Fans of American dramas who have watched "The Big Bang Theory" must remember Sheldon's favorite food - General Tso's Chicken. He once said that "General Tso's Chicken is the most popular Chinese dish abroad."

In the eyes of the Chinese audience, Xie Erduo, a physics genius with an IQ of 187, does not understand Chinese taste! This is probably because the character is about to collapse.

Perhaps, those fans who don’t want their idol to take the blame think that this is nothing to make a fuss about. After all, in the United States, General Tso’s Chicken is a popular Chinese dish! Coincidentally, in the American kitchen food documentary "Food Culture"

"", mentioned that "XO sauce is the soul of Chinese food." And the "Michelin Guide", which is regarded as the "Bible" by the food industry, once said, "The best Sichuan cuisine in the world is in Singapore, and the chef is a Japanese."

Faced with these "ridiculous" misunderstandings, we can't help but ask, why can't we always get the real Chinese taste? Historical reasons: The localization improvement of Chinese food "going out" began in the 1850s, and a large number of Chinese workers poured in

After entering the United States, Chinese food and Chinese restaurants began to appear at this time.

With the Chinese people's willingness to cater and innovative thinking, the dishes in Chinese restaurants began to slowly develop in the direction of fusion. This gave birth to a number of Chinese and Western combinations such as crab meat wontons, sweet and sour sweet and sour pork, and apricot duck.

The products are deeply loved by local diners in the United States and have gradually integrated into the mainstream food culture of American society.

In the 1970s, as unique Chinese cooking ingredients such as fungus and enoki mushrooms entered the United States, dishes that had previously been impossible to cook due to lack of ingredients could now be made smoothly.

It was at this time that "General Tso's Chicken" flourished through improvement and innovation and became a popular dish in Chinese restaurants in the United States! From the early Chinese workers to the later immigrants, most Chinese took their first step into the United States.

In order to survive, the catering industry's "low threshold, low cost, large market, and high returns" have naturally become the choice of many people.

In the process of development, the innovative fusion of Chinese food has on the one hand pushed Chinese food to the world. On the other hand, this localized improvement has caused "foreigners" to have different perceptions of Chinese taste.

Cultural reasons: The lack of export of Chinese food culture. With the rapid development of internationalization and the Internet in recent years, when it comes to global food, people will think of the exquisite Japanese food, the romance of French food, the boldness of German food, and even the convenience of American fast food.

But when it comes to Chinese food, it is often difficult to have a clear and accurate image positioning.

In fact, Chinese food is profound and has a long history.

Confucius' "You never tire of fine food, you never tire of fine meat", Zhuangzi's "Governing a big country is like cooking small delicacies", Li Bai's "Taibai Duck", Du Fu's original "Five-liver Grass Carp", Su Dongpo's "Dongpo Meat",

From the Manchu-Han banquet to the eight major cuisines, the evolution of Chinese history and culture is always inseparable from the inheritance and development of food.

But from a global perspective, our export of Chinese food culture seems particularly lacking and thin.

The two "A Bite of China" movies in recent years have greatly increased Chinese people's confidence in food culture, and it still has high scores of 9.3 and 8.4 on Douban.

However, in the eyes of many foreign viewers, although it is said to be "Incredible", it is just an excellent documentary.

In addition, in today's prosperous information age, there are few works that can represent the image of Chinese food culture exported to the world, which to a certain extent limits foreign countries' understanding of the true Chinese taste.

Practical reasons: The lack of an authoritative food list. People’s understanding and recognition of French food is undoubtedly closely related to the Michelin Guide.

As the birthplace of Michelin, France has a large number of Michelin-starred restaurants.

As the starting point of Michelin restaurants, French food is now regarded as "the most important food in Western food". It has lasted for a long time and is well known to food lovers all over the world.

In China, it is precisely because of the lack of such an authoritative food list to establish a standard value system for Chinese taste.

Although various lists of folk delicacies have emerged one after another in recent years, due to the lack of official endorsement and an overly strong atmosphere of commercial cooperation, their credibility is difficult to convince the public.

On the other hand, the Michelin Guide Shanghai, which has been released for two consecutive years, has also received mixed reviews. The restaurants on the list have been repeatedly complained about as being "out of touch" and biased towards Western food aesthetic standards, which is not in line with Chinese tastes and difficult to adapt to localization in China.

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Although the changes due to historical and cultural reasons are profound and long-lasting, it is gratifying that someone is finally willing to face reality, embrace the future, shoulder the mission of inheriting and promoting Chinese taste, and create an authoritative food list for Chinese taste buds!

Just recently, Meituan-Dianping released Dianping’s Black Pearl Restaurant Guide, aiming to create “Chinese’s own food list.”

***330 restaurants have been selected into Dianping’s Black Pearl Restaurant Guide, including 28 three-diamond restaurants, 85 two-diamond restaurants, and 217 one-diamond restaurants, covering 22 domestic cities and 5 overseas cities.

Meituan-Dianping unites well-known gourmets, cooking experts, food researchers and food culture communicators to "select the best from millions of restaurants" and create the first restaurant evaluation system with Chinese food culture characteristics for all consumers who love Chinese food.

An authoritative food guide for "Selected Chinese Taste Buds".