Introduction:
Food has evolved from a basic survival need to an integrated part of a country’s culture. Globalization, travel, trade, and other forms of intercountry contact has resulted in the exchange of food elements. General Tso’s Chicken, a modern American take on Chinese food is hugely popular today. A second artifact that mirrors General Tso’s Chicken is KFC, specifically the Chinese brand of KFC, which is the most popular American fast food restaurant in China. Both foods were fine-tuned to appeal to the palates of the audience they were presented to, zeroing in on the attitudes and commonplaces of their respective countries.
General Tso’s Chicken
Background
- General Tso is a real person, a general who fought in a civil war during the Qing dynasty. (Last dynasty of China)
- Account #1
- Early origin is probably from traditional chicken dishes in Hunan province (General Tso’s province)
- Chef C.K. Peng “created” the dish in Taiwan then brought it to America in the 1960s
- Original dish not very close to today’s dish
- Account #2
- Originally called General Ching’s chicken and introduced in NYC by T.T. Wang
- More close to the current version of the dish
- Name somehow merged with General Tso in the 1980s
Analysis
- Recipe for General Tso’s Chicken contains quintessentially American elements
- Fried chicken/classic batter
- Sweet and sour sauce a lot like barbecue sauce
- Name: Americans glorify war, so it was given the name “general”
- Possessive tense
- Pathos
- Exploited American leaders
- Henry Kissinger was a HUGE fan of General Tso’s Chicken and Chinese-American cuisine
KFC
Background
- First KFC in China opened in 1987, a similar time period that General Tso’s Chicken gained popularity in America
- Instead of using American managers, KFC hired management from rising Asian economies in order to gain insight into the Chinese market
- At that time, China was very closed off and American classics like hamburgers were foreign and relatively unknown
Analysis
- Menu is not only contains Chinese elements, but flat out exclusively Chinese foods.
- Shaobing (savory pastry)
- Youtiao (fried dough)
- Rice Congee
- Egg custard tarts
- Tree fungus salad
- However also contained many inventive fusion dishes
- Dragon Twister – wrap that includes fried chicken, cucumbers, scallions, and duck sauce, similar to preparation of Peking Duck.
- Curry Pork Chops
- Teriyaki fried chicken
Conclusion:
Though humans take food for granted, there are deep and logical reasons for why we eat what we eat. Inventors of General Tso’s Chicken slowly developed to perfect the dish that Americans love while chain restaurants such as KFC have done intensive research, utilizing extensive and expensive resources to create the best menu to bring their franchise to China. In the end, both share the common theme of adaptation and creativity in the face of appealing to a brand new, foreign group of people.