GENERAL TSO
The only reason General Tso’s chicken isn’t the most popular dish in the country is because there’s pizza.
Chinese food symbolizes lazy Saturday nights and our love of fast, cheap and delicious cuisine. There are about 50,000 Chinese restaurants in this country, and you’d be hard-pressed to find one that doesn’t serve some form of breaded chicken in a spicy-sweet, garlicky sauce. But who was General Tso, and why can’t we stop eating his chicken?
Ian Cheney’s new documentary aims to answer all the questions you’ve never bothered to ask before phoning in your order.
The Search for General Tso is a marvelous journey through the history of Chinese food in America with a particular focus on people who made it stick. The documentary is just as much about culture as it is about food, giving us a glimpse into the prejudices and plagiarism that shaped some of our most beloved dishes.
Faced with racism and poverty, many Chinese immigrants resorted to opening laundry services and Chinese restaurants after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. As they moved across the country, they brought flavors from home with them. Today, many immigrants find that by adapting traditional dishes for the American palate, they can create profitable restaurants almost anywhere.
General Tso’s chicken didn’t appear in the U.S. until the 1970s. T.T. Wang, a Chinese chef in New York, brought back the dish from a trip to Taiwan. It became a hit when The New York Times gave his restaurant a four-star review.
But the idea was stolen. The documentary introduces us to the real inventor, Chef Peng, who is alive and well, albeit disappointed with the Americanized version of his creation. He says the bed of broccoli is incorrect.
The Search for General Tso has certainly done its homework. It catches up with everyone who’s had some influence on the spread of the chicken. We even meet a descendant of General Tso’s, who — not surprisingly — is dismayed that his ancestor’s accomplishments have been cooked down to a goopy chicken dish.
It helps that the documentary is structurally clever, too — not until the last 10 minutes do you realize you’ve been watching, say, the founder of P.F. Chang’s. And the Jewish guy who describes eating Chinese food on Christmas? Halfway through, he turns out to be a news anchor who filmed the dish’s real inventor when he came to New York.
The Search for General Tso gets off to a slow start. There’s no narration, so the first half-hour meanders through interviews and tantalizing shots of delicious buffets. It’s all worth it in the end, thoughwhen after a couple twists, a story emerges that’s as intriguing as it is unassuming.
The film does leave one lingering question: How do you pronounce the name? A Chinese restauranteur says “so,” the inventor says “chow” and a few Americans say “toe.”
Regardless of pronunciation, this Chinese-American classic has found its way into our hearts — and stomachs — for good. The documentary recognizes this, delivering a history lesson delightfully disguised among close-ups of your favorite carryout item. It was released in select theaters last month and now you can rent it on Amazon. It’s only a little over an hour long, and it’s well worth some time on the couch. And maybe some takeout?
