html
respectfulinsolence.com/2016/09/09/the-medical-board-of-california-initiates-disciplinary-action-against-antivaccine-dr-bob-sears/
Ringleader Bob Sears isn't *just* antivax though, he teaches parents and patients how to abuse HIPPA to evade all sorts of medical restrictions, like working in the nursing community without TB or Tetanus shots, or going to school without an MMR, so the unvax'd are only known to be so by the direct employer or the principal and no one else. He's not just an "antivax doctor" but kind of a lawyer for it, too!
*“We eliminated endemic measles in the U.S. in 2000. It’s now 2014 and we’re at 400 cases. Why?” Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in an interview in June. The number of cases has since risen to nearly 600. “Because people listen to Bob Sears. And, frankly, I blame him far more than I do the Jenny McCarthys of this world. Because he’s a doctor. And he should know better.”*
If anyone needs a documentary that talks about this, "The Search for General Tso" addresses this directly and provides cool history. Also Padma Lakshmi's Hulu Series "Taste the Nation" has an episode that deals with this topic as well!
The Search for General Tso is really fun, I also recommend it. I love how they tracked down the dude who invented it and showed him pictures of modern American General Tso's Chicken, and he's sort of cranky about it. I guess he feels pretty strongly that it shouldn't have broccoli in it!
Thank you
As a french, your anecdote about escargots was hilarious. Yes, we're the best at overhyping food, even more abroad. I noticed that when I went in a creperie in the States. Creperie is not considered fine dining is France, but there it was all "authentic french crepes and galettes" and "real breton cider" from Normandy, lol. It was tasty, though^^.
Least it tasted good
It's not? Crepes are expensive even in my country
Vancouver here. Once went to a Chinese restaurant with my friend, he asked for a certain dish (in Cantonese). The waitress replied "sorry, all our customers are Canadian so we don't serve anything good".
That said, most Chinese restaurants in America do have a secret menu, which is just ordering in Chinese. When I was road tripping with my grandpa who only eats familiar foods, we could go to almost any general tso's place and ask for some stir fried bean sprouts or snow peas or tomato and egg or potato strips and they knew what we were looking for. Most Chinese people in America still eat actual Chinese food at home the restaurant deep fried syrup meat is just for the whites.
I feel like every culture has some kind of "freaky" food, because every culture has gone through periods of having to experiment with food preparation and preservation to survive long-term.
Very informative and interesting, thank you!
Pickled chicken feet comes to mind
Sometimes I will see food and wonder who looked at it and thought "I wanna eat that." then remember that before supermarkets people couldn't afford to be choosy and had to make due with what they had.
However that explanation does not work for pineapple pizza.
..pig tongue with warm horseraddish sauce on a mashed potatoes....
It honestly makes me wonder how many of those "freaky food" snobs have eaten boogers or earthworms on a dare as a kid.
I still wouldn't eat snails though. Nor could I find the heart to partake in consuming cats and dogs because I have that association of human-pet connection.
Though I will acknowledge the same argument could be said in regards to pigs, sheep and cows. I acknowledge it's a culture thing no matter how I may feel about it.
I also hate said livestock being cruely treated while they are being slaughtered.
So I always try to go for ethically sourced when I can.
Let's not talk about Lutefisk, I tried that once and was scarred for life.
This has reminded me a lot of being Chicana and having to defend Mexican American food. Things like Tex-Mex get shit on a lot as being "fake", even though that food has a long history with Mexicans in the United States. I've even had people tell me that my fondness for tortillas with butter on it, a thing that my Spanish speaking Mexican family just does, is just some weird fake thing white people do. This is at its worst when people don't actually know anything about the different states in Mexico and the fact that the food varies a lot from state to state. And while it's not as common where I currently am, it's pretty common in California to make fun of things like menudo or lenguas because they are "gross" and "weird". There was an issue a while back with lead in some candy that's also kind of tainted the image of Mexican snack foods in a lot of people's minds. That along with the ever constant joking that Mexican food destroys your guts, there's just this seeming idea in people's heads that our food makes people sick.
It really sucks that these kinds of attitudes towards diaspora foods in the States are just so common. Like it's just food made by immigrants with the ingredients and circumstances they have.
So this video was very cool to see. Getting to learn even this small bits about the history of American Chinese food has been cool.
Fresh tortillas with butter is the best. My family is from Durango before immigrating to TX. My town has alot of mexican restaurants that combine tex mex and different states of mexicos cooking. They are owned mostly from either 1st gen immigrant families or 2nd gen. I didnt really realize that people didnt like menudo that much, till i left my hometown, cause they thought it was a weird tripe dish, or pigs feet depending on region of Mexico. I was spoiled with my grandparents style of cooking and my hometowns style.
@@darechick0894 Oh yeah pig's feet get to a lot of people too. Though those aren't as well known as menudo is in California. Menudo's the big one everyone knows about.
