“When I have visitors from China, I take them to genuinely American-Chinese restaurants like the HongKong in Harvard Square. They really like that! Because Chinese food in China is one thing. Fake-snobby ‘real’ Chinese food in the US is different. “
Thus, at dinner tonight, an eminent Chinese historian who’s been part of the Sidney Coleman poker cabal with me for more than 20 years. Which just goes to show that even old friends can surprise you!
The earliest American-Chinese food, I learned, was stuff like chop suey, chow mein, and egg foo young–never heard of in China. In the seventies, American palates were introduced to kung pao chicken and moo shu pork.
“It’s funny,” John told us, “many people deplore the corruption of Chinese restaurant menus with inauthentic American-Chinese food. But what I dread is seeing the old egg-foo-young stuff replaced by the fakery of so-called ‘authentic’ Chinese restaurant food.”
By the way, our entire dinner conversation took place at a Japanese sashimi restaurant!