Recently, there happened to be new tea on the market. Not long ago, I received Zhu's customized spring tea, so I took it to the office to try it for my colleagues. Several foreigners watched the whole process of making tea, and looked at the upright tea buds in the teacup. They all sighed. I told them that in China, drinking tea is an important part of tea culture, just like tasting the fragrance in red wine.
However, when I brought them the brewed tea and let them taste it, they took it hesitantly and sniffed it repeatedly, but they were afraid to ask for it. Because in their cognition, tea should look like this.
What exactly is Chinese food that Americans eat?
The glass of water in front of me is full of mysterious and magical oriental flavor. The beauty is beautiful, but I can't bear to swallow it.
What exactly is Chinese food that Americans eat?
I insisted on telling them that green tea pursues freshness, and China people like to entertain their friends with the freshest tea every spring, that is, the so-called "new tea friends".
Out of courtesy, they took a few sips and put them aside. After work, everyone's desk is still full of a cup of tea
For me, this is not the first time that I have been frustrated in "promoting" China culture.
I once chatted with my colleagues, and several people boasted that they liked Chinese food. I told them that the Chinese food you ate was not real Chinese food, but an improved American Chinese food, which was not available in China at all. I'll take you to eat real Chinese food next time.
Looking at their eager faces, I suddenly had motivation. At noon the next day, I took the gang to a very authentic Sichuan restaurant and ordered husband and wife lung slices, garlic white meat, boiled fish, Sichuan-style pork and ants climbing trees.
When dishes were served, the expressions on colleagues' faces gradually became surprised. They carefully raised chopsticks, carefully picked up vegetables and put them in their mouths. Although they always say it's delicious out of politeness, their stomachs won't lie. After eating for half an hour, most of the dishes were still full.
I couldn't bear it, so I had to considerate Zuo Zongtang's chicken and sesame cattle. When I watched them easily and happily sweep away the most common dishes in these two American Chinese foods, I simply laughed and cried.
In a city like new york, everyone flaunts that they are willing to accept new things. They exaggerate that they like Chinese food, Korean food, Nepalese food and food from any country. Even knowing how to use chopsticks is everyone's basic skill. However, many people do this only to satisfy their social vanity. For them, the acceptable Chinese food is limited to the improved American Chinese food that suits their taste.
People who have been to the United States probably know what American Chinese food is all about. There are 40,000 Chinese restaurants in America, more than McDonald's, KFC and Burger King combined. Streets and alleys in big cities can be seen almost everywhere. If you drive on the road, even in the most desolate and remote corners, you can see Chinese restaurants standing stubbornly on the roadside like lighthouses. Most of these China restaurants are small family restaurants run by immigrants from China. I searched China restaurants on the map and got many results.
What exactly is Chinese food that Americans eat?
The most famous dish in these Chinese restaurants is Zuo Zongtang chicken I mentioned above. The name is actually misinformed. Its real name is "Zuo Zongtang Chicken", which means "General Zuo's Chicken". General Zuo was a general in the Qing Dynasty. This dish is made of large pieces of peeled chicken wrapped in flour, fried and poured with thick sweet and sour juice. It tastes sour and sweet, and tastes a bit like the famous Shanghai dish Gu Lao rou. In addition, there are sesame chicken and dried tangerine peel chicken, all of which taste similar.
What exactly is Chinese food that Americans eat?
Broccoli is the most common side dish in American Chinese food. Meat is usually chicken and beef, which gave birth to two other famous American Chinese foods: broccoli beef and broccoli chicken. The word "stir-fry" here is a little tainted, because the so-called stir-fry is actually nothing more than cook the meat and pouring some soup. As for cauliflower, it follows American habits and is almost raw.
What exactly is Chinese food that Americans eat?
In addition, there are combinations of chicken, beef, shrimp and other vegetables, but they are nothing more than green peppers, snow beans and mushrooms. All these dishes taste the same.
Americans don't eat pork very much, so there is almost no pork in restaurants in China, but some restaurants in China will serve barbecued pork, which is of course completely different from barbecued pork in China.
There is also a famous dish "fried noodles with eggs", which is to fry eggs and vegetables together, add beef, chicken or shrimp according to customers' tastes, and then add a thick sauce that I don't know how to cook. The taste of this dish varies from restaurant to restaurant. The main difference is the sauce. Some restaurants prepare good sauces. It tastes strange, but it's delicious.
And egg drop soup, which contains a lot of sticky starch. In addition, hot and sour soup is also very common.
After eating Chinese food, Americans have a very important tradition. At checkout, the clerk will give everyone a piece of fortune cookie, which is made of eggs and flour and tastes a bit like an omelet. After opening it, there is still a small note hidden inside, with inspirational chicken soup and lucky numbers on one side and a Chinese word and English explanation on the other. No one knows how the signature cake, which does not exist in China, originated, but it is certain that the person who came up with this idea decades ago was a genius, because this technique played an important role in the popularity of early American Chinese food.
These small restaurants in China have nothing to do with each other, but each one looks very similar, just like a chain restaurant. Almost all of them are the same messy storefront and the same style of light box shop, with high repetition rate.
The menus all look the same.
Even the takeout boxes are almost identical, which is often seen in American TV dramas.
In a sense, tens of thousands of small restaurants in China in the United States are American versions of Shaxian snacks, with low-end positioning and low prices, but many shops are surprisingly unified in style, all singing a loyal hymn.
Shaxian, which is highly accepted in the United States, is a fast food, not the orthodoxy of China cuisine. Tea plays an important role in China's food culture, but its acceptance is not high. However, I will not be disappointed to see the almost untouched bamboo leaves left by my colleagues. It is a common phenomenon that many people find it difficult to adjust, not to mention the collision of two food cultures. Everything with real characteristics has its own personality, but luxury things need time, such as fresh tea only once a year.
Therefore, I would rather this cup of early spring green tea, still with upright tea buds and mysterious and gentle oriental green, make foreigners feel curious and hesitant, and even be "disgusted" for a while. I don't want it to become a tea powder tea bag in order to quickly cater to the habits of foreigners. It will become soft and sloppy without its original spirit, and then it will compete with other tea bags.