I am one of those annoying city transplants who complains about the lack of “real” Chinese food in Saratoga. I’ve recently realized that my views are somewhat skewed by spending most of my adult life in Los Angeles and San Francisco, two cities with large ethnic Chinese populations. This education came courtesy of an informative and funny presentation delivered by NY Times Reporter Jennifer 8 Lee at last year’s TED conference, which can be watched at http://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_tso.html .
I learned, among other things, that:
- There are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonald’s, KFC and Taco Bell combined.
- Fortune cookies are of Japanese (specifically, Okinawan) origin, not Chinese.
- There was nothing like our popular “beef with broccoli” in Chinese because Chinese broccoli is totally different. However, the Chinese like our preparation so they’ve started importing American broccoli.
- There really is a war hero named General Tso, but he probably never ate the dish named after him.
For the kind of Chinese food Jennifer 8 Lee is talking about, you can find two perfectly good local takeout renditions at Taste of China on West Ave and Sunny Wok in Wilton. I’ll give a slight nod to TOC for their superior soup and fried rice (though white rice, which both offer, is a dramatically healthier choice). Or if you want to taste the kind of Chinese food us city transplants miss, go to CCK on Central in Albany. Just please don’t order the General Tso’s.
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