1 00:00:24,310 --> 00:00:26,610 Chi? Chi? 2 00:00:27,780 --> 00:00:29,580 Chi? 3 00:00:29,580 --> 00:00:30,940 Hello? Chi? 4 00:00:30,940 --> 00:00:31,970 Yeah. 5 00:00:31,980 --> 00:00:34,210 Are you ready? Yeah. 6 00:00:34,210 --> 00:00:35,570 Hi! 7 00:00:39,650 --> 00:00:42,850 Give me that dish and for the oil I need water. 8 00:00:42,850 --> 00:00:45,250 Oil. Water. 9 00:00:46,820 --> 00:00:48,880 Give me the brush. I need a brush. 10 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:28,020 1 11 00:01:28,030 --> 00:01:29,470 2 12 00:01:41,140 --> 00:01:44,140 What is General Tso's chicken? 13 00:01:44,140 --> 00:01:45,900 General Tso's chicken is usually... 14 00:01:45,910 --> 00:01:47,140 chicken legs. 15 00:01:47,140 --> 00:01:48,500 Dark meat of the chicken. 16 00:01:48,510 --> 00:01:50,000 Best made from dark meat. 17 00:01:50,010 --> 00:01:51,610 They, cut about, uh.. 18 00:01:52,610 --> 00:01:53,870 Inch square. 19 00:01:55,980 --> 00:01:58,010 Marinade that was thick white. 20 00:01:58,950 --> 00:02:01,650 Deep fried in a wok. 21 00:02:01,650 --> 00:02:03,750 And is quickly tossed in the sauce. 22 00:02:05,390 --> 00:02:07,520 - Garlicky. - Tangy. 23 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:08,850 Intensive heat. 24 00:02:08,860 --> 00:02:11,030 With sweet intensive taste. 25 00:02:11,030 --> 00:02:13,500 - Salty. - Outside little crisp. 26 00:02:13,500 --> 00:02:14,930 Inside still tender. 27 00:02:14,930 --> 00:02:17,800 A glorious, sweet, fried chicken dish. 28 00:02:22,300 --> 00:02:24,260 I don't think that General Tso's chicken's 29 00:02:24,270 --> 00:02:27,540 The most popular ethnic dish in the country 30 00:02:27,540 --> 00:02:29,540 Only because there's pizza. 31 00:02:30,670 --> 00:02:32,030 Restaurant after restaurant 32 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:34,100 It's become american food, almost. 33 00:02:35,310 --> 00:02:39,370 My customer, they come here 7 times a week. 34 00:02:39,380 --> 00:02:41,340 Unbelievable. 35 00:02:41,350 --> 00:02:43,790 I can't wait to start chowing down on this. 36 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:53,580 I don't know that there was a manual 37 00:02:53,590 --> 00:02:56,560 For restaurateurs, but you'll find 38 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,060 A random Chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere 39 00:02:59,060 --> 00:03:01,760 And all of a sudden selling General Tso's chicken. 40 00:03:02,700 --> 00:03:04,700 How did that happen? 41 00:03:32,690 --> 00:03:34,180 Almond chicken, walnut chicken 42 00:03:34,190 --> 00:03:36,820 Chow gai pan, which is boneless chicken 43 00:03:36,830 --> 00:03:38,500 Crispy baked chicken, sesame chicken. 44 00:03:38,500 --> 00:03:42,200 Oh, there he is, the General, $10.95. 45 00:03:43,500 --> 00:03:47,540 In 1981, I was new to New York City 46 00:03:47,540 --> 00:03:50,570 And I was alone in an apartment on the upper westside. 47 00:03:50,570 --> 00:03:53,830 And I heard a riffle at the door 48 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,270 And I thought, "Oh, great, I've been here three days 49 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:57,910 and I'm about to get robbed." 50 00:03:57,910 --> 00:04:00,850 And I peeked out from around the corner 51 00:04:00,850 --> 00:04:03,780 and saw something slide under the front door 52 00:04:03,780 --> 00:04:05,640 and few minutes later I got up the nerve 53 00:04:05,650 --> 00:04:07,520 and went and looked at it and it was from 54 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,690 Hunan Royal Restaurant. A Chinese takeout menu. 55 00:04:12,990 --> 00:04:16,460 Thus began, uh, what's now a quarter century of 56 00:04:16,460 --> 00:04:19,460 Collecting Chinese restaurant memorabilia. 57 00:04:19,460 --> 00:04:22,390 This is my Chinese restaurant memorabilia archive. 58 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:25,330 It starts up here with large format menus. 59 00:04:25,330 --> 00:04:28,030 It fills these shelves. 60 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:29,700 And these shelves. 61 00:04:29,700 --> 00:04:32,400 I have over 10,000 restaurant menus 62 00:04:32,410 --> 00:04:34,640 From all 50 United States 63 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:37,270 From over a 100 nations around the world. 64 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:39,510 This is my Guinness World Record 65 00:04:39,510 --> 00:04:43,170 For the world's largest collection of restaurant menus. 66 00:04:43,180 --> 00:04:46,640 Rosticceria Chinese, a Chinese roast shop. 67 00:04:46,650 --> 00:04:48,710 For some reason in Italy 68 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:52,120 Chinese takeout menus are squares. 69 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:53,850 Lucky 8 Chinese Restaurant 70 00:04:53,860 --> 00:04:55,390 With Bruce Lee on the cover. 71 00:04:55,390 --> 00:04:58,020 I don't think they're paying the Bruce Lee family 72 00:04:58,030 --> 00:05:00,400 any royalties, but I don't know. 73 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:04,770 Beyond the menus I collect matchbooks, postcards 74 00:05:04,770 --> 00:05:08,370 Toothpicks, chopsticks calendars, magnets 75 00:05:08,370 --> 00:05:10,570 Baseball caps, t-shirts. 76 00:05:10,570 --> 00:05:13,370 Wooden stir fry slicing play set. 77 00:05:13,370 --> 00:05:15,670 Our son was given this when he was born 78 00:05:15,670 --> 00:05:17,670 And I stole it immediately from him 79 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:19,780 And leave it in the package. 80 00:05:19,780 --> 00:05:21,810 You can just throw pins at this menu 81 00:05:21,810 --> 00:05:25,740 And get great stuff like fresh snake stem with bean curd slice. 82 00:05:25,750 --> 00:05:28,960 If you see on a menu, you see these little pen ticks. 83 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:31,080 Um, most people don't see those 84 00:05:31,090 --> 00:05:32,520 But I'm a menu professional. 85 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,480 A pen tick around a dish means that the waiter 86 00:05:35,490 --> 00:05:37,690 Has recommended it many times. 87 00:05:38,590 --> 00:05:41,150 Menus are like mystery books. 88 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:43,260 You know th... they answer a lot of questions 89 00:05:43,260 --> 00:05:44,460 And they are a lot of fun to read 90 00:05:44,470 --> 00:05:47,040 But they end up asking more questions. 91 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,530 The mysteries of the Orient. 92 00:05:51,870 --> 00:05:54,740 I must have 15 different spellings of Tso 93 00:05:54,740 --> 00:05:56,740 In my menu collection. 94 00:06:00,510 --> 00:06:03,870 It's t-s-o, so it's Tso. How do I pronounce it again? 95 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:05,910 Uh, I don't know if you say the t or not. 96 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,550 I just kind of blur a bit, and that way no one really knows if I'm saying it right or not. 97 00:06:09,550 --> 00:06:11,410 But I get mine over brown rice. 98 00:06:11,420 --> 00:06:13,490 It's my healthy thing for the day. 99 00:06:13,490 --> 00:06:16,660 Well, up in Chico they call it General Chicken. 100 00:06:16,660 --> 00:06:18,530 You know, it's been called, General Toes 101 00:06:18,530 --> 00:06:22,030 It's been called... I think the Naval Academy calls it Admiral Toes. 102 00:06:22,030 --> 00:06:23,730 I feel like no matter what restaurant you go to 103 00:06:23,730 --> 00:06:27,130 There's always a different spelling of General Tso, so.. 104 00:06:27,130 --> 00:06:30,130 So there's a lot to find about him. 105 00:06:30,140 --> 00:06:32,100 I haven't a clue who he is. 106 00:06:32,100 --> 00:06:35,030 I guess he must've came up with the recipe himself. 107 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:38,080 I think he was a... a General in the Chinese army 108 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:40,540 Who died during the time of Chairman Mao or something 109 00:06:40,540 --> 00:06:43,310 And that was his favorite dish and they named it after him. 110 00:06:43,310 --> 00:06:46,840 He, uh, had his private chef cook this dish, you know? 111 00:06:46,850 --> 00:06:48,820 Uh, even when he went to battle. 112 00:06:48,820 --> 00:06:52,690 I don't think it was a dish that was made for that General. 113 00:06:52,690 --> 00:06:56,490 Maybe it was made in honor of him a 100 years after his death. 114 00:06:56,490 --> 00:06:59,630 I think they just named it because it sounds exotic 115 00:06:59,630 --> 00:07:01,900 After somebody nobody's ever heard of. 116 00:07:01,900 --> 00:07:04,920 I imagine General Tso as almost 117 00:07:04,930 --> 00:07:08,700 A bearded mongolian warrior, who's on a horse for sure 118 00:07:08,700 --> 00:07:10,770 Riding wildly. 119 00:07:10,770 --> 00:07:13,200 He's a General, so he obviously has a hat. 120 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:15,200 And he has a military uniform. 121 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:17,000 But maybe it's bulging a little bit 122 00:07:17,010 --> 00:07:19,410 Because he's so chubby from eating all that chicken. 123 00:07:19,410 --> 00:07:23,910 Beautiful armor, you know, with jade maybe and gold pieces. 124 00:07:23,910 --> 00:07:26,150 He probably looks kind of fancy 125 00:07:26,150 --> 00:07:28,550 With an army of thousands. 