General Tso's chicken

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General Tso's Chicken
General Tso's chicken
Origin Information
Alternate Names(s):	See Below
Country of Origin :	Multiple claims
Creator(s) of the dish :	Multiple claims
Dish Information
Course Served :	Main
Serving Temperature :	Hot
Main Ingredient(s) :	Chicken Ginger Garlic Soy Sauce Rice Vinegar Shaoxing Wine or Sherry Sugar Sesame Oil Scallions Hot Chili Peppers

General Tso's chicken is a sweet and spicy deep-fried Hunan Chinese dish that is popularly served in American and Canadian Chinese restaurants. The origins of the dish are unclear. The dish was previously largely unknown in China and other lands home to the Chinese diaspora. ^[1]

The association with General Tso, or Zuo Zongtang, a Qing dynasty general and statesman, is unclear. One theory is that the dish was a classic specialty from Hunan province, invented by General Tso's wife and served for him and his officers upon every military victory, although this theory is generally considered to be apocryphal.^[2] Many sources now believe that it was not invented in Hunan, the home province of General Tso, as Hunan cuisine is traditionally very spicy and rarely sweet. Instead, the dish is believed to have been introduced to New York City in the early 1970s as an example of Hunan and Szechuan-style cooking.^[1][3] The dish was first mentioned in The New York Times in 1977.^[4]

Contents 1 Overview 2 Name 3 Recipes 3.1 Regional differences 3.2 Pronunciation 4 Controversy over origins 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Overview

General Tso's Chicken commonly consists of dark-meat pieces of chicken that are battered, deep-fried and seasoned with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine or sherry, sugar, sesame oil, scallions, and hot chili peppers, and often served with steamed broccoli. Tomato paste (or ketchup) is sometimes also included as an ingredient.^[5][6]

Though relatively inexpensive to produce, General Tso's chicken is often listed as a "Chef's Specialty" at Chinese restaurants in North America, commanding a higher price than other items.^[7] Many restaurants, especially in areas with many vegetarians, also serve General Tso's Tofu or General Tso's Soy Protein.^[8] Other variants substitute shrimp, beef, or even pork for the chicken.^[9][10]

Outside North America, one notable restaurant which serves General Tso's Chicken is that of Peng Chang-kuei (Chinese: 彭長貴; pinyin: Péng Chánggùi), who is credited by some sources as the inventor of the dish (see below Name), in Taiwan. Differences between this "original" dish and that commonly encountered in North America are that it is not sweet and sour in flavor, the chicken is cooked with its skin, and soy sauce plays a much more prominent role.^[11]

General Tso's chicken
Traditional Chinese:	左宗棠雞
Simplified Chinese:	左宗棠鸡
Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Zuǒ Zōngtáng jī Yue (Cantonese) - Jyutping: zo2 zung1 tong4 gai1 - IPA: jo2 jung1 tong4 gai1
alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese:	左公雞
Simplified Chinese:	左公鸡
Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Zuǒ gōng jī Yue (Cantonese) - Jyutping: zo1 gung1 gai1 - IPA: jo2 gung1 gai1

[edit] Name

It is unclear how the dish came to bear the name of Zuo Zongtang (左宗棠, 1812-1885), a Qing Dynasty general from Hunan. Zuo himself is unlikely ever to have tasted the dish.^[3] The dish is not found in Changsha, the capital of Hunan. Nor is it found in Xiangyin, the home of General Tso. Moreover, descendants of General Tso still living in Xiangyin, when interviewed, say that they have never heard of such a dish.^[11]

There are several stories concerning the origin of the dish. In her book The Chinese Kitchen, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo states that the dish originates from a simple Hunan chicken dish, and that the reference to "Zongtang" in "Zuo Zongtang chicken" was not a reference to Zuo Zongtang's given name, but rather a reference to the homonym "zongtang", meaning "ancestral meeting hall" (Chinese: 宗堂; pinyin: zōngtáng). ^[12] Consistent with this interpretation, the dish name is sometimes (but considerably less commonly) found in Chinese as "Zuo ancestral hall chicken" (traditional Chinese: 左宗堂雞; simplified Chinese: 左宗堂鸡; pinyin: Zuǒ Zōngtáng jī).

According to the Taiwanese/Chinese word-of-mouth stories, the chicken was invented by General Zuo's wife, made for him after a victorious battle. He liked it so much that upon following victorious battles, he would have it made for all of his commanding officers as reward. It is however possible that this story was invented by the former family chef of the prominent Republican-era politician Tan Yankai, who simply put General Zuo's name on it to honor him, and to associate the dish with the famous man.