I am from the border and I grew up with tortillas con mantequilla, which is just a snack, I don't get why they are telling you not to snack like that. And I don't like menudo ( I used to but I stopped liking it). Mexican food is not a monolith. In the north, it's way more meat-based than in the south. And in the north we definitely have more US influence because we are right next to it. My estranged sister from the South didn't know what burrito was, which was created in border city Juarez during the revolution to carry food conveniently.
I've lived in Texas my whole life and I have only recently started hearing Tex-Mex being called fake. A lot of the families around me when I was growing up were either immigrants from central America or their descendents and Tex-Mex was just what they ate. It is just generally familiar food adapted to the tastes and ingredients of Texas. It's not meant to be "real" Mexican food, look at the name it's Texas food.
Also the idea that putting butter on a tortilla is somehow inauthentic is hilarious. It's butter. You put it on bread. Tortilla is bread.
I didn't understand the Tex-Mex food hate either.
"Leave him alone on a new continent and see how quickly he finds out"
I laughed so hard my ribs hurt xD
I'm only a minute into this video but I just want to thank you for introducing me to the phrase "strategic incompetence". That's brilliant.
"Oh no, I should've washed this rice." -me, way too often
It always happens that when cuisine is moved from one culture to another, it gets changed. New ingredients get introduced, new processes and tools are adopted, they get adapted to local tastes.
This is NOT a bad thing. This is how new cuisines are developed. Purists from the old country say it's not "right" or "authentic" but attitudes like that are what leads to stagnation.
The rich, delicious foods from New Orleans is a perfect example of this. French, Spanish, African and Indigenous blended together to perfection!
This is a internal conflict that I have as a migrant. I love traditional cooking but often I cannot find the ingredients or I simply dont know their names (its so difficult to find equivalences to meat cuts for example). I often also need to adapt my dishes to the tastes of my partner who is from a different culture. I love cooking my food but I feel that I am 'butchering it' cooking it in this way. This video made me apreciate my cooking much more. Thanks
@@anvime739 Just think of all the new, wonderful variations you can create. If we all stuck to "how it's supposed to be done" all the time, nothing new would ever be invented. 😀
@@EmpressMermaid Well you know how it goes. Nothing tastes as good as grans food :)
Americans imagine "Chinese food" as cheap junk food while they think Japanese is "fine dining". Most Sushi joints outside the West coast are actually run by Chinese people pretending to be Japanese because it's more prestigious.
@@appa609 I've noticed that also. There is one restaurant I went to that had Chinese owners. Although the sushi preparers were Japanese.
A lot of iconic American food came from poverty and necessity, such as corned beef and cabbage. So the origin of American Chinese food does not surprise me!
And meatballs! Italians did make meat sauces and “popletta”, but they weren’t nearly the size of meatballs you'll usually find in America. Turns out impoverished Italian immigrants were just using the most abundant ingredients of meat and bread to make filling dishes.
At one point in time, lobster was considered "poor folks food", and people would plow excess into their gardens as fertilizer. Now it's a delicacy.
I'm pretty sure that's the reason why we got stews made from beer.
@@strathadam1 so was pizza. I think tomatoes were deemed low class.
I'm Jewish. My wife is half Irish. Corned beef was invented when her people applied their corning process to my people's brisket cut of beef in the town where we both grew up, NYC. They do not have corned beef in Ireland, Israel, or other parts of their respective diaspora.
I put msg in my gravy at Thanksgiving. My friend asked why it was so good and I said homemade turkey stock and msg. My mom was shook! My friend told his Korean wife they needed to get some. She was like we totally have msg and I use it all the time lol I use msg whenever I feel like whatever savory thing I’m cooking is missing something.
I f*cking love Panda Express and I have NO REGERTS! (and seriously love this--food snobbery annoys the heck out of me, including diaspora food shaming! There are tons of great examples across cuisines of incredible food innovations created by immigrants to utilize local ingredients and palettes including chicken tikka masala, pad thai, lomo saltado, taquitos, etc.)
I live in England and people can be so weird with curry sometimes, like any curry that was invented or popularised in England either by English or Indian nationals is inherently inferior to any curry that was developed in India. I love balti & tikka massala because I love the taste of tomatoes with spices, and the idea that it's not "pure" Indian food so its bad is so weird. It's food, it tastes good, bite me
Panda Express is awesome, I get that it isn’t for everyone and will happily hoard the orange chicken in that case. More for me!
R E G E R T S
While I agree with you, I'd encourage you to pick more localized family owned restaurants if they are available! Panda Express is a large scale corporate business and to my knowledge does not benefit the Chinese or Chinese-American community in any way, by all means continue eating it if it's what you love, but if we're commenting on family owned Americanized Chinese food Panda may be a little off the radar. No hate or none of that nonsense! Just offering food for thought! :^)
@@FallFluff No worries I live in Los Angeles--TONS of localized food here, frequented often! (We have more locally-owned restaurants than chains here, period, happily.) Just don't like hate on Panda as a matter of course :)
Here as quickly as possible to say I read Iron Widow and I am SHOOK and cannot wait for whenever we are graced with its sequel, what a read
Ditto
Awesome! I'm waiting for my copy to come in👍🏿
Where can I get the book?