126 00:07:28,550 --> 00:07:31,820 Did he love chicken? We don't know. 127 00:07:31,820 --> 00:07:33,420 Nobody knows. 128 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,370 I know that the General's name is a Chinese name. 129 00:08:00,370 --> 00:08:02,700 I can say it if I knew what it was. 130 00:08:08,810 --> 00:08:10,270 "Zuo Zong Ji" 131 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,940 Or they also say it "Zuo Zongtang Ji." 132 00:08:13,950 --> 00:08:16,210 I've only eaten it when I would have 133 00:08:16,220 --> 00:08:18,860 American-Chinese takeout when I was little. 134 00:08:18,860 --> 00:08:20,830 I was surprised, I have to say 135 00:08:20,830 --> 00:08:25,920 That I haven't seen it directly on a menu in China. 136 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:27,580 General Tso was a 19th century General 137 00:12:27,580 --> 00:12:30,480 In the Qing Dynasty. 138 00:12:30,490 --> 00:12:33,590 And helped put down the Taiping Rebellion 139 00:12:33,590 --> 00:12:36,160 Uh, which was a great peasant rebellion. 140 00:12:39,130 --> 00:12:40,830 He was a great patriot. 141 00:12:40,830 --> 00:12:42,960 He had tremendous loyalty from his men. 142 00:12:44,260 --> 00:12:46,590 He was obviously a very intelligent 143 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:48,840 and strategically sophisticated person. 144 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:52,060 And also, I think, ruthless. 145 00:12:52,070 --> 00:12:55,040 Zuo Zongtang was very much part of that mentality 146 00:12:55,040 --> 00:13:00,610 Of trying to strengthen China and maintain Chinese values. 147 00:13:00,610 --> 00:13:02,210 General Tso played a critical role 148 00:13:02,210 --> 00:13:05,310 in keeping together what is now modern-day China. 149 00:13:05,310 --> 00:13:07,610 At that point, there was truly a threat 150 00:13:07,620 --> 00:13:10,050 you know, during the age of colonization. 151 00:13:10,050 --> 00:13:15,920 And he always wanted to keep the Westerners out of China. 152 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:20,080 So if you told General Tso that this dish was named after him 153 00:13:20,090 --> 00:13:22,290 I think he'd raise his eyebrows. 154 00:13:24,260 --> 00:13:26,690 General Tso's chicken, it's a very sweet dish. 155 00:13:26,700 --> 00:13:27,800 And the Hunanese 156 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:29,630 although they have some sweet dishes 157 00:13:29,630 --> 00:13:32,890 they don't really like mixing sweet and savory foods. 158 00:13:34,470 --> 00:13:37,470 So not only have people not really heard of it 159 00:13:37,470 --> 00:13:39,330 but, um, it's not really the kind of flavor 160 00:13:39,340 --> 00:13:41,140 they'd like to eat anyway. 161 00:14:40,490 --> 00:14:42,890 I have no idea. 162 00:14:42,900 --> 00:14:44,560 We don't have a file on General Tso 163 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:46,560 At the Chinese Historical Society. 164 00:14:48,300 --> 00:14:51,540 It's amazing to me how a pattern developed. 165 00:14:51,540 --> 00:14:53,970 Did several people have the same idea at the same time? 166 00:14:53,970 --> 00:14:55,760 I mean, it cropped up in different places. 167 00:14:55,770 --> 00:14:57,770 East coast, west coast, you know. 168 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:01,980 So this map gives you the number 169 00:15:01,980 --> 00:15:04,280 according to the 2010 census 170 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:06,480 of Chinese 171 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:08,810 in every state of the union. 172 00:15:08,820 --> 00:15:14,190 Chinese are 1% of the US population 173 00:15:14,190 --> 00:15:17,020 which is a drop in the bucket. 174 00:15:17,020 --> 00:15:21,490 Yet, probably most americans have eaten Chinese food. 175 00:15:21,490 --> 00:15:24,620 So how do you explain that? 176 00:15:24,630 --> 00:15:26,970 And how many have eaten General Tso's chicken? 177 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:35,400 Even though there's now General Tso's chicken 178 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:37,400 in restaurants coast to coast 179 00:15:37,410 --> 00:15:40,740 there was a time when Chinese food 180 00:15:40,740 --> 00:15:43,140 was completely new to America. 181 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:50,280 The biggest reason Chinese began to come to the US 182 00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:53,180 Was the California gold rush of the 1850s. 183 00:16:00,020 --> 00:16:03,850 The early Chinese are primarily Cantonese. 184 00:16:03,860 --> 00:16:06,230 Chinese in the Guangdong area 185 00:16:06,230 --> 00:16:08,670 Started coming to California in droves 186 00:16:08,670 --> 00:16:11,630 through the port of San Francisco. 187 00:16:11,630 --> 00:16:14,490 And the Chinese Quarter got more and more crowded. 188 00:16:17,940 --> 00:16:21,710 For Americans, the Chinese were the space aliens. 189 00:16:21,710 --> 00:16:25,280 They had their hair in long braids called queues. 190 00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:28,850 They eat with sticks, not with forks. 191 00:16:28,850 --> 00:16:32,020 And americans were sort of amazed by Chinese food 192 00:16:32,020 --> 00:16:34,250 but also little bit repulsed by it. 193 00:16:35,420 --> 00:16:39,420 The mainstream audience saw Chinese food 194 00:16:39,420 --> 00:16:41,350 as scary, you know. 195 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:43,960 I mean, they thought of... they had ideas in their head 196 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:47,360 about Chinese people eating rats and things like that 197 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:49,220 and so you really were risking something 198 00:16:49,230 --> 00:16:52,170 when you went into Chinatown. 199 00:16:52,170 --> 00:16:53,970 The white authorities saw it 200 00:16:53,970 --> 00:16:56,900 as a quarter of vice and slums 201 00:16:56,900 --> 00:16:59,130 and prostitution and opium dens 202 00:16:59,140 --> 00:17:02,310 and they said, "Let us rid," uh, you know 203 00:17:02,310 --> 00:17:04,310 "San Francisco of its Chinatown." 204 00:17:05,980 --> 00:17:09,550 They saw the Chinese as the competition. 205 00:17:09,550 --> 00:17:13,550 "The Chinese must go," was the slogan that a lot of them used. 206 00:17:13,550 --> 00:17:15,140 There were laws that were put in place 207 00:17:15,150 --> 00:17:19,510 that would make it legal to prosecute violence 208 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:22,920 against Chinese, and, of course 209 00:17:22,930 --> 00:17:26,300 this culminated in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. 210 00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:32,570 1882, the law was passed and it made it difficult 211 00:17:32,570 --> 00:17:34,840 for anyone except for few people 212 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:39,470 in protected classes to, uh, come to this country. 213 00:17:39,470 --> 00:17:42,230 Uh, made it particularly difficult for women 214 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:43,930 uh, to arrive. 215 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:48,780 The whole idea of these laws 216 00:17:48,780 --> 00:17:52,850 is to somehow stave off this generation. 217 00:17:52,850 --> 00:17:55,790 They would have white mobs coming through their communities, 218 00:17:55,790 --> 00:17:57,720 burning them out, tossing their stuff 219 00:17:57,720 --> 00:17:59,560 out on to streets. 220 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:01,020 There's a quote, it said 221 00:18:01,020 --> 00:18:03,680 "They say exclusion, but they mean extermination." 222 00:18:05,860 --> 00:18:10,530 The exclusion act basically forced them out of labor. 223 00:18:10,530 --> 00:18:13,390 And so they have to be self-employed. 224 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,000 And this is where two very important professions 225 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:17,600 came in being. 226 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:19,430 One is providing laundry 227 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:22,770 and one is providing food. 228 00:18:22,770 --> 00:18:25,340 Restaurant work was one of the few jobs 229 00:18:25,340 --> 00:18:27,600 that the Chinese could find. 230 00:18:27,610 --> 00:18:29,710 And Chinese restaurant owners discovered 231 00:18:29,710 --> 00:18:31,970 that if they adapted simple dishes 232 00:18:31,980 --> 00:18:35,610 to American taste that they could make money. 233 00:18:53,100 --> 00:18:56,470 Hey, how you doin' today? Is it wet and cold out there? 234 00:18:56,470 --> 00:18:59,210 It's startin' to sprinkle. Oh, man. 235 00:18:59,210 --> 00:19:01,840 Wish it would have rained a little while earlier. 236 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:14,120 Believe it or not, she says she doesn't eat it. So.. 237 00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:17,750 My name is Harlan Lee and, uh, we are at 238 00:19:17,750 --> 00:19:20,720 Sing High Chop Suey House here in Phoenix, Arizona. 239 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:22,450 And, uh, this is my mother. 