Regional Differences in American Chinese Cuisine

[etiennewestwind]

This isn't a question of what common dishes in the US were actually invented or tailored to American tastes, but how those dishes vary in the US

Comments

[beccastareyes]

I know the style of Chinese food my mother normally ate in Boston in the 1970s/1980s is different than that generally found in the Midwest. I don't remember what it was, but we normally ordered appetizers like chicken fingers*, chicken wings and spare ribs with fried rice.

* It was a very smooth batter, not like traditional American or tempura-fried chicken. Wikipedia does list Chinese chicken fingers as an New England-Chinese thing, and says the batter is egg batter.

[lyonesse]

you can get crab rangoon in boston. i also gather that boston chinatown's seafood cuisine is unique (and teh awesome imho :)

[cygnia]

I miss Chow Chau City's dim sum back in Boston's Chinatown. *sigh*

[marycatelli]

in some areas, people call shrimp "prawns"

This is because when you get up to "jumbo shrimp" some people start to dislike the oxymoron.

[donutgirl]

one thing I learned when I married a midwesterner (I grew up in NY and New England) -- where he grew up, the chinese restaurants only used anglo names for dishes. so he had never heard of things like moo shu pork or moo goo gai pan or even lo mein, only stuff like chicken with cashews and beef with broccoli and pork fried rice. but he grew up in a small town in rural indiana in the 1980s -- this may not be true throughout the midwest.

(also, this is the story as he told it to me -- I think it's also possible that the anglo-named dishes were just the ones his parents felt most comfortable ordering, and he never noticed the other stuff. I'm just not sure.)

[etiennewestwind]

Interesting. Around here, we've got several Anglo named dishes around here, but moo shu pork and moo goo gai pan as well.

[tlatoani]

Not universal across the Midwest.

[thefirstoops]

I went to college in St. Pete, Florida from 2004-2008 and we used to order Crab Rangoon all the time.