@@spacebubble1552 link's in the description!
@@brkh96 Thank you!
I love how "escargot" is exactly the same idea as "chop suey": basic things sometimes just sound "classier" in another language. Escargot wasn't really an special dish in France. It's good if you cook it well, and add garlic butter. Probably because it sounded exotic, other countries associated it with french cuisine and restaurant adapted, 'cause why not.
Thank You for your refreshing perspective showing that culture (and cooking) changes and evolve.
Now I crave some... we call them "chinese ravioli" in french, no idea if the connexion between both cuisine work also in english. (EDIT: dumplings !)
"MSG gives me health problems! Now, I'm going to eat this entire giant plate of mushrooms...." (lots of MSG naturally occurring in mushrooms, for anyone that didn't know)
I do know ppl with legitimate health issues from chemical MSG but not natural MSG; these kinds of disparities are prevalent amongst sugars, fats, etc too. Like we know too much chemicalized versions of food can have negative health effects compared to otherwise. But of course most of the ppl in your examples can't be bothered to do simple google searches
@@dark_neverland " chemical MSG but not natural MSG"
It's the same compound. Exactly the same. They may have an issue due to the *amount*, but there is no legitimate distinction between "chemical" MSG and "natural" MSG. The molecules are identical, regardless the source.
@@SiriusMined The issue is the concentration used. Naturally occurring MSG is in much lower quantities. A careless chef can easily over do it, as it's not as noticeable as table salt.
@@dark_neverlandAh yes, chemical MSG, just like chemical O2 and H2O, very lethal in high concentrations you know.
@@jasonstormsong4940 not sure why you felt the need to be a dick.
As an Italian-American, Chinese food still has such a close place in my heart. When we want to eat as a family all together, whether that means family is in town or we want to treat someone, we will eat either a huge pasta and meat sauce dish shared with everyone or Chinese food. My grandparents' first ever date together was Chinese food, and the only takeout my grandma could ever afford was Chinese!
I love how first association with Italian cuisine are pizza and pasta while that food is not traditional "real" Italian food, but dishes that Marco Polo bring from China and developed on the sea during the long journeys.
All people I know that went to Italy and tried pizza there was very disappointed, it's a thin crust very basic type of pizza while you can find more interesting flavors in America or even here, in Croatia (we are neighbors to Italy) while traditional Italian diet is Mediterranean with a lot of fish dishes, diary products, many types of cheese and usage of aromatic plants and olive oil.
@@zljmbo “more interesting flavors” = pineapple pizza. No, thank you!
@@incanusolorin2607 I'm sorry you're incapable of coming up with any flavor other than the one you dislike, it really speaks to a deficit of both creativity and enjoyment of life and that is deeply sad
Ha, Chinese food is still one of the only other ethnic foods my Italian immigrant parents will eat!
@@zljmbo It's a pervasive myth, but neither of those foods have a Chinese origin. Pizza probably evolved from earlier Persian and Greek flatbreads, and there's documented evidence of pasta in Italy well before Marco Polo's journeys.
I’m black and grew up in the South and I couldn’t agree more about Chinese American food deserving respect. There was a spot in my hometown called The Chicken Shack. To this day it’s still the most delicious food I’ve ever eaten from a restaurant. Better than any gourmet food I’ve eaten in New York or LA. Also no disrespect to other regions but the South has the best Chinese American food in the US.
Thank you from one marginalized community to another. (Shout out to soul food, which doesn't get the respect it deserves either! Racists have no taste, it's sad lol.) I grew up in NYC but I always wanted to try Chinese American food in the South. A lot of people think the only Chinese immigrant communities are in the coastal cities but there's a long history of Chinese immigrants who established themselves in the South & along the Mississippi.
same, but i live in LA and all of these chinese places are kinda weak but this local one in my city is just unparallel in its deliciousness
theres some good places in the Hamptons, really upscale i really just like upscale food ive worked at Chinese restaurants before and been called accused of Sinophobia by my leftie cousin for criticizing the ccp a totalitarian regime isnt a race, great people great sense of humor some of the best food ive ever had
@Koriander Yander pad thai is great, dont do takeout usually but once you dfind a great place its the best one in town probbs
you're damn right. southerners know how to cook, especially southern poc
I'm sorry I just remembered when people stopped eating Chinese food when the pandemic was worse because they though it was "infected" 😭😭😭
I made a point of eating chinese food more often for that very reason.
@@titanuranus3095 Same!