240 00:19:22,460 --> 00:19:25,630 She is the senior partner of Sing High. 241 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:31,200 My name, uh... Ella Lee. 242 00:19:33,030 --> 00:19:36,630 My grandfather opened Sing High, uh, in 1928 243 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:38,770 in downtown Phoenix. 244 00:19:38,770 --> 00:19:42,530 You know, Chinese food was not that popular here yet. 245 00:19:42,540 --> 00:19:44,940 I mean, if you looked at our business 246 00:19:44,940 --> 00:19:47,500 we've changed our menus based on 247 00:19:47,510 --> 00:19:50,210 the demands and the tastes of the people around us. 248 00:19:54,690 --> 00:19:58,090 This awareness of having to make yourself 249 00:19:58,090 --> 00:20:00,490 acceptable to a wider world 250 00:20:00,490 --> 00:20:04,130 was very much on the minds of Chinese restaurants. 251 00:20:04,130 --> 00:20:06,130 Even then, I mean, at that early time 252 00:20:06,130 --> 00:20:09,330 they had experienced outrageous racism. 253 00:20:09,330 --> 00:20:13,160 And to deal with it they got pretty savvy 254 00:20:13,170 --> 00:20:15,700 I mean, all kinds of dishes frying up 255 00:20:15,700 --> 00:20:17,860 that would appeal to white audiences. 256 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:28,340 You know, Chop Suey is, simply means, you know 257 00:20:28,350 --> 00:20:31,850 just bits and pieces of different things. 258 00:20:31,850 --> 00:20:34,190 It's very, very obvious that it caters 259 00:20:34,190 --> 00:20:37,220 to the more Americanized palate. 260 00:20:37,220 --> 00:20:38,880 Chop Suey is basically two things. 261 00:20:38,890 --> 00:20:41,960 One it's a meat, like pork or chicken or beef. 262 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:44,060 So all meats that Americans recognize 263 00:20:44,060 --> 00:20:47,500 accompanied by sort of these exotic vegetables 264 00:20:47,500 --> 00:20:51,270 which are cool, but very much flavorless. 265 00:20:55,900 --> 00:20:59,370 I... I don't come in my collection every day. 266 00:21:00,770 --> 00:21:02,770 And... and look and... and.. 267 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:06,980 This is from the age of Chop Suey. 268 00:21:06,980 --> 00:21:10,650 This is a replica of one of the oldest menus in my collection, 269 00:21:10,650 --> 00:21:13,050 it's from 1916. 270 00:21:13,050 --> 00:21:15,490 Uh, and I don't handle the original 271 00:21:15,490 --> 00:21:17,920 'cause it's crump... crink.. It's falling apart. 272 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:19,920 It's... it's very, very old. 273 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:24,860 Chop Suey is 15 cents, 30 cents, 25 cents. 274 00:21:24,860 --> 00:21:29,700 I don't think the General was part of that scene. 275 00:21:29,700 --> 00:21:33,670 You could get steak with mushrooms, was 40 cents. 276 00:21:33,670 --> 00:21:36,870 But how you know that a menu is from 1916? 277 00:21:36,870 --> 00:21:39,300 Scrapbooks, where people 278 00:21:39,300 --> 00:21:42,370 Had this quote-unquote "exotic meal" 279 00:21:42,370 --> 00:21:46,740 And saved the menu as a souvenir. 280 00:21:46,740 --> 00:21:49,270 They would have, you know, menus 281 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:50,950 steaks or whatever potatoes. 282 00:21:50,950 --> 00:21:53,780 And yet they would have Chop Suey on the menu. 283 00:21:53,780 --> 00:21:55,780 And so it's this mash up 284 00:21:55,780 --> 00:21:58,180 of being kind of exotic and kind of unfamiliar 285 00:21:58,190 --> 00:21:59,950 but not too different. 286 00:21:59,950 --> 00:22:02,050 You know, it's that foreign yet familiar thing 287 00:22:02,060 --> 00:22:05,760 that was the real beginning of what 288 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:08,800 Chinese-American cuisine was. 289 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,000 It was a way in for people. 290 00:22:14,130 --> 00:22:17,330 I do vividly recall I was 18 years old 291 00:22:17,340 --> 00:22:21,140 and got off a Greyhound bus from Dayton, Ohio. 292 00:22:21,140 --> 00:22:24,640 Got in late at night, saw the neon signs. 293 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:27,440 The first thing I ordered when I got off the bus 294 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:28,740 Was Chop Suey. 295 00:22:28,750 --> 00:22:32,420 I've been eatin' in here for, well, since the '50s. 296 00:22:32,420 --> 00:22:34,820 Quite frankly I didn't know what I was eating. 297 00:22:34,820 --> 00:22:36,890 They've served this food forever. 298 00:22:36,890 --> 00:22:40,020 It's just been very popular in Flagstaff. 299 00:22:40,020 --> 00:22:44,180 I knew Fred's dad and his uncles. 300 00:22:44,190 --> 00:22:46,450 Same here, Gina. Haven't seen you in a long time. 301 00:22:46,460 --> 00:22:47,860 I know. 302 00:22:52,130 --> 00:22:54,130 This right here is a postcard 303 00:22:54,130 --> 00:22:55,620 of the restaurant 304 00:22:55,630 --> 00:22:57,630 back in, probably, the '50s, you know. 305 00:22:57,630 --> 00:22:59,630 My dad started the restaurant. 306 00:23:00,900 --> 00:23:03,230 Half of my orders is Chinese food 307 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:04,840 and the other half, American food, 308 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:06,740 steaks, fried chicken. 309 00:23:08,410 --> 00:23:10,410 This is clubhouse sandwich. 310 00:23:14,310 --> 00:23:15,810 Big sandwich. 311 00:23:19,550 --> 00:23:22,110 All of a sudden, in Chinatowns all over 312 00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:24,460 you would find these huge neon signs 313 00:23:24,460 --> 00:23:26,460 advertising Chop Suey. 314 00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:31,990 Chop Suey became a national phenomenon. 315 00:23:31,990 --> 00:23:34,050 It basically allowed for the proliferation 316 00:23:34,060 --> 00:23:35,420 of Chinese restaurants 317 00:23:35,430 --> 00:23:37,860 all across the United States into little towns. 318 00:23:37,860 --> 00:23:40,960 And in a way it sort of laid the groundwork for 319 00:23:40,970 --> 00:23:42,970 what was yet to come. 320 00:23:46,270 --> 00:23:48,530 Chinese are very enterprising people. 321 00:23:48,540 --> 00:23:49,540 So.. 322 00:23:51,540 --> 00:23:53,970 I think anywhere in the world where they can find a place 323 00:23:53,980 --> 00:23:56,580 to put a restaurant they will do it. 324 00:24:08,260 --> 00:24:11,300 If you were to look at a map of the us in 1850 325 00:24:11,300 --> 00:24:13,820 you would find all of the Chinese 326 00:24:13,830 --> 00:24:15,600 in California. 327 00:24:16,900 --> 00:24:18,200 Then over time 328 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,230 after 1882, the exclusion era 329 00:24:21,230 --> 00:24:24,600 they began a very pronounced migration 330 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,970 into sparsely populated counties 331 00:24:27,970 --> 00:24:29,800 all across the country. 332 00:24:29,810 --> 00:24:33,550 Midwest, east and even the south. 333 00:24:33,550 --> 00:24:35,750 One of the motivations for the dispersion 334 00:24:35,750 --> 00:24:39,250 was to escape persecution on the west coast 335 00:24:39,250 --> 00:24:42,450 and earn a living in a safer environment. 336 00:24:42,450 --> 00:24:47,250 But the major reason was an effort to find employment 337 00:24:47,260 --> 00:24:50,800 uh, in a way that didn't compete with other Chinese. 338 00:24:56,500 --> 00:24:58,670 My restaurant's name's Golden Dragon. 339 00:24:58,670 --> 00:25:01,440 We are the only Chinese restaurant in town. 340 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,440 We are the only Chinese family in town. 341 00:25:09,510 --> 00:25:12,950 It's hard, you know, to stay in a small town. 342 00:25:12,950 --> 00:25:14,980 A lot of people think I'm crazy. 343 00:25:14,980 --> 00:25:18,510 One of my... lots of my friends, my family. 344 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,120 But I like it in this town. 345 00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:24,390 When we first come, this restaurant want to sell. 346 00:25:24,390 --> 00:25:27,290 So we just came, we see it, and we think 347 00:25:27,290 --> 00:25:31,190 "Oh, yeah, that... that good for a family," you know. 348 00:25:31,190 --> 00:25:33,050 And then we have kids. 349 00:25:33,060 --> 00:25:35,360 1, 2, 3, 4. We got 4 kids. 350 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:37,120 But for me it's okay. 351 00:25:37,130 --> 00:25:40,730 You know, somebody when tell me, Tammy 352 00:25:40,730 --> 00:25:43,360 "I always travel from New York to San Francisco. 353 00:25:43,370 --> 00:25:46,240 You are the best!" 354 00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,010 They drive me... makes me so happy, you know. 355 00:26:00,250 --> 00:26:01,250 Hmm. 356 00:26:02,350 --> 00:26:04,050 I am David R. Chan. 357 00:26:04,050 --> 00:26:07,080 I am a tax attorney and certified public accountant. 358 00:26:07,090 --> 00:26:09,220 And in my spare time, I like to 359 00:26:09,220 --> 00:26:11,520 uh, eat at different Chinese restaurants. 360 00:26:11,530 --> 00:26:14,560 And over the years, I've managed to eat at 361 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:16,990 over 6000 different Chinese restaurants. 362 00:26:21,300 --> 00:26:23,400 Rice noodle in clay pot. 363 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,400 I don't know, I'm not sure if that's enough for us. 364 00:26:26,410 --> 00:26:28,580 Maybe we should add a couple more items. 