Dining Culture and Food & Beverage Trends

Dining Culture and Food & Beverage Trends

Posts 1-5 of 5
  • Peter Troesch
    Peter Troesch    Group moderator
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    How to make Sweet and sour chicken?
    Most probably the most well known Chinese dish in Europe.
    • 04 Nov 2006, 4:37 pm
  • Marek Malcharczyk
    Marek Malcharczyk
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    Re: How to make Sweet and sour chicken?
    I heard once that Sweet & Sour Chicken is actually a dish which was 'invented' by Chinese living in the US, one of the ingredients is supposedly ketchup, which is untypical (at least historically) in Chinese cooking.
    • 28 Nov 2006, 08:38 am
  • Ning Zhang
    Ning Zhang    Group moderator
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    Re^2: How to make Sweet and sour chicken?
    I am Chinese, born and grown up in Beijing..but hmmm...what is Sweet and Sour chicken? How does it taste and look like?
    • 07 Dec 2006, 04:00 am
  • Gerry 業振 Lo 羅
    Gerry 業振 Lo 羅    Group moderator
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    Re^3: How to make Sweet and sour chicken?
    Hello from America!

    雞酸甜 Sweet and sour chicken is an American invention, as are 碎翕 Chop Suey and something called 雞公左 "General Tso's Chicken."

    http://wingtiphsu.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/2006/08/the_l...

    It is very popular in the United States, because most people do not like the texture and flavor of authentic traditional Chinese cooking. Since the restaurants need to sell food to the people who live here, they need to adjust their recipes according to consumer expectations.

    Many Chinese-Americans, American-Born Chinese ABCs like myself, end up in Chinese restaurants all over America, and "Sweet and Sour Chicken" can be found from Alaska to Florida.

    It is probably one of the least toxic choices on the menu, but I never eat it. My kids like it.

    The ingredients may include bell peppers, pineapple chunks, cornstarch, white vinegar, white sugar, oil, soy sauce, tomato, chicken breast meat, peanuts and oil. Since ketchup is tomato, sugar, salt and allspice, some people substitute ketchup.

    You will probably find millions of recipes online for this stuff. The meat is cut into cubes and dusted with the corn starch, and fried to a golden yellow color. The vegetables are also cubed, everything gets fried together and corn starch is added to the sauce to thicken it to a pasty consistency. Some cooks add orange food coloring to make it look more golden.

    I can't recommend that you try it, but you may wish to explore this out of scientific curiosity.

    Ketchup, by the way, is from a Chinese word related to the Bahasa word kechap and Indonesian ketjap.

    "Gip Tsup" is a condiment found in many parts of Asia, usually seasoned with fermented fish essence and has a watery, dark appearance. It resembles Worcestershire sauce.

    http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodhistory/a/ketchuphistory...
    • 13 Apr 2007, 6:07 pm
  • Sergio Lahaye
    Sergio Lahaye
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    Re^4: How to make Sweet and sour chicken?
    ironically, ketchup is originally Asian also.... although not with the ingredients we know it to contain nowadays. Chops suey is another American invented Chinese dish. It´s the same as most Indian curry dishes in England were actually invented in england.
    • 09 Apr 2008, 04:26 am