When they have nothing not do with it and the disease could have been brought over by some white guy who was on vacation that literally all it need but it need a Chinese person when virus don't be discriminate lol
the chinese food restaurant near my job stopped accepting people in their stores just after the shutdown started....they are still in business..but you have to order through what is basically a radio.....
my boss is like "they knew the virus was coming" uh...yeah, tim...we all did....they are just protecting themselves from the ASSHOLES that want to cause them harm....
yeah, that was so fucking evil for people to do, seriously. the Chinese place in town was literally the only and best restaurant who took precautions when COVID hit. they put up massive plastic screens, set up fully contactless pay, even with cash, and required you call in advance to place an order so they could tell you when to come in to avoid more than one customer waiting inside at once. God I wish it wasn't so late they were closed. I want their mapo dofu so bad.
I'm part Chinese, but never grew up around Chinese culture (in the US). When I went to college, I joined the Chinese Student Association and made many Chinese friends. My more Americanized Chinese friends thought Panda was "fake Chinese food" and hated it, as well with other local Chinese restaurants. My more traditional Chinese friends LOVED Panda and every Chinese restaurant around. It was so strange witnessing this first-hand.
Icelandic person here we eat conventionally weird food because our ancestors had to eat anything they could to survive we even have a midwinter festival called Þorrablót where we eat a congregation of these dishes. we still eat the heads of sheep, dried fish ,blood pudding, sting ray, etc people that don’t understand why others eat “weird food” is often because their ancestors weren’t subject to harsh climate and food shortages of other cultures. Great video, I’ve always been a sucker for Chinese and Chinese-American food. One thing I made myself to try this year was chicken feet during dim sum and it’s now one of my favorites and something I always order with lunch service
Surprised you didn’t mention hakarl. I mean, who even eats that anymore?
@@garcalej what do you mean? we still eat it
@@SuperNomnomcat Why????
@@garcalej because it’s what my people have been eating for hundreds of years?
@@SuperNomnomcat Does it taste good?
“I cool massive amounts and stick in the fridge to eat for days.” Ah, so you have mastered the Puerto Rican college student method. I’d make a huge cauldron of rice with spices and seasonings, beans and a meat in it and that would be my linch for a whole week. Good times
I think it's just the international "I live alone and don't wanna spend too much on takeout" method
My stepdad would fill a whole turkey pan with cooked rice, various vegetables (most often corn, peas and green beans), seasoned meats (ground beef and dinner sausage unless stew beef was on sale) and occasionally some other random things for texture or flavor and that would feed our family of 4 for about a week.
Pretty much how I cook too.
I make a serving of 8-10, portion it, fridge it, and eat for at least one of my meals for the rest of the week. Sometimes, I might even cook two different meals. Because eating the same thing every day eventually loses its charm... or I just add sauce. 😄
We all in this ''Im gonna cook a shit ton of food that will last for the next few days'' boat lmao
@@gloomcat3867 room for one more?
Dutch Chinese food also has a quite interesting history, because it's bascially a form of chinese-indonesian fusion cuisine. If you say chinese food in the netherlands, indonesian dishes and indo-chinese food will come to mind. Like bami goreng, nasi goreng, loempia spring rolls, babi panggang, sate, and krupuk. And even these are made differently than they would be in indonesia. It's food you can kind of only get here, they wouldn't have it anywhere else.
It stems from our history of colonization of course. People came to the Netherlands after indonesia gained independence in 1945 and brought the food with them. At the same time, chinese restaurants operated by immigrants were growing in numbers all over the world. Somewhere in the 50s, they started to merge and form the dutch indo-chinese cuisine that's so ubiquitous here today.
There are more authentic chinese and indonesian restaurants, of course. But the classic takeout stuff? That's still fully mixed.
MSG is something that I was taught about in highschool for Culinary(I’m working to becoming a red seal chef) and we had units of different styles of cooking, including Americanized Chinese food, and MSG was covered in that unit, and it really is in almost everything. On another note, thank you for sharing this bit of history! Also, contact a butcher for the blood hon, they may be able to find it for you.
“Don’t fall for that strategic incompetence, okay?”
Why is this actually good advice in general lol. Also idk why this was recommended to me but it was really interesting. I love your energy.
Also I never understood people looking down at “fake” food from other cultures. Like… I think it’s super interesting how dishes vary from place to place and how the same dish may vary depending on who cooks it. Y’know?
Chinese food is kind of interesting in the sense that it's not really a food, it's a set of techniques and tools that can be adapted to use virtually any set of ingredients. The whole business of calling Chinese-American food fake makes little sense when you consider just how different the local cuisine is from various parts of China. What's eaten in one area may have virtually nothing in common with what's eaten in another area.
It's because of identity. If a culture can change and adapt to other cultures, what still constitutes the culture? It's just a natural human reaction which is why it's so prevalent
@@SmallSpoonBrigade most french cooking. Is French techniques, so it's really the same logic. Parts in the south of France have different cuisine to northern. Well until globalization became a thing of course.