365 00:26:28,580 --> 00:26:30,100 Steamed chicken buns? 366 00:26:30,110 --> 00:26:32,240 I never thought of that as a dessert. 367 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:35,740 Here we have some, uh, curry fish balls. 368 00:26:35,750 --> 00:26:39,420 Rice pancakes with minced beef stuffing. 369 00:26:39,420 --> 00:26:42,720 You know, if somebody asks me why I travel all over 370 00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:45,690 to seek Chinese restaurants to eat at, 371 00:26:45,690 --> 00:26:50,620 it's really part of a, uh, seeking of an identity. 372 00:26:50,620 --> 00:26:54,620 And to see where, as a Chinese-American, how 373 00:26:54,630 --> 00:26:59,630 you know, how that fits in with the overall American culture. 374 00:26:59,630 --> 00:27:01,290 I started to notice 375 00:27:01,300 --> 00:27:04,200 most Americanized Chinese restaurants 376 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:06,860 they have names that would be not threatening 377 00:27:06,870 --> 00:27:11,170 to the local population, like Golden Palace or China Inn. 378 00:27:11,170 --> 00:27:13,370 I don't know how many China Inns there are. 379 00:27:13,380 --> 00:27:15,480 Some restaurant names 380 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:19,420 people just don't quite understand what the words mean. 381 00:27:19,420 --> 00:27:21,250 So for example, I mean, in New York Chinatown 382 00:27:21,250 --> 00:27:23,320 there's a restaurant called Strange Taste. 383 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,590 Well, I mean, would you really wanna go 384 00:27:25,590 --> 00:27:28,660 to the Strange Taste restaurant? 385 00:27:28,660 --> 00:27:30,190 I noticed even when I was a kid 386 00:27:30,190 --> 00:27:32,390 whenever we traveled anywhere in the country 387 00:27:32,390 --> 00:27:34,520 there was one Chinese restaurant 388 00:27:34,530 --> 00:27:36,460 at least one Chinese restaurant in any city 389 00:27:36,460 --> 00:27:38,420 of any particular size. 390 00:27:38,430 --> 00:27:40,400 Actually what happened is 391 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,970 the regional Chinese association 392 00:27:42,970 --> 00:27:44,970 basically assigned territories. 393 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:48,700 Even to this day, if you go to Chinatowns 394 00:27:48,700 --> 00:27:51,630 you'll see a lot of buildings that say 395 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:53,380 you know, Wong Association 396 00:27:53,380 --> 00:27:55,580 or, you know, Fujian Association. 397 00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:06,590 All the takeout restaurants sell these dishes. 398 00:28:06,590 --> 00:28:07,650 Everywhere. 399 00:28:07,650 --> 00:28:09,110 Everywhere. 400 00:28:09,120 --> 00:28:10,410 You know, I know. 401 00:28:10,420 --> 00:28:12,580 I'm in charge of this organization. 402 00:28:12,590 --> 00:28:16,760 This is one of the oldest organization in Chinatown. 403 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:18,600 We are 130 years here. 404 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:23,420 This is the first step, you know. 405 00:28:23,430 --> 00:28:26,160 A lot of the new immigrant they just come here 406 00:28:26,170 --> 00:28:28,200 and if the organization can help them 407 00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:31,430 to set up the business in a proper way. 408 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:32,870 I mean, register them. 409 00:28:32,870 --> 00:28:35,170 They teach you how to cook step by step. 410 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:42,610 Chinese restaurant owners, uh, to a great extent 411 00:28:42,610 --> 00:28:46,740 relied on the traditional Chinese networks. 412 00:28:46,750 --> 00:28:50,690 Family associations, district associations. 413 00:28:50,690 --> 00:28:54,890 They would get information about the popular dishes 414 00:28:54,890 --> 00:28:57,690 to help each other in a strange place. 415 00:29:24,790 --> 00:29:28,260 It's not easy to settle here in Chinatown. 416 00:29:28,260 --> 00:29:30,020 Because the rent is high. 417 00:29:30,020 --> 00:29:32,780 The organization gives you some information 418 00:29:32,790 --> 00:29:36,490 where to go, which state or which town is better. 419 00:29:36,500 --> 00:29:39,030 That's why they spread out. All over in the country. 420 00:30:00,180 --> 00:30:04,250 In a lot of the smaller town, it's very lonely. 421 00:30:04,250 --> 00:30:07,750 Because they have no relatives, no entertainment there. 422 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:09,590 No place to go. They don't understand. 423 00:30:09,590 --> 00:30:11,790 They don't speak English that well. 424 00:30:11,790 --> 00:30:13,890 And then sometimes they have some trouble. 425 00:30:21,540 --> 00:30:24,170 I'm not exactly sure where General Tso's chicken 426 00:30:24,170 --> 00:30:26,030 originated from, but I do know 427 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,040 where cashew chicken came from. 428 00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,140 Pensacola, Florida. 429 00:30:49,860 --> 00:30:54,430 My father came over from Canton, China in 1940. 430 00:30:54,430 --> 00:30:56,970 A famous physician tried my dad's cooking 431 00:30:56,970 --> 00:30:59,270 and loved it and asked him if he'd be willing 432 00:30:59,270 --> 00:31:01,540 to move to Springfield, Missouri. 433 00:31:01,540 --> 00:31:04,140 During that time my dad opened up his own restaurant 434 00:31:04,140 --> 00:31:08,210 for a while, and he was not very accepted. 435 00:31:08,210 --> 00:31:10,140 He had people picketing his restaurant 436 00:31:10,140 --> 00:31:11,840 protesting his restaurant. 437 00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:13,840 "go back to China." things like that. 438 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,750 Actually our restaurant was blown up before we opened. 439 00:31:18,750 --> 00:31:20,750 It was bombed. 440 00:31:20,750 --> 00:31:23,950 There was a lot of prejudice about a Chinese person 441 00:31:23,950 --> 00:31:26,850 owning a business here in Springfield, Missouri. 442 00:31:26,860 --> 00:31:28,920 What won, uh, the people over though was 443 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,920 once they started eating the food they loved it. 444 00:31:31,930 --> 00:31:35,660 He knew that in the midwest, people like comfort food. 445 00:31:35,660 --> 00:31:37,490 They love their food fried. 446 00:31:37,500 --> 00:31:39,500 What he did was, he, uh 447 00:31:39,500 --> 00:31:41,840 took off the bones on a fried chicken 448 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:45,540 deep fried it and put a brown gravy sauce over it. 449 00:31:45,540 --> 00:31:48,410 Hence, that's how he came up with cashew chicken. 450 00:31:48,410 --> 00:31:50,780 And it just took off like wild fire. 451 00:31:52,810 --> 00:31:54,610 There's over a couple of hundred restaurants 452 00:31:54,610 --> 00:31:57,470 just in the Springfield area now that serve cashew chicken. 453 00:32:03,420 --> 00:32:05,790 There's a little story about the cashew chicken. 454 00:32:05,790 --> 00:32:08,990 Late '60s or early '70s, McDonald's corporation 455 00:32:08,990 --> 00:32:11,090 actually came to see how the technique 456 00:32:11,090 --> 00:32:13,620 was to bread and fry the chicken nuggets 457 00:32:13,630 --> 00:32:15,930 and they wanted my dad's recipes and.. 458 00:32:15,930 --> 00:32:17,270 But they didn't wanna pay for it. 459 00:32:17,270 --> 00:32:20,890 My dad's, "Well, I'm not gonna give it to you." 460 00:32:20,900 --> 00:32:22,770 A year later, Chicken McNuggets come out. 461 00:32:22,770 --> 00:32:26,170 So, you know, tell me is that a coincidence or what? 462 00:32:26,170 --> 00:32:29,710 I, uh, I tend to think that, you know, they owe me royalty. 463 00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:32,270 Now, I'll show you 464 00:32:32,270 --> 00:32:35,240 The General Tso's chicken that we do. 465 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,710 We use the same chicken nuggets we use on the cashew chicken. 466 00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:46,150 People ask me, "Wing, do you think you'll be frying chicken 467 00:32:46,150 --> 00:32:48,350 till the end of your life?" 468 00:32:48,350 --> 00:32:50,610 I said, "I probably will." 469 00:32:50,620 --> 00:32:54,480 Even when I'm dead I'll be frying chicken. 470 00:32:54,490 --> 00:32:58,190 Cashew chicken really hit upon this formula. 471 00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:03,500 It was chicken, it was fried, and there was sauce. 472 00:33:03,500 --> 00:33:06,840 Interesting thing about Springfield cashew chicken 473 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,270 is the fact that it's kind of mind boggling to find 474 00:33:10,270 --> 00:33:16,270 a Chinese dish becoming so widespread, popular 475 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:18,310 in an area which has virtually 476 00:33:18,310 --> 00:33:22,110 no Chinese population of its own. 477 00:33:22,110 --> 00:33:23,640 Springfield cashew chicken 478 00:33:23,650 --> 00:33:26,550 it's not a traditional Chinese food. 479 00:33:26,550 --> 00:33:28,850 It's something that's Americanized. 480 00:33:28,850 --> 00:33:32,150 And one thing that most of the immigrants from China 481 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,560 have learned is to adapt. 