According to several sources, the recipe was invented by Taiwan-based, Hunan cuisine chef Peng Chang-kuei, who had been an apprentice of Cao Jingchen's, a famous early 20th century Chinese chef. Peng was the Nationalist government banquets' chef and fled with Chiang Kai-shek's forces to Taiwan during the Chinese civil war. There, he continued his career as official chef until 1973, when he moved to New York to open a restaurant. It is there that Peng started inventing new dishes and modifying traditional ones; one new dish, General Tso's chicken, was originally prepared without sugar, and subsequently altered to suit the tastes of "non-Hunanese people." The popularity of the dish has now led to it being "adopted" by local Hunanese chefs and food writers, perhaps as an acknowledgment of the dish's unique status, upon which the international reputation of Hunanese cuisine was largely based. ^{[1] [11]} Ironically, when Peng opened a restaurant in Hunan in the 1990s introducing General Tso's chicken, the restaurant closed without success because the locals found the dish too sweet.^[11]

[edit] Recipes

[edit] Regional differences

The dish is predominantly referred to as Generals Chicken in most Philadelphia area Chinese Restaurants. The dish is typically called General Gau's or General Gao's chicken in Massachusetts and surrounding New England states in the United States.^{[citation needed]} General Gau was a General in the Chinese army.^{[citation needed]} In parts of Canada, this dish is known as General Tao's, and less commonly, General George's chicken. In other regions and restaurants, it is also known or mispronounced as General Tsao's, General Zhou's, "General Tao", General Mac's, General Gao's, Chou's, General Tzo's, General To's, General So's, General Joe's, Jordan Chicken, and General Toso's. It is also known as General Chow's and General Tso's prominently in the New Jersey area and simply General Chicken in parts of Northern California. In some states, including Illinois, the dish is called Governor's Chicken. At the United States Naval Academy, the dish is served in the main mess hall, King Hall, as "Admiral Tso's Chicken," reflecting a nautical theme. The Pei Wei chain of chinese restaurants has a "Pei Wei Spicy" preparation (which can be served with chicken or other types of meat and vegetables). The menu says "our version of General Chu" in parentheses. It is made with "chile vinegar sauce, scallion, garlic, snap peas, carrot." [1]

[edit] Pronunciation

Zuo Zongtang's surname in Mandarin as zuǒ (pronounced [tsuɔ˨˩˦] -- see Chinese romanization). In English the spelling Tso might be approximated as IPA: /ˈsoʊ/ "so".

[edit] Controversy over origins

Peng's Restaurant on East 44th Street in New York City claims that it was the first restaurant in the city to serve General Tso's chicken. Since the dish (and cuisine) was new, Chef Peng made it the house specialty in spite of the dish's commonplace ingredients.^[1] A review of Peng's in 1977 mentions that their “General Tso's chicken was a stir-fried masterpiece, sizzling hot both in flavor and temperature”.^[13]

New York's Shun Lee Palaces, East (155 E. 55th St.) and West (43 W. 65th St.) also says that it was the first restaurant to serve General Tso's chicken and that it was invented by a Chinese immigrant chef named T. T. Wang in 1972. Michael Tong, owner of New York's Shun Lee Palaces, says, "We opened the first Hunanese restaurant in the whole country, and the four dishes we offered you will see on the menu of practically every Hunanese restaurant in America today. They all copied from us."^[3]

Chef Ho Shi Wang of Old Sky Restaurant of Toronto claims that his restaurant was the first to offer the delicacy in Canada, and in the Canada Star article "Tso Good To Be True" he is credited as developing a unique blend of Hunan and Cantonese delicacy that is popular with the nearby University of Toronto students, staff and professors.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Sesame chicken
• Orange chicken
• Crispy fried chicken
• Chicken Tikka Masala, another syncretic dish seen as symbolizing its particular cuisine.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

^ *:  Chung tong gai is a transliteration of “ancestral meeting hall chicken” from Cantonese; zuo zong tang ji is the standard name of General Tso's chicken as transliterated from Mandarin.

[edit] External links

• The Definitive General Tso's Chicken Page
• Recipe for General Tso's chicken
• “Who Was General Tso And Why Are We Eating His Chicken?” Article from The Washington Post
• Exploration of term
• “Hunan Resources” Article from The New York Times Magazine about the origin and propagation of the dish
• A history of general tso's chicken's hunan origins in traditional chinese