The VAST majority of Americans have no clue about the West Coast's history of anti-Chinese racism, all they know about is anti-Black racism east of the Mississippi. They learn about the Gold Rush and nothing else. This was a phenomenally well made video essay, and I highly respect the craftsmanship. Subscribed!
California has a long history of racism
Spanish came in the 1600s and enslaved or slaughtered natives.
When white Americans settled they brought slavery with them. Native reservation schoold
There is Asian immigrant ban, black segregation and Japanese interment camps,
California voted against same sex marriage.
California is hardly the landmark for acceptance
@@somethingclever8916 I... Literally never said it was. Take your essay elsewhere.
I must have gone to a very good school because I always hear people say that Americans weren't educated about a certain subject, and 99% of the time I was educated about it. I did learn about manifest destiny, the expansion west, the gold rush, the Anti-Chinese sentiment and how that influenced both our immigration policies and our drug policies.
I honestly thought the internment camps, the anti-Asian history in California was taught in CA schools. In Oakland this is part of curriculum well maybe just my school.
They dont really teach it but I found that out pretty quickly. In the town that I grew up in, i think it was my middle school history teacher who said it, but apparently next to the town graveyard there is another graveyard where they used to bury Chinese immigrants. The graves are unmarked though. Probably not all surprising though, unfortunately. Im not 100 percent certain that this is actually true though, but I think it is. I think there's also a burial site of a similar nature over by Sutter's mill. I visited that place when i was very young so my memory is probably not all that reliable. Also I don't think that I actually visited that burial site either. I merely passed by it. Again might be very wrong so take that with a huge pile of salt
Me: "yup, Chinese, French, and Icelandic cuisine sure can be weird!"
The southern US grocery store across the street from me: *has fried chicken gizzard, picked pig's lips, alligator sausage, and canned turtle soup on the shelves*
So two of those things (gizzard and pickled pig lips) come from southern culture of trying to waste no part of the animal from poor communities. So of course it looks weird. Turtle soup, however, as far as I know isn't just an american thing. I'm pretty sure there's a few other small countries who do the same. But the alligator sausage I find the most interesting to talk about, because in a way, farming alligator helped preserve the species and drove businesses to actually protect alligator breeding grounds and natural habitats. Which, like, yeah, you're eating animals and many would find that unethical, but, if it means a species keeps living I see it as a net positive. Though factory farms are still, like this whole issue.
A lot of that is traditional food for the southern black community, because slaves were given the garbage parts of the animals and had to make due.
I mean Alligator is a Cajun thing and Cajun Cuisine started in Louisiana with the French had a part in its creation, so...
@@Channel9001 and it kind of continued past slavery into the sharecropper era which wasn't great either and often gets overlooked. Slavery was huge, but very little is talked about post slavery where cajuns, blacks, and whites were basically thrown right back into virtual slavery with low wages and grueling work to farm a half acre of land they didn't even get to own. Like, Louisianna is still dealing with those things today as a state. To be freed only to be told you get to be a half or quarter-pay slave like the rest of the poor people is a bum rap and a horrendous period of history.
@@naraku971 specifically the arcadian french who were basically either imprisoned by the british when france sold the colony, OR went on the run farther south until finally settling in the louisianna region.
One of the first things I learned in neuropharmacology was that MSG literally cannot cause the symptoms alleged by people who say it affects them. I now put it in most of what I cook. :-)
The MSG thing is also a general issue with how people understand food, especially "natural" or "organic" food and the lack of understanding about chemistry and the science of food. If you take that ignorance and add racial bias, you get a huge stigma based on lack of knowledge,
For a few people like me there is a valid reason to avoid it, I have a sensitivity to it that causes migraines (and yes it happens even when I don't know it's in the food and then find out later). But I ain't gonna tell people not to eat it because of that, for 99% of people it's perfectly harmless, all I want is for restaurants to put it on their allergen list because that's essentially what it is to me ^^; I'm wary of MSG in any restaurant personally, essentially any restaurant that makes savory food has a chance of using MSG, so it's always my first question when entering a new restaurant, but again, only because I have what essentially amounts to an allergy to it. Fun fact to all the people who freak out about "Chinese restaurants all using MSG", in my experience, restaurants like Chick-fil-A and Golden Corral have a million times more MSG than the Chinese restaurants in my local area.
@@dragonspirit996 having actively avoided all code names for MSG natural flavouring, yeast extract etc i now also have a slight reaction to it as well. Will go for naturally occurring glutamates however like mushrooms, aged cheese, fish sauce etc
@@qwertyasf one of my friends can't even have those and has to almost totally avoid cheese, potatoes, fish etc so that they don't get too much glutamate.
This reminds me of how Hawaii local delicacies became a thing. All of our foods were influenced by plantation workers from different ethnic backgrounds in one way or another.