482 00:33:54,620 --> 00:33:56,340 My brothers and I were born in Hong Kong. 483 00:33:56,350 --> 00:33:58,110 We are a family of 5 boys 484 00:33:58,110 --> 00:34:01,270 and my father passed away when I was 5 years old. 485 00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:03,610 So my mom was widowed with 5 boys in Hong Kong. 486 00:34:03,620 --> 00:34:05,650 She didn't see much future there. 487 00:34:05,650 --> 00:34:07,810 When we first opened up in Hammond 488 00:34:07,820 --> 00:34:09,460 we were the only Chinese family there. 489 00:34:09,460 --> 00:34:12,380 And it's a smaller town. It was kinda.. 490 00:34:12,390 --> 00:34:14,760 It was culture shock, it was kinda unique. 491 00:34:19,460 --> 00:34:22,320 Well, I'm gonna get to that because Dr. Fanning 492 00:34:22,330 --> 00:34:25,730 who's with us today is here from Albuquerque. 493 00:34:25,740 --> 00:34:27,940 So I was explaining, I was givin' him the history. 494 00:34:27,940 --> 00:34:31,270 What they did was blend 495 00:34:31,270 --> 00:34:34,640 the best of Louisiana with the best of Chinese. 496 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:36,500 It is divine. 497 00:34:36,510 --> 00:34:38,170 It is divine. 498 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,340 Wherever you go you know you not cook for yourself. 499 00:34:44,350 --> 00:34:47,580 You gotta cook for what the local people like. 500 00:34:47,590 --> 00:34:50,420 It's alligator leg. This is a baby alligator. 501 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:52,830 So it's sweet and sour. 502 00:34:52,830 --> 00:34:56,590 You know, I do flounder, cod fish, alligator. 503 00:34:57,430 --> 00:34:59,030 Chinese gumbo! 504 00:34:59,030 --> 00:35:00,630 Louisiana Chinese gumbo. 505 00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:07,940 This lady came and said, "Oh, Eve... every Sunday 506 00:35:07,940 --> 00:35:11,070 my dad used to take us after church and eat Chinese food." 507 00:35:11,070 --> 00:35:13,270 And, "Can you make it for me?" I said, "Yeah, just tell me what it was." 508 00:35:13,270 --> 00:35:15,800 I walked back by the table and she had the biggest smile on her face. 509 00:35:15,810 --> 00:35:19,110 She said, "Oh, yeah, this is just like I remember with my dad on sundays." 510 00:35:19,110 --> 00:35:21,670 I said, "You know, I'm... I'm thinkin', ain't this ironic 511 00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,010 that Chinese food has become comfort food? 512 00:35:24,020 --> 00:35:26,650 That, um, it replaced meatloaf and fried chicken?" 513 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,070 I was growing up in Saratoga, New York. 514 00:35:44,070 --> 00:35:47,300 And we were an orthodox Jewish family. 515 00:35:47,300 --> 00:35:49,900 We would go, um, a couple of times a year 516 00:35:49,900 --> 00:35:51,530 to a restaurant in Schenectady 517 00:35:51,540 --> 00:35:54,440 called Lum Fung's, a Chinese restaurant. 518 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:56,340 I remember my mother would always order 519 00:35:56,340 --> 00:35:58,300 uh, shrimp with lobster sauce. 520 00:35:58,310 --> 00:36:02,710 My father would look at this as just abominable. 521 00:36:02,710 --> 00:36:05,140 And my dad who's still alive, he's 95 522 00:36:05,150 --> 00:36:07,520 would never eat pork or shellfish. 523 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:12,390 Then we get these egg rolls and I'd say what are these little brown bits in it? 524 00:36:12,390 --> 00:36:15,860 And then his comment was, "Well, if you can't identify it, it's okay to eat." 525 00:36:15,860 --> 00:36:18,390 And I always thought that, it's called, "safe-treif." 526 00:36:18,390 --> 00:36:19,990 "Treif" meaning forbidden. 527 00:36:19,990 --> 00:36:23,590 And for years, I thought that was actually rabbinical statement. 528 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,200 Until I asked a few rabbis' and they said, "No, no, no 529 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:28,540 if you can't identify it, absolutely don't eat it." 530 00:36:30,670 --> 00:36:35,570 I can't remember which year, you know, it was Christmas Day, when I open. 531 00:36:35,570 --> 00:36:37,170 - Wow! - Yeah. 532 00:36:37,170 --> 00:36:39,930 Over 90% of Jewish people. 533 00:36:39,940 --> 00:36:44,140 They say, "Jewish people either Christmas or Thanksgiving." 534 00:36:44,150 --> 00:36:45,280 It's Christmas, yeah. 535 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:47,420 Only-only Chinese food and the movie. 536 00:36:47,420 --> 00:36:49,450 There's an old joke that.. 537 00:36:49,450 --> 00:36:53,190 Jews have been around for well over 5,000 years 538 00:36:53,190 --> 00:36:57,620 and the Chinese culture has been around for... for a bit over 4,000 years. 539 00:36:57,620 --> 00:37:02,990 Which means that, there's been about 1,500 years that Jews had to survive without Chinese food. 540 00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,570 Lot of Jews just wanted to become Americanized. 541 00:37:08,570 --> 00:37:11,100 Part of that is going out to Chinese restaurants. 542 00:37:12,700 --> 00:37:16,260 We ate Chinese food growing up once a month on a Sunday night. 543 00:37:16,270 --> 00:37:18,030 My mom's from Brooklyn. 544 00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:21,740 And we're Jewish and that was a Jewish thing. 545 00:37:21,740 --> 00:37:24,740 I... I met Sandy Koufax this past summer. 546 00:37:24,750 --> 00:37:26,650 He liked Chinese food too. 547 00:37:26,650 --> 00:37:29,480 I ate two ethnic foods as a child. 548 00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:33,380 Uh, well, I ate some Jewish food from my grandmother. 549 00:37:33,390 --> 00:37:36,890 But clearly when we wanted to go out for something different. 550 00:37:36,890 --> 00:37:39,890 Chinese food was at the top of the list. 551 00:37:39,890 --> 00:37:41,720 It's part of the American tradition now 552 00:37:41,730 --> 00:37:43,730 to go to Chinese restaurants. 553 00:37:45,130 --> 00:37:48,170 I'm from a small town in Montana. Missoula, Montana. 554 00:37:48,170 --> 00:37:51,910 And I remember going to, you know the pink and the red boots 555 00:37:51,910 --> 00:37:58,330 With the neon and getting the... um, white takeout boxes with the fortune cookies. 556 00:37:58,340 --> 00:38:01,770 We had a favorite Chinese restaurants, it was called "Wai-Wai." 557 00:38:01,780 --> 00:38:04,410 W-A-I, W-A-I. "Wai-Wai." 558 00:38:04,410 --> 00:38:06,540 And it was about, maybe about a mile? 559 00:38:06,550 --> 00:38:08,080 - From... from the house. - Not even. 560 00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:10,240 - Yeah! We were there a lot. - Yeah, yeah. 561 00:38:10,250 --> 00:38:13,220 They had the best Chinese buffet you ever had. 562 00:38:13,220 --> 00:38:16,190 Mom doesn't wanna cook, "Oh, let's call in for Chinese." 563 00:38:16,190 --> 00:38:19,820 It's fast, it's easy and you don't have to do any dishes. 564 00:38:19,820 --> 00:38:22,150 'Cause everything is right there for you. 565 00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:24,300 They even throw in the plastic forks. So.. 566 00:38:26,730 --> 00:38:29,770 For Americans this small restaurant 567 00:38:29,770 --> 00:38:34,140 where the lone Chinese family lives 568 00:38:34,140 --> 00:38:38,270 is their invitation into the world... of Chinese culture. 569 00:38:38,270 --> 00:38:39,900 Even though it is.. 570 00:38:39,910 --> 00:38:42,540 As american as anything else. 571 00:38:52,150 --> 00:38:54,620 This is one of the tradition. 572 00:38:54,620 --> 00:38:57,650 That lasted for more than 100 years in.. 573 00:38:57,650 --> 00:38:59,780 In United States. 574 00:38:59,790 --> 00:39:02,020 People when they go to a Chinese restaurant 575 00:39:02,020 --> 00:39:05,520 expect that, after the dinner, they'll have dessert. 576 00:39:05,530 --> 00:39:08,330 And also they can see the fortunes. 577 00:39:08,330 --> 00:39:13,970 We have some freelance writers to help us to write, some students help us to write. 578 00:39:13,970 --> 00:39:19,970 Nowadays, we have more than 10,000 pieces of message in our database. 579 00:39:19,970 --> 00:39:23,830 I used to say that, I've never seen a fortune cookie... uh, in China. 580 00:39:34,820 --> 00:39:37,150 It's a product of a America. 581 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:42,860 By the 1940s, despite the fact 582 00:39:42,860 --> 00:39:46,590 that there is this prohibition for Chinese immigration 583 00:39:46,590 --> 00:39:52,490 Chinese food becomes one of the ways in which Chinese and Chinese-Americans 584 00:39:52,500 --> 00:39:58,300 gain social acceptance and cultural acceptance in the United States. 585 00:39:58,300 --> 00:40:03,000 And at the same time, as the United States enters the second world war 586 00:40:03,010 --> 00:40:07,480 um, China becomes, you know, an ally of the United States. 587 00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:11,750 And by 1943, the Congress is persuaded 588 00:40:11,750 --> 00:40:15,590 To abrogate the Chinese exclusion acts. 589 00:40:15,590 --> 00:40:18,990 So the kind of really virulent and violent 590 00:40:18,990 --> 00:40:21,260 Anti-Chinese movement subsides, 591 00:40:21,260 --> 00:40:23,890 and Chinese restaurants becomes ubiquitous. 