The third season of the variety show "Chinese Restaurant" has come to an end, and the efforts of Chinese food going out to sea are far more than just on the screen, and the history is much longer. What is behind the name of "rustic" restaurant? What kind of Chinese food is popular overseas? What's new about Chinese food going out to sea for so long? How many types of Chinese restaurants can there be in a city? The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) crawled 2, overseas Chinese restaurants and 15, Chinese dishes recommended in the United States on the international review website Yelp, trying to answer these questions.

the names of overseas Chinese restaurants are a bit "rustic"

Walking through the streets of Lima, Peru, restaurants with the words "CHIFA" can be seen everywhere, which is a unique signboard of Chinese restaurants in Peru, meaning the homonym of "eating" in Chinese.

Different from the various and even web-like names in China, the names of overseas Chinese restaurants are a bit "rustic". In addition to the literal translation of Chinese/China Restaurant, from wok to jiaozi, from panda to bamboo, from golden to Beijing, diners are reminded that this is a restaurant from a mysterious country in the far east.

Wok, which started in Qin and Han dynasties, is an indispensable tool for Chinese food making. According to the food documentary "China on the Tip of the Tongue", the wok is deep inside and suitable for frying. Moreover, the inner wall of the pot is forged, and the food naturally turns inward from the pot body when the spoon is turned over, so that it will not be thrown out. These characteristics promote the achievement of China people's stir-frying techniques.

Panda is not only a national treasure of China, but also a witness to its commercial expansion. In 1973, Nixon's visit to China eased Sino-US relations, and China sent the first pair of giant pandas to the United States. Also in this year, 25-year-old Cheng Zhengchang raised funds to set up a restaurant. The waiter suggested that since Americans like pandas, they might as well name the restaurant "Panda Inn". Later, this restaurant grew into Panda Express, the largest American Chinese food chain in the world. In our statistics, more than three-quarters of the word frequency of Panda comes from this.

Golden, the favorite color in Chinese restaurant names. This preference may have originated hundreds of years ago. According to the book "From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express", Chinese restaurants opened in the United States in the early years invariably hung triangular yellow silk ribbons as flags. In the Qing Dynasty, yellow silks and satins were still royal, and they were rarely used as commercial signs of hotels. This taboo was broken overseas. At the beginning of our forefathers' pioneering work, the oriental colors symbolizing imperial power, gongs calling customers and red lanterns hanging high together formed the cultural symbol of Chinese food going to sea.

besides sweet, sour, spicy and salty, what new flavors are there?

In traditional Chinese cooking, China people are used to seasoning with sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty. In addition to bitterness, overseas Chinese restaurants basically continue the traditional seasoning habits.

The sour and sweet taste of refreshing and relieving boredom is not a particularly mainstream cooking taste in China. But the flowers inside the wall are fragrant outside the wall, which has become the basic knowledge of Chinese food for most foreigners. In the Chinese food industry in the United States, sour and sweet taste accounts for almost half of the country.

Some sweet and sour tastes that are popular overseas are not popular in China, such as "orange chicken", the best-selling Chinese food in the United States, which most people in China have never eaten. Some people think that the original origin of this dish is the famous dish Chenpi Chicken in Sichuan. However, American orange-flavored chicken can't taste the bitter taste of orange peel. From the perspective of raw materials, dried tangerine peel has also been replaced by fresh orange peel, and some restaurants don't even use orange peel, so sweet and sour sauce can blend the "orange flavor".

Some sweet and sour dishes originated in China are also well received. Goo Lai Meat, a famous Guangdong dish, can be found in many overseas Chinese restaurants. Goose meat can be mixed with sugar and vinegar to make it sweet and sour, and it can also be added with tomato sauce, pickles, pineapples and sour fruits to increase the taste level.

The most popular spicy food in Chinese food has also performed well overseas. However, the popularity of spicy food mainly depends on snacks such as hot and sour soup. This soup has thousands of flavors. Under the sour and spicy framework, it can be flexibly matched with bamboo shoots, mushrooms, shredded pork, egg flowers, fungus, tofu, black vinegar, pepper, dried peppers and other ingredients. The acceptance of spicy taste from Sichuan and Hunan is not too high. Common foods in China, such as red oil wonton soup and spicy balsamic pot, are not common.

in addition to the traditional five flavors, Chinese restaurants in the United States also have a very rich mix and match seasoning. Saddle in Indonesia, black pepper in South India, citronella and basil in Thailand, these flavors have been completely preserved due to the introduction of exotic classic dishes, or blended with traditional Chinese seasoning.

compound seasoning curry alone can be tasted in at least three Chinese restaurants in the United States. First, the red curry in Southeast Asia, whose red color comes from red pepper and red onion, is very spicy and can be used with beef and mutton. The second is the most common Indian yellow curry. Spicy in acid, suitable for making curry chicken and curry seafood. The third is the green curry from Thailand. Green comes from the dyeing of green pepper and basil, and green curry is also mixed with citronella, lime and coconut milk, which is richer in layers and suitable for matching vegetables.

what's the difference between different Chinese restaurants in terms of dishes and location?

In the past hundred years, Chinese food has gradually taken root overseas with the migration of Chinese. In the process of change and circulation, a large number of new formats and new meals different from those in China have been produced.

There are more than 4, Chinese restaurants in new york, an international city. Lower Manhattan and Chinatown in Flushing naturally attract many restaurants. But according to the public data of NYC, Chinese restaurants have already spread all over the streets of new york, so it can be said that there are Chinese restaurants wherever there are people.

these restaurants can be roughly divided into three categories: one is the largest and most widely distributed community stores; Second, chain stores such as panda express; The third is a high-priced store that is relatively expensive but respects Chinese taste more.

these three types of shops can be clearly distinguished from decoration, food, price and mode of operation.

Community stores may have only a few tables, mostly in the form of mom-and-pop stores or family stores. It can be said that "women run errands and men do kitchens" is the convention of community stores. The number of chain stores should not be underestimated, and the dining environment in the store is mostly clean and uniform, providing standardized meals at moderate prices that cater to local tastes.

In new york, more than 9% Chinese restaurants are community stores and chain stores, and these low-priced restaurants constitute foreigners' basic knowledge of Chinese food. The dishes provided by these two kinds of Chinese restaurants are similar in color. Popular chain-store dishes such as "orange-flavored chicken" are also imitated by community stores. After full "internal" spread, these dishes can be found in every community in every big American city.

In recent years, Meizhou Dongpo, Dadong Roast Duck and Dalongyi Hot Pot, which are familiar to Chinese people, have also spread to the United States. In these high-priced Chinese restaurants, which are relatively expensive but respect the taste of China more, you can taste more authentic Peking Duck, clear soup trotters, steamed sea bass and moo Shu pork, and feel homesick. Such as spicy duck tongue, which is not eaten by local people, also has the opportunity to serve.

in the process of landing, high-priced stores have also made some localized changes. In 218, when Dadong, a Beijing roast duck brand, opened its doors, PETE WELLS, a food critic in The New York Times, rushed to try it. He found that Dadong had replaced the carbon barbecue oven with a natural gas oven, and the ducks he