For example, our version of American's Chop suey, was Saimin. It's non existent in both chinese and japanese culture, it was similar but unique. As the word was derived from chow mein except, it's more soup based before Japan developed 'ramen', in 1950s. Not only its influenced by these two cultures but also, Koreans, Portuguese, Filipinos, etc. I was very surprised when i learned this fact.
Even then, asians were segregated since dominating the population, these foods was served in many local businesses for generations and given respect by people from all backgrounds. It was a comfort food since the plantation era and growing up.
Sadly, i'm hearing some of these businesses closing down due to covid. So, if you're still in Hawaii, pls check them out while you still can
"American Chinese food is fake!"
They said while eating gas station sushi
And TexMex 🤣
TexMex and american sushi rolls are the best damn things ever and I’ll fight people on it.
There’s a sushi place near my house with this roll called the smokin philly which is a giant philly roll (salmon, cucumber, cream cheese) and they take that and fry it, and then cover it in spicy mayo and eel sauce and it tastes like heaven
Tex Mex has alot of history that goes back to the Texas Revolution where mexican ranchers would make quick meals in the style that was popular around. Its no different from the Tex Polish and Tex German cuisine that is enjoyed around Texas.
@@darechick0894 - I know they have history similar to Chinese-American food, it’s just a comment on how people will say American Chinese food is “fake” but they’ll eat gas station sushi or TexMex and say that that’s “real” Mexican or Japanese food when they’re just as blended
DD ate gas station sushi for lunch. This is what happened to their memes.
Thank you so much for this video! I used to be rather snobbish about American Chinese food after spending time in Singapore and falling in love with the Chinese (and every other) food there. But then I realised that cuisine always adapts, and why should American Chinese food earn any less respect than, say, Tex-Mex? I now enjoy a wide range of "fusion" cuisine. I love it when cultures come together and enrich each other, be it in cooking, art or anything else. Keep up the great work!
PS: I love that you named your cat Temujin after Ghengis Khan! Also, I never thought about the history and struggles behind American Chinese food. Thanks for opening my eyes!
PPS: One thing I enjoy when eating out with my Chinese speaking friends is ordering from the Chinese menues, which often list some delicious dishes not on the English or German menues.
Loved this video! So many times people complain and look down on diaspora food for not been "equal" or "authentic" enough. Of course food made miles away and with different ingredients will not be the exact same, but it's still part of a culture.
I had no idea "Chinese/Italian/Irish/etc American" foods were being mocked or labelled as "not real Chinese/Italian/Irish", I mean it's literally in their name that they are also American, the fact that it is a part of the diasporas culture is obvious.
Yeah its common that its all mocked because its not completely accurate to the original cuisines
I remember once telling a friend that my favorite dish at our local Chinese restaurant was the kung pow shrimp and she got so snooty with me about how it wasn't "really" Chinese food... hon I didn't say it was, I said I liked to eat it. I wish I'd known all this then. Also I want kung pow shrimp now 🦐🦐🦐
Your cat's name is Temujin?! My ancestors might not be happy about it haha. I am partly Mongolian from Xinjiang and Japanese but I was born and bred in Malaysia before settling in Australia. Chinese food to me is quite diverse. In Malaysia where I grew up, Southern Chinese food is very common, especially Cantonese, Hokkien (Fujian), Hakka and Teochew cuisine. When I moved to Sydney in 2012, Southern Chinese people had already made a foothold of their own culture here but there is an increase in people from Shanghai, Beijing, Sichuan and their surrounding cities moving down to Australia and introducing dishes popular up there like Sichuan Malatang, Xian-style lamb dumplings and Shanghai style cuisine. Nowadays Chinese cuisine in Sydney is much more attributed to Malatang rather than Dim Sum because of this new wave of migration.
I don't mind eating any type of Asian cuisine. However, I once had an Asian-American customer here in Sydney who told me how amazed he was at the availability of different type of foods here compared to the USA. He couldn't make up his mind on what to choose, which probably tells me that the food selection in the USA might be lacking diversity, however I can't confirm that because I have never been in the USA before.
I live in the USA, and as an Asian I mostly go to Asian markets and stuff. But yeah, the food selections aren’t the most diverse
Everyone: Chinese food is weird
Me, a Finnish person: would you like some blood in your cereal?
You have got to elaborate cause I’m interested
@@Noname-lx2gq historically, finnish people LOVE blood. Blood pudding, blood sausages, blood pancakes, blood dumplings, blood soup, you name it, we got it.
To be honest, It's not so popular anymore, since our culture has become very integrated with the rest of Europe and we've kinda moved away from the "every part of an animal can and should be eaten" mindset, but there's still a lot of blood products on store shelves and the older generation loves them.
@@krokulridgestalker7007 got it, thanks for elaborating
@@krokulridgestalker7007 Finland, officially being Europe's most Metal nation since forever.