592 00:40:26,330 --> 00:40:27,860 Wherever you go. 593 00:40:27,860 --> 00:40:30,860 You know, there's sunshine... sunshine on the land 594 00:40:30,860 --> 00:40:33,320 there's a Chinese, there's a Chinese restaurant. 595 00:40:36,540 --> 00:40:37,970 My favorite fortune.. 596 00:40:39,670 --> 00:40:43,610 "Everything you have prepared, will be paid off soon." 597 00:40:43,610 --> 00:40:46,410 And also like the message, "No pain, no gain." 598 00:41:04,720 --> 00:41:06,980 One of the interesting things about Chinese food 599 00:41:06,990 --> 00:41:10,590 is that, it's always been linked with international relations 600 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:12,530 between China and the United States. 601 00:41:14,470 --> 00:41:19,800 In the 1950's, particularly after the Chinese communist revolution 602 00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:26,570 the image of China and Chinese, uh, in the United States begins to change quite dramatically. 603 00:41:26,580 --> 00:41:32,380 United States is gripped with, uh, anxiety about the rise of... of Communism. 604 00:41:32,380 --> 00:41:34,650 Particularly in Asia. 605 00:41:34,650 --> 00:41:39,850 So many Chinese families feel very vulnerable. 606 00:41:39,850 --> 00:41:44,480 China, mainland China was now enemy, particularly during Korean war. 607 00:41:44,490 --> 00:41:49,190 And, so everything about China was negative. 608 00:41:49,190 --> 00:41:52,820 Including Chinese-Americans, including Chinese food. 609 00:42:04,940 --> 00:42:07,870 When I came here, 1950s 610 00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:10,210 there was Chinese food in the USA. 611 00:42:11,750 --> 00:42:15,820 Everywhere you go, pretty much the same, same menu. 612 00:42:15,820 --> 00:42:18,720 It just taste so... pretty bad. 613 00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:19,790 Bland. 614 00:42:19,790 --> 00:42:21,320 - Yeah, no flavor. - No spice. 615 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:22,790 Yeah, nothing. 616 00:42:22,790 --> 00:42:28,630 I... I tried to introduce the real Chinese food to Americans. 617 00:42:28,630 --> 00:42:34,230 I opened the Mandarin Restaurant in 1959 in San Francisco. 618 00:42:34,230 --> 00:42:35,560 Um, Polk Street. 619 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:37,920 It was food that she grew up with. 620 00:42:37,930 --> 00:42:40,630 That she, you know, served at the Mandarin. 621 00:42:40,630 --> 00:42:44,360 It had that, sort of... refined elegance to it, you know. 622 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:48,330 I really had a tough time. 623 00:42:48,340 --> 00:42:52,610 Those days, a lot of a... what you call "discrimination." 624 00:42:52,610 --> 00:42:57,580 They didn't give me any credit. Everything I have to pay cash. 625 00:42:57,580 --> 00:43:00,180 We try to rent.. 626 00:43:00,180 --> 00:43:03,140 A apartment in a good location. 627 00:43:03,150 --> 00:43:06,150 American won't rent for me. 628 00:43:06,150 --> 00:43:11,650 Because they said that Chinese person is very dirty. 629 00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:17,230 They weren't assimilated, they were marginalized. 630 00:43:17,230 --> 00:43:21,600 And... this thing went on, uh, for a very, very long time. 631 00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,600 After Mao took over China 632 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:29,330 the same time Chop Suey was being forgotten. 633 00:43:31,140 --> 00:43:34,200 There was nothing new in Chinese food. It was in the doldrums. 634 00:43:37,450 --> 00:43:40,750 It's really hard for me to date menus 635 00:43:40,750 --> 00:43:45,120 so there's a certain esthetic, you can just tell these are... are '50s. 636 00:43:46,720 --> 00:43:50,320 Let's see if General Tso appears. 637 00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:52,780 "Chef special chicken salad." 638 00:43:52,790 --> 00:43:53,950 "Hacked chicken." 639 00:43:57,200 --> 00:43:59,460 This is gotta be '60s. 640 00:43:59,460 --> 00:44:02,460 Let's see what kind of chicken they had here. 641 00:44:02,470 --> 00:44:04,270 "Pineapple chicken, curry chicken" 642 00:44:04,270 --> 00:44:07,400 and "steamed chicken and sausage." 643 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:10,330 I don't believe General Tso has reared 644 00:44:10,340 --> 00:44:13,980 his armor at this point in history. 645 00:44:17,780 --> 00:44:23,020 Premier Zhou Enlai on behalf of the government of the People's Republic of China. 646 00:44:23,020 --> 00:44:26,720 Has extended an invitation to President Nixon to visit China, 647 00:44:26,720 --> 00:44:32,360 at an appropriate date, before May 1972. 648 00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:36,630 President Nixon has accepted the invitation with pleasure. 649 00:44:36,630 --> 00:44:39,830 There can be no stable and enduring peace 650 00:44:39,830 --> 00:44:42,000 without the People's Republic of China. 651 00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:46,270 When nixon visited China, the bamboo curtain lifted. 652 00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:50,160 On February 21, 1972 653 00:44:50,170 --> 00:44:53,570 Nixon was hosted at a banquet by Premier Zhou Enlai 654 00:44:53,570 --> 00:44:55,870 in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. 655 00:44:55,880 --> 00:45:02,510 And live on national television, Americans saw him eat real Chinese food. 656 00:45:02,510 --> 00:45:05,080 And they salivated. 657 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:08,650 Raising a toast he drank that very powerful 658 00:45:08,650 --> 00:45:11,410 Chinese wine called the Maotai. 659 00:45:11,420 --> 00:45:14,480 It's like 120 proof, kind of thing, you know, if you ever.. 660 00:45:14,490 --> 00:45:16,590 It's like jet fuel. 661 00:45:16,590 --> 00:45:21,790 It's sort of sparked a trend, I think, in terms of all things Chinese. 662 00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,070 Right after Nixon visit China 663 00:45:28,070 --> 00:45:30,640 I got so many phone calls. 664 00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:35,870 And they said, "Can you duplicate Nixon's dinner." 665 00:45:35,870 --> 00:45:38,400 Suddenly all these Chinese restaurants 666 00:45:38,410 --> 00:45:41,480 had lines outside the door. 667 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:44,650 It ushered in, kind of the golden age 668 00:45:44,650 --> 00:45:47,250 Of fine Chinese cooking in the United States. 669 00:45:52,620 --> 00:45:56,260 The first Szechuan restaurants, the first Hunan restaurants 670 00:45:56,260 --> 00:45:58,220 Fujian styled restaurants. 671 00:45:58,220 --> 00:46:01,620 All of a sudden, here came this wonderful, well-seasoned food 672 00:46:01,630 --> 00:46:05,270 from the cooler regions of China, and this stuff tasted great to us. 673 00:46:06,930 --> 00:46:09,190 But this one dish just stuck out. 674 00:46:25,580 --> 00:46:28,820 The renaissance in Chinese food in New York began 675 00:46:28,820 --> 00:46:33,120 with Michael Tong, the pre-eminent Chinese restaurateur in America. 676 00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:38,520 He opened his first restaurant in New York, Shun Lee Palace. 677 00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:44,090 Michael Tong, sort of opened the door to the Szechuan and Hunanese food. 678 00:46:58,010 --> 00:47:02,140 American people, late '60s and the '70s 679 00:47:02,140 --> 00:47:03,840 they urged for something different. 680 00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:09,580 In 1971, we opened the, uh, Shun Lee Palace. 681 00:47:09,580 --> 00:47:13,310 1972, we opened Hunan. 682 00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:16,190 Then suddenly, Hunan become a superstar. 683 00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:20,920 Chef T.T. Wang of the Shun Lee restaurants 684 00:47:22,460 --> 00:47:25,500 Devised a dish that he called General Tso's chicken. 685 00:47:30,830 --> 00:47:34,930 There was chunks of chicken, it was put it in a batter, it was fried 686 00:47:34,940 --> 00:47:38,910 brown sauce, a little sweet, a little garlicky and spicy. 687 00:47:38,910 --> 00:47:42,080 And the restaurant got a 4 star review from the New York Times. 688 00:47:44,110 --> 00:47:46,670 Shun Lee and Hunan were a great great success. 689 00:47:52,720 --> 00:47:56,560 We are the first one who has General Tso's chicken in the US. 690 00:47:56,560 --> 00:48:00,590 Because we opened the first Hunanese restaurant in 1972. 691 00:48:00,590 --> 00:48:04,590 Before anybody else and we do have General Tso's chicken on the menu. 692 00:48:15,210 --> 00:48:18,440 But I do have to say, I have to confess 693 00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:23,440 Taiwan do have General Tso's chicken in the '60s. 694 00:48:28,020 --> 00:48:30,850 Timing is everything, right man in the right place 695 00:48:30,850 --> 00:48:32,880 at the right time, with the right dish. 696 00:48:32,890 --> 00:48:36,160 But whose dish was it? 697 00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:39,090 Chef T.T. Wang was really inspired 698 00:48:39,090 --> 00:48:42,020 By this restaurant in Taiwan which was this.. 699 00:48:42,030 --> 00:48:45,130 The most famous Hunan-style restaurant there. 