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[chuanoplast]

Chinese food is easy to cook, hard to prepare. Basically, you have to chop things thinly and evenly without slicing off your fingers. Also, you have to cook using high heat, so you also have to keep whatever's cooking in motion, or else it will burn. But that's only for stir fry. I think the main things are the chopping, slicing, and fresh ingredients. Marinate meat with soy sauce, wine, and sugar before you start cooking it, but only for a few minutes. I still think you need to constantly cook Chinese food before you can make it well because cutting food is so hard! I've seen a chef so skilled he can cut tofu so thin it looks like noodles.

Whenever I go out to eat Chinese food with my family, we usually order steamed giraffe, crab of some sort, big pea shoots (these are extremely delicious and impossible to cook well at home), and some other sort of seafood. But we go to the restaurants in places with a large Chinese population, so that changes the menu content a lot. Food-wise, there's nothing that I avoid because well-cooked Chinese food always tastes good, but I do avoid bad restaurants.

[Turbo Ninja]

My girlfriend's dad works in international business, so we do quite a little bit of international dining with his colleagues.  Indian, Korean, Brazilian, Spanish...and Chinese.  The native-born will take us under their wing when we go to authentic Chinese places and order "off menu."  This results in more "variety meats" than I knew existed but also some very delicious food as long as you don't really know what you're eating its too late.

Then last week GF and I went out on our own to a place that offered an "authentic" Chinese menu as a supplement to the Roundeye Usuals (General Tso, Anything Lo Mein).  My choice, black pepper scallops, was on both menus but the authentic version was $1 more.  I asked the difference and was told they were exactly the same.  GF ordered peanut chicken, also on both menus, and we were told that the authentic version has fewer vegetables.  We thought this was odd because the stereotype is that Fat Americans would be the ones to avoid corn and broccoli and water chestnuts.

My personal preference is Szechuan shrimp or chicken.  Spicy is good, and the orange- or sweet and sour- sauces always seem cloying and syrupy after a few bites even at the high-class places.

[Ben-San]

General Tso doesn't appear on any of the take out menu's around.  We have a fairly descent Chinese population round here, so maybe the non-authenticness is why it's excluded?  Or maybe it's called something else?

General Tso's Chicken is also known as various other monosyllabic generals in different parts of the US. In Boston it's General Gao's, and I've heard that in some areas it's General Tsu's. Probably "General (Anything)'s Chicken" is the stuff.

[V-Adore]

General Gao's

This makes me picture Chinese-food chicken prepared by a dinosaur, which is easily the best part of this thread so far. And I like Chinese food, so it's not like I hate anything in this thread, just... compelling imagery.

[AugustWest]

General Tso's Chicken is also known as various other monosyllabic generals in different parts of the US. In Boston it's General Gao's, and I've heard that in some areas it's General Tsu's. Probably "General (Anything)'s Chicken" is the stuff.

I've seen it called General Zo's Chicken.  Personally, I'm not that fond of the chicken but I love the sauce.  I just put the sauce on my rice and I'm happy.

[littlefallsmets]

I saw General Xao's chicken, once somewhere, but it escapes me at this time.

I thought "wow, that sounds like one of the Phantom Zone villains."

Because I am a nerd.

[side_show]

So what would General ___ be called if it weren't called what it's called?  I've checked every Chinese take out menu I've got and there's no sign of it.  According to the ever reliable Wiki article, it's called General Tao's in Canada, but it's not offered on any of the places I order from.  On our menu form the best place we order from we have "Ginger Chicken (Lightly Breaded)" and "Hot & Honey Garlic Chicken," which are both excellent - I wonder if either of these are it?  Here's an interesting article.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Are you telling me youve never had General Tso's chicken?

[side_show]

I'm telling you I've never heard of it until everyone started posting about it here.  Honestly, our Chinese community is pretty significant and none of the menu's I have are anything but descriptive of the food - no "romantic" names at all.

[Nabubrush]

Me. This guy. I'm the one who posted about it here. Its my A #1 chinese food and I've been hooked on it like its some kind of asian heroine. I live in chinatown and every place here has it.
I would look under poultry dishes for something described as breaded in a spicy sauce. Also sometimes they put it under chef specialties. Other places will only list it as a lunch special.

Lucy Liu?

Cheater.

[Doc]

If it helps I've never heard of it either.
I always figured it was just one of those things Americans made up to fuck with the rest of the world like southern baptists and world series baseball.

[CortJstr]

Are you telling me youve never had General Tso's chicken?

I wish I hadn't. It's so gross but every time I express this opinion people react as if I'd said, "Bowie sucks." The breading is terrible and makes me feel icky after 2 pieces. Sweet and sour chicken is the same way.

[chuanoplast]

At home, we call any generic dish with chicken chopped into chunks a "Ji Ding." This means "chicken chopped into medium sized pieces." If anything else is added to the chicken, like bell peppers and onions, we just add more words to "Ji Ding." In other words, I have no idea what General Blablabla's chicken is called in Chinese.

[side_show]

If it helps I've never heard of it either.
I always figured it was just one of those things Americans made up to fuck with the rest of the world like southern baptists and world series baseball.

Yeah, from what I've read when I googled it, it's an American thing.  Tsk.

Don't mind us folks, Doc and I will be snogging on the Chesterfield, talking about zed and planning our friends' gay marriages.  Hott Common Wealth on Common Wealth Action!

[AugustWest]

Hot and Honey Garlic Chicken sounds about right.  The sauce is hot and sweet, and there's probably some garlic in there.

I pretty much can't stand the Chinese buffet version of chicken nuggets, no matter what the sauce.   But I will confess a weakness for General Tso sauce, at least on other bases.

Scorn me if you will...