"Who are you, Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way?"
"No! I'm Finnish!"
This is a good discussion with a point I really appreciate. I came to the conclusion of "this is what came from Chinese people who live in the U.S., so it should count too." a few years back, but this has more research behind it and feels more articulate. Love your work as always.
Yo I hadn’t eaten Panda Express in like 2 years and when I ate it again I was really pleasantly surprised by how good it was. That shit bangs
Especially the rice. Something about rice is just so delicious
It is really good. I wish they would bring back the Tofu Eggplant. It was vegan and so so good!! I keep asking, but nothing yet 😭
This was eye-opening, thank you!
Interestingly, in Germany most Asian restaurants (generalisation intended) with the exception of Indian and high-end restaurants of other Asian cultures are somewhat monopolised by Vietnamese people. I wonder what the history behind that is.
My brain: “Very interesting stuff Xiran, it’s very fact heavy”
My stomach: “Excuse me Xiran, I have to eat some adobo because you made me hungry!”
Mmm adobo is delicious
Now i want some but we dont have any how dare u/j
can you share some...?
@@fivetopoint I don’t mind sharing, I just don’t know about the others who haven’t heard of Filipino food lol
My favorite version is Mexican-Chinese food. Back in my hometown in Mexico, we have two Chinese restaurants owned by Chinese immigrants who’ve been here for 40+ years, and their food is freaking delicious. I always make a note to order from them whenever I visit my parents.
I’m very curious, what type of food do they make?
Are they still open?
Must be delicious!!
Not gunna lie, I would travel to your hometown just to try that food because it sounds delicious.
I have had Chinese food in Mexico*, and it's wildly delicious.
*I highly recommend you check out ethnic cuisines whenever you travel. You can learn a lot about the food in France by learning what and how Indian immigrants cook there, for example.
I always wondered why so many "Chinese kitchens" have food from like 8 countries
China, Taiwan, Thailand, Mongolia, Laos, both Korea's, Japan
and maybe that's because of how Americans try to group so much of east and southeast Asia together so I wonder if people were like "well we're already neighbors, let's maximize our business together"
China is the historically dominant power in the region this is like asking why German food includes Czech cuisine.
there's also a lot of Chinese diaspora in other countries, for instance my local American Chinese restaurant when I was growing up was owned and run by a family that was ethnically Chinese but immigrated from Korea. they made the best food and nothing else in the area has ever compared since they closed lol 🥲 rip
China has had a lot of influence on most (if not all) of those countries so that could also be part of it
Lots of dishes sold here in the Netherlands as "Chinese/Asian" food tends to be Indonesian. And stuff from other Asian countries just gets mixed.
you know what that makes more sense
I've watched this video on multiple occasions and it always makes me feel oddly emotional and touched, even though I'm not Chinese; I've always felt such a draw to americanized foreign cuisine as someone in a diaspora group, and I find the cultural resilience to be one of the most inspiring, however often tragic, aspects of life on earth
It's interesting how "glutamate sensitivity" is still a thing. I have a friend who was told her migraines were from sensitivity to MSG, so she basically avoids it in everything. It has helped her migraines, but I wonder how much of that is psychosomatic (like my friend with the bell pepper allergy who only reacted to them if she knew it was in something). I looked it up and there really is no conclusive research that people have this sensitivity. I don't think I should tell her that her doctor was inadvertently racist though since it seems to work for her.
I get migraines from foods with too much msg but... it's because it raises my blood pressure which too much salt does in general. And that's on me for not keeping track of my salt intake. Lol
Its like the whole "gluten allergy" thing. People believe gluten is making them sick and feel worse, but other than celliac disease, there's not really any data on this. I personally think its either all in their head or they were eating too many carbs in the first place. Jokes on them, gluten is what makes bread and sweets so fluffy delicious.
@@abiwonkenabi7027 you can have gluten allergy and sensitivity without having celiac disease and yes, there is data on it. There’s just not a lot of data as to what causes the sensitivity alone yet. It’s like IBS. No one knows what causes it and it can’t be tested for but its still very real and can cause serious problems.
Yes, there are people for whom it probably is something they’re imagining the problem. Or others who believe it’s bad for you regardless of its effects, but if it weren’t for the “fad” then access to gluten free foods for people who need it would be a lot more difficult.
I don’t have migraines, but I do have horrible allergies. My lips puff and redden pretty much immediately when I eat msg which SUCKS because I’m Japanese and I can’t eat fucking soy sauce. Please pray for me
@@Sporezlol … the fad of gluten sensitivity has actually made it significantly harder for people with Celiac. Many things marked “gluten-free” are only wheat gluten free, making it significantly easier for someone to accidentally give gluten to someone with celiac.
