American Chinese Food

 Foreign cuisines are often altered to suite the tastes of the locals who reside there. While the recipes themselves still maintain the characteristics of their native lands, a couple of ingredients are added or adjusted in some way to create variations. And that is exactly what has happened with Chinese food. The greatest difference perhaps comes with the use of vegetables. Traditionally, Chinese food places vegetables as the epicenter of the dish, but in America, vegetables are mostly used as garnishes, with the exception being that the dish itself is primarily a vegetable one.

The methods of preparation of authentic Chinese food and American Chinese food are not entirely different. These are steaming, stir-frying and deep-frying. Perhaps the most observable difference is that in America, deep-frying is carried out more frequently. Also, Chinese cuisine insists on the use of fresh ingredients to get the best flavor from the meal. Because this is not entirely possible in America all the time, dried ingredients are used which bring different tastes which are not as fulfilling as those from authentic cuisines.

Garlic is used as a flavoring, especially in Cantonese cuisine, but the ingredient of choice with American Chinese food is MSG (monosodium glutamate). There are different schools of thought on the use of this as a flavoring, and efforts have been made to make less use of it or remove it completely from the ingredients lists. Also traditional Chinese dishes do not use any milk products like cheese or butter, but these are used in American Chinese dishes. But even with the apparent differences between this and the authentic Chinese cuisine, most people don’t mind it, and enjoy the Chinese food as if it was in its traditional form. Some common dishes include Chow mein, sesame chicken, fried rice, lo mein, wonton soup and moo shu pork among others.

Most of the high end Chinese restaurants available in the country offer authentic Chinese food. Everything from the recipes, ingredients used, and preparation methods are the same as those used in native Chinese cuisines. Menus are even offered in Chinese, but there are English menus availed for those without proficiency in the language.