700 00:48:47,570 --> 00:48:51,740 In the early 1970s, businessmen from the Shun Lee restaurants 701 00:48:51,740 --> 00:48:56,340 went to Taiwan looking to do something new and interesting and came back 702 00:48:56,340 --> 00:49:00,780 from there, with dishes from this particular restaurant called.. 703 00:49:00,780 --> 00:49:03,210 Chef Peng's Hunan Yuan. 704 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,280 Chef Peng, p-e-n-g 705 00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:13,350 Emigrated to Taiwan from China. 706 00:49:13,350 --> 00:49:17,380 Peng Chang-Kuei as a young boy was taken on as an apprentice 707 00:49:17,390 --> 00:49:20,130 by one of the great Hunanese chefs. 708 00:49:20,130 --> 00:49:22,030 He was very talented. 709 00:49:22,030 --> 00:49:26,760 He quickly rose to the position of chef to the nationalist government 710 00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:29,460 who are fighting the Communists in the Chinese civil war. 711 00:49:30,630 --> 00:49:32,990 There is this association in Hunan 712 00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:38,670 um, between eating chilies and having a fiery military spirit. 713 00:49:38,670 --> 00:49:41,570 His style of cooking was so influential, you know 714 00:49:41,580 --> 00:49:45,750 he was really regarded as one of the great Hunanese chefs. 715 00:49:50,380 --> 00:49:54,880 In 1949, when Chairman Mao's Communists finally conquered the mainland 716 00:49:54,890 --> 00:50:00,460 Peng Chang-Kuei fled to Taiwan with the nationalist government, with the army. 717 00:50:00,460 --> 00:50:03,060 He cooked for the government there. 718 00:50:03,060 --> 00:50:09,130 His inspiration was the sour and hot flavors of his much missed home province Hunan. 719 00:50:09,130 --> 00:50:11,730 Which he had to leave. 720 00:50:11,730 --> 00:50:16,360 You know, Hunan was the home province of many leading figures 721 00:50:16,370 --> 00:50:21,210 in Chinese military and politics like General Tso. 722 00:50:21,210 --> 00:50:25,080 He is one of the famous people of Hunan province. 723 00:50:26,110 --> 00:50:29,510 People are very proud of him. 724 00:50:29,510 --> 00:50:34,680 So, Peng Chang-Kuei invented many dishes and one of the dishes that he invented.. 725 00:50:34,690 --> 00:50:36,690 Was General Tso's chicken. 726 00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:56,530 In Taiwan, Chef Peng understood very early 727 00:50:56,540 --> 00:51:00,340 that a couple of restaurateurs from New York had come and seen his restaurant 728 00:51:00,340 --> 00:51:02,670 and went back to New York and copied it. 729 00:51:02,680 --> 00:51:05,210 And Whef Peng was.. 730 00:51:05,210 --> 00:51:07,040 "Hey. 731 00:51:07,050 --> 00:51:11,450 "These guys are ripping me off, I'm gonna go there and show them, you know.. 732 00:51:11,450 --> 00:51:12,590 The real goods." 733 00:51:22,530 --> 00:51:26,300 Early in 1970, the Eyewitness News team decided.. 734 00:51:26,300 --> 00:51:30,230 "Here is a new feature, it'll be called The Eyewitness News Gourmet." 735 00:51:30,230 --> 00:51:33,490 We'd go to visit a restaurant, once a week 736 00:51:33,500 --> 00:51:37,600 and would film the preparation of one of their signature dishes. 737 00:51:37,610 --> 00:51:42,340 And I've heard that there was this hot new Chinese chef in town. 738 00:51:42,340 --> 00:51:45,500 He had come to New York from Taiwan. 739 00:51:45,510 --> 00:51:49,770 So we went to meet the, Chef Peng and film the dish. 740 00:51:52,080 --> 00:51:54,480 This is Bob Lape, Channel 7, Eyewitness News. 741 00:51:57,590 --> 00:51:59,820 He was this, long skinny fellow. 742 00:51:59,820 --> 00:52:02,220 Spoke not a word of English. 743 00:52:02,230 --> 00:52:05,700 He knew precisely what he was there to do which was to cook. 744 00:52:08,300 --> 00:52:11,800 He came out into the dining room where we'd wheeled this display cart 745 00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:13,170 full of pre-chopped ingredients 746 00:52:13,170 --> 00:52:16,400 so that could just go, bing-bing-bing. 747 00:52:16,400 --> 00:52:20,500 And he'd throw them into the wok one after the other, give them a quick stir, 748 00:52:20,510 --> 00:52:22,310 you got the sizzle of the oil, 749 00:52:22,310 --> 00:52:25,880 the cloud of steam rising that you could smell. 750 00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:27,980 He just whipped through that dish in the wok 751 00:52:27,980 --> 00:52:31,520 with all sorts of elements and colors and textures. 752 00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:36,490 We put it on the air and it was over a thousand requests for that particular recipe. 753 00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:46,490 But to Chef Peng's dismay, Americans didn't get the whole story. 754 00:52:46,490 --> 00:52:50,260 People thought that Chef Peng was coming and copying Chef Wang. 755 00:52:52,730 --> 00:52:55,290 Well, in fact it was the other way around. 756 00:52:55,300 --> 00:52:59,700 But Chef Peng never really convinced everyone that he was the original. 757 00:53:05,740 --> 00:53:10,140 It would be great to have the 16 millimeter film that was shot of Chef Peng 758 00:53:10,150 --> 00:53:13,180 but that stuff was just thrown out. 759 00:53:13,180 --> 00:53:18,340 And so, that stuff was probably gone before 1980 arrived, sorry to to say. 760 00:53:20,550 --> 00:53:25,380 I never spent enough... quality time with Chef Peng. 761 00:53:25,390 --> 00:53:29,950 To get into his emotions, I mean, firstly, he was, primarily Chinese 762 00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:31,520 And spoke not much English. 763 00:53:31,530 --> 00:53:36,270 What's happened though is, because chefs and restaurateurs 764 00:53:36,270 --> 00:53:40,010 Feel like they have a certain, shall we call it "poetic license" 765 00:53:40,010 --> 00:53:43,000 to rename or recreate things 766 00:53:43,010 --> 00:53:47,380 that when Chef Wang came to making General Tso's chicken 767 00:53:47,380 --> 00:53:51,220 He felt the american palate was a sweeter palate than the Chinese palate. 768 00:53:51,220 --> 00:53:53,510 So he gave it a touch of sugar. 769 00:53:55,150 --> 00:53:57,150 Everybody have their own sauce. 770 00:53:57,150 --> 00:53:59,250 Our General Tso's chicken 771 00:53:59,250 --> 00:54:05,050 It has a little sweet taste, this is the most american people like that taste. 772 00:54:06,660 --> 00:54:10,500 Little vinegar and little sugar is little sweet. 773 00:54:10,500 --> 00:54:12,230 Vinegar, little bit sugar. 774 00:54:14,930 --> 00:54:19,460 They've got some honey in it. That's the most secret in here. 775 00:54:19,470 --> 00:54:23,140 The dish, in many cases has become sweeter than it was originally. 776 00:54:23,140 --> 00:54:27,240 Full of fire, spice and all these other things but not sweet, per say. 777 00:54:29,110 --> 00:54:31,450 I think it is a simple matter 778 00:54:31,450 --> 00:54:32,850 of people playing copy cat. 779 00:54:33,980 --> 00:54:35,780 "This works, let's do it." 780 00:54:39,050 --> 00:54:41,690 And in the end it becomes an entirely different affair. 781 00:54:49,890 --> 00:54:51,090 Crispy chicken 782 00:54:51,090 --> 00:54:54,250 is a national dishes for Americans. 783 00:54:54,260 --> 00:54:59,160 You can buy chicken nuggets and adding soya and sour spicy sauce 784 00:54:59,170 --> 00:55:01,600 You can make your own General Tso's chicken today. 785 00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:07,530 By the time, General Tso's chicken appeared, there was this 786 00:55:07,540 --> 00:55:11,710 infrastructure of Chinese restaurants and Chinese associations 787 00:55:11,710 --> 00:55:14,410 And Chinese chefs and Chinese menus. 788 00:55:16,550 --> 00:55:18,610 The dish spread just all over the place. 789 00:55:18,610 --> 00:55:21,210 And places where you wouldn't expect to find it at all. 790 00:55:21,220 --> 00:55:23,120 Here's General Tso marching at the door. 791 00:55:24,890 --> 00:55:28,760 There are about 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States. 792 00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:32,760 The killer combination is to find an item that everyone likes. 793 00:55:32,760 --> 00:55:35,060 And keeps ordering time after time. 794 00:55:35,060 --> 00:55:38,430 Yet, it's something that we could produce for a relative price. 795 00:55:41,170 --> 00:55:43,900 How many orders does the average restaurant sell a day? 796 00:55:43,900 --> 00:55:44,990 Maybe 10? 797 00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:49,800 10 bucks an order? 798 00:55:49,810 --> 00:55:54,240 You start to talk about a business just in General Tso's chicken. 799 00:55:54,240 --> 00:55:56,240 That's in the billions of dollars. 800 00:56:05,090 --> 00:56:10,860 General Tso's chicken is an icon in the Chinese food. 801 00:56:10,860 --> 00:56:13,960 It's huge, it cover the whole country, 802 00:56:13,960 --> 00:56:15,850 cover the whole United States. 803 00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:23,000 I think if Chef Peng were looking at the scene today 804 00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:28,230 I think he'd be amazed at the fact that this dish has become so iconic. 805 00:58:06,330 --> 00:58:09,830 As I know when I was very young. 806 00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:12,600 Chiang Kai-Shek who is the President, 807 00:58:12,600 --> 00:58:16,230 asked my father to prepare to present dinner. 