Also, while there has been some evidence that some people actually have an allergy or sensitivity to gluten, the numbers are extraordinarily low and there’s no clear evidence why so many people “feel better” when they stop eating wheat gluten. There are many theories, but they are quite hard to test due to the fact that eating “gluten-free” inherently also means eating less sodium & processed foods.
“Thanksgiving means _nothing_ to me”
Thank you chinese restaurants for giving me crab legs instead of turkey. 🙏
Same here, my parents are both immigrants to the US (dad is from El Salvador and my mom from Iran) and thanksgiving just never really took hold. They tried but I thought it was the most boring holiday ever.
@@Seek1878
I’ve cut off the majority of my extended family for reasons and the past 3 years my mom and I went to Chinese restaurants instead of my grandparents for thanksgiving.
We still do thanksgiving but honestly there’s only like 4 good dishes and they’re all boring
The whole bit about chop suey made me laugh. there are so many dishes praised as fine cuisine nowadays, or that people, especially americans, love and get served in restaurants as staples that were originally just leftover food reworked into a full meal or a way to not waste food a little past it's prime. Every single stew you can think of, pizza, paella... I'm french and americans love to tell me how much they like French toast, and the look on their faces when I explain that it's name in French translates to "lost bread" because it's what people did to bread that had gone super stale to make it edible. My grandmother even told me it was better if the bread had a bit of mould on it.
LMAOO, that’s amazing. It’s hilarious seeing American dine on pasta in high class restaurants knowing it could be considered peasant food in Italy. Even within their own countries, these things can change in status over time, like Lobsters going from trash to high class, or such going from street food to 3 michelin star restaurants.
Reminds me of my family, whenever a partial loaf of bread went stale we'd make French toast with it. I didn't know it was meant to be made with stale bread.
Leftovers being reworked in all cultures is honestly some of the best food!
@@andyzhang7890 Pasta isn’t uncommon across Italy, but it’s not eaten (by the rich) like it’s eaten in America
what the French toast xD good to know. ty
I had no idea about the fortune cookies.. that gave me chills. It may sound trite but we had the sweetest neighbors when i was a little girl. They met at in a concentration camp. They were my adoptive grandparents. They let me sneak over and steal the coffee candies off of their coffee table, ride their german shepherd, and play "around" their koi pond :) I got away with things their own children never would have but they were so loving. I cannot imagine how anyone would have considered them a danger to this country. Despite that he ended up being one of the largest strawberry growers in the Pajaro Valley. I still miss them to this day and think of them often
Hilariously, we had same thing with Myanmar.
We had our diaspora food being closer to Chinese (due to lack of Chinese Exclusion Act until the 60’s), cultural exchange , and similar climate to Southern China for many ingredients used in it to grow there.
I mean Kung Pao is closer to original Kung Pao (black sauce) but it had cashew nut and use pork along with beef for varieties.
Imo, "real" Chinese restaurants in actual Chinatown when I was growing up were meant to serve Chinese Americans. They weren't meant to be exotic food for Americans or brand new showy restaurant food for mainland Chinese; they were meant to be nostalgic food for immigrants, and I feel like neither Americans nor mainland Chinese understood that.
Also ngl I love orange chicken. It's honestly a very Chinese American food. If you haven't had it at an actual Chinatown restaurant, the chicken meat quality at an actual restaurant is WAY better than takeout. The meat is actually the star of the dish, not just the breading and sauce
Honestly I didn’t know that specific target demographic type of restaurant existed, makes total sense.
We don't have orange chicken in Australia but it sounds so nice!
We have lemon chicken... Is that the same?
@@peristudd5825 I suppose it's similar but orange zest and lemon zest are definitely very different. They just both happen to be citrus fruits with similar acidity levels that give them their 'sourness' i suppose. If you ever get the chance to try orange chicken i recommend it! Never had lemon chicken and now i want some here in the US.
@@peristudd5825 lemon chicken is basically the OG citrus chicken dish. Very authentically hk.
@@sundalosketch4769 lemon chicken is actually very sweet. It's fluffy battered chicken and the lemon sauce is like the consistency of syrup or honey when it's warm. It's very sweet.
13:32 Thank you for bringing this up. My partner's mother has a lot of misconceptions about other cultures, and I found out one day when we were going to order takeout that she had some major blindspots about China. She thought any foods that involved wheat-based dough were the result of Western influence, and she didn't want to get baozi or certain noodles because they weren't "authentic" and she wanted to try "authentic" Chinese food (she hardly ever eats Chinese food because she hasn't liked it in the past, and has blamed her not liking it on it being Americanized). She thought the only grain that Chinese people ate was rice. I had to explain to her that wheat has been grown in China for thousands of years and has long been a staple part of the diet. She took my word for it. (I'm not Chinese by the way, I just know things...and I know how to Google.)
I’ve been working on a script for the past couple months covering Chinese American food history, the exclusion act and immigrant hardships which would precede our wonton soup recipe. You basically covered everything I had written and did it even better. I may just have to refer to this video.