808 00:58:18,310 --> 00:58:22,340 My father tried to make something unique. 809 00:58:22,340 --> 00:58:23,670 Uh, different. 810 00:58:25,110 --> 00:58:30,910 He tried to make some name for it and then he find 811 00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:36,490 that hunanese very famous General, who's General Tso. 812 00:58:36,490 --> 00:58:39,290 He is a General, never lose the battle. 813 00:58:41,660 --> 00:58:45,200 The people honor him, especially Hunanese people. 814 00:58:48,060 --> 00:58:52,960 General Tso, he likes, he personally... preferred chicken. 815 00:58:52,970 --> 00:58:55,500 He liked the chicken. 816 00:58:55,500 --> 00:59:00,130 My father is a very happy to name it as a General Tso's chicken. 817 00:59:08,450 --> 00:59:12,590 But the name is, is so popular, is so popular, is so famous. 818 00:59:12,590 --> 00:59:15,450 This name of General Tso's chicken. 819 00:59:15,450 --> 00:59:18,680 And he makes all kind of different version. 820 01:01:00,820 --> 01:01:05,190 In a way, General Tso's chicken really did come from Hunan province 821 01:01:05,190 --> 01:01:10,630 Because Chef Peng himself was inspired by his own native cuisine. 822 01:01:10,630 --> 01:01:15,670 But one of the ironies about General Tso's chicken is that the General himself 823 01:01:15,670 --> 01:01:21,530 Was very much about preserving Chinese culture and Chinese tradition. 824 01:01:21,540 --> 01:01:27,270 Then this chicken dish that is named after him has in fact evolved, become anything 825 01:01:27,270 --> 01:01:29,070 but authentic Chinese. 826 01:01:35,750 --> 01:01:38,950 The world's most magnificent culinary culture 827 01:01:38,950 --> 01:01:41,650 and the world's most diverse cuisine 828 01:01:41,650 --> 01:01:47,150 has been represented in the west by such a narrow range of dishes. 829 01:01:47,160 --> 01:01:50,060 And it's not just about eating and the pleasure of eating. 830 01:01:50,060 --> 01:01:51,990 But also about the culture. 831 01:01:51,990 --> 01:01:55,220 Because food is really at the heart of Chinese culture. 832 01:01:55,230 --> 01:01:58,830 Food is about love, it's about doing business, it's about the family. 833 01:01:58,830 --> 01:02:01,530 It's how you stay connected with your living relatives. 834 01:02:01,540 --> 01:02:03,200 And all your ancestors. 835 01:02:03,200 --> 01:02:05,800 It's just particularly important in Chinese culture. 836 01:02:09,210 --> 01:02:11,610 It's so integral that actually it's the greeting. 837 01:02:11,610 --> 01:02:15,420 Um... You'll see all these old timers would say... 838 01:02:16,650 --> 01:02:18,280 Which means "Have you eaten yet?" 839 01:02:18,280 --> 01:02:20,710 But that's their greeting, it's your hello. 840 01:02:20,720 --> 01:02:22,250 Because it's so important 841 01:02:22,250 --> 01:02:25,920 But becomes a short hand for your well-being. 842 01:02:28,290 --> 01:02:33,560 Growing up, we learnt to pick the meat out of crab. 843 01:02:33,560 --> 01:02:38,030 Here, there's no way a child in America would sit down. 844 01:02:38,030 --> 01:02:40,060 You know, painstakingly, just to nibble 845 01:02:40,060 --> 01:02:43,660 a little piece of meat from a crab. There's no way they do it. 846 01:02:43,670 --> 01:02:46,000 I have some nephew's kids came here 847 01:02:46,000 --> 01:02:49,960 and visiting me, so, I give, give them... and they said 848 01:02:49,970 --> 01:02:52,930 "Oh, grandma, too much trouble." 849 01:02:52,940 --> 01:02:56,940 At home, we now, everything pour it in the blender. 850 01:02:56,940 --> 01:03:00,140 That's real funny to me, everything put in the blender 851 01:03:00,150 --> 01:03:01,150 Liquid diet. 852 01:03:01,150 --> 01:03:02,990 Then, they just drink it. 853 01:03:07,190 --> 01:03:13,060 I think in America, there is a downward appreciation of Chinese food. 854 01:03:15,260 --> 01:03:17,560 If you want French food 855 01:03:17,560 --> 01:03:22,290 You have a lot of labor and you get charged for it. 856 01:03:22,300 --> 01:03:27,440 Chinese food is a lot of labor, but they can't get away charging a lot of money. 857 01:03:27,440 --> 01:03:31,140 So that is a question of attitude. 858 01:03:31,140 --> 01:03:35,170 The culture attitude, the perception, China has a place. 859 01:03:35,180 --> 01:03:38,250 Their currency worth nothing and their labor worth nothing. 860 01:03:40,550 --> 01:03:45,860 Chinese restaurants still are the first job for immigrants coming to this country. 861 01:03:46,750 --> 01:03:49,350 You don't speak the language. 862 01:03:49,360 --> 01:03:51,490 You can't find a job. 863 01:03:51,490 --> 01:03:52,960 You know how to cook. 864 01:03:52,960 --> 01:03:55,030 You try to make it work. 865 01:03:55,030 --> 01:04:00,600 You try to make this restaurant stick, in a place where another restaurant wouldn't stick. 866 01:04:00,600 --> 01:04:04,200 These dishes are the economic necessity 867 01:04:04,200 --> 01:04:08,540 and would help you succeed and survive. 868 01:04:16,740 --> 01:04:21,540 Regarding, the General Tso's chicken and a different taste 869 01:04:21,550 --> 01:04:25,320 My personally it's kind of honor. 870 01:04:25,320 --> 01:04:27,220 Is honor. 871 01:04:27,220 --> 01:04:31,190 Is honor to have this people like to serve this dishes. 872 01:04:32,450 --> 01:04:34,880 I'm proud of to be my father's son. 873 01:04:37,390 --> 01:04:41,350 We are making some... ah, joke. 874 01:04:41,360 --> 01:04:46,160 The most famous people in the world is Mr. Zuo Zongtang. 875 01:04:46,170 --> 01:04:52,840 Because every... every day, everybody order Zuo Zongtang, Zuo Zongtang, Zuo Zongtang. 876 01:05:07,080 --> 01:05:09,740 This is the General Tso's chicken we serve. 877 01:05:35,880 --> 01:05:38,510 We started P. F. Chang's, about 20 years ago. 878 01:05:40,280 --> 01:05:42,810 My mother's food.. 879 01:05:42,810 --> 01:05:45,380 At the Mandarin, it was food of the courts. 880 01:05:45,380 --> 01:05:46,980 We have Peking Duck. 881 01:05:46,980 --> 01:05:51,650 Uh, we had dishes that needed more preparation, more care. 882 01:05:51,660 --> 01:05:55,620 In my style... part of the generation gap, I think was.. 883 01:05:55,620 --> 01:05:57,680 I like, I wanted something more casual. 884 01:05:59,660 --> 01:06:03,030 We call it Chang's Chicken here, it's one of our most popular dishes. 885 01:06:03,030 --> 01:06:05,530 You know, there's different, everybody has their version 886 01:06:05,530 --> 01:06:08,630 version of this dish and anyway this is our version here. 887 01:06:11,040 --> 01:06:15,010 Americans embrace certain ideas about ethnic food. 888 01:06:15,010 --> 01:06:18,610 You know, whether it's the taco or french fries or.. 889 01:06:18,610 --> 01:06:21,610 You know, Swedish pancakes. They make it their own. 890 01:06:23,280 --> 01:06:25,480 There's nothing wrong with that. 891 01:06:25,480 --> 01:06:29,010 I mean, Chinese-American food is, it's a style. 892 01:06:29,020 --> 01:06:31,090 You know, it's a style of cooking. 893 01:06:31,090 --> 01:06:33,090 It's a cuisine in itself, I think. 894 01:06:38,030 --> 01:06:43,260 Our idea about authenticity, we've created this value of authenticity. 895 01:06:43,260 --> 01:06:46,060 But I don't there is such a thing as authenticity. 896 01:06:46,060 --> 01:06:50,060 You know, the idea that there is some original Chinese cuisine. 897 01:06:50,070 --> 01:06:54,510 Chinese cuisine has changed everywhere. 898 01:06:54,510 --> 01:06:59,780 You realize that every country has it's own version of authentic Chinese food. 899 01:06:59,780 --> 01:07:03,950 Because to them, that's the version of Chinese food which is a taste of home. 900 01:07:05,480 --> 01:07:08,120 We are at Chinese mirch in Manhattan. 901 01:07:08,120 --> 01:07:13,150 We are actually, the first Indian-Chinese restaurant to open in New York. 902 01:07:13,150 --> 01:07:16,980 Indian Chinese is Chinese food, but with Indian flavors. 903 01:07:16,990 --> 01:07:20,430 It is Chinese, the way we eat it in India. 904 01:07:22,760 --> 01:07:26,430 This is western style Chinese vegetable fried rice. 905 01:07:26,430 --> 01:07:29,900 Some of the Mexican restaurant and Italian restaurants 906 01:07:29,900 --> 01:07:36,710 think that this is a good idea and have fortune taco cookie and fortune cannoli cookie. 907 01:07:36,710 --> 01:07:39,180 Nothing is authentic here in our restaurant 908 01:07:39,180 --> 01:07:43,450 We are not authentic Chinese, we are not authentic Mexican. 909 01:07:43,450 --> 01:07:45,450 And isn't that American? 910 01:07:46,450 --> 01:07:48,590 So this our General Tso's veal rib 911 01:07:48,590 --> 01:07:50,540 And Mission Chinese food. 912 01:07:50,550 --> 01:07:53,210 I'm gonna make a General Tso's tofu sandwich. 913 01:07:53,220 --> 01:07:56,260 I just order General Tso's soft boiled egg. 914 01:07:56,260 --> 01:07:58,830 Actually, they had General Tso's snake 915 01:07:58,830 --> 01:08:00,430 At this restaurant. 916 01:08:00,430 --> 01:08:03,800 In fact, you can now get General Tso's chicken in China. 917 01:08:10,030 --> 01:08:14,530 I admit that I don't often look for it when I go to a restaurant. 918 01:08:15,310 --> 01:08:16,910 I've never ordered it. 919 01:08:16,910 --> 01:08:19,880 I did it have a four year General Tso's love affair. 920 01:08:23,410 --> 01:08:27,170 I don't think, this dish will disappear. 921 01:08:27,180 --> 01:08:33,450 People will still like enjoying that sort of groovy sauce. 922 01:08:33,450 --> 01:08:34,510 They like it. 923 01:08:35,120 --> 01:08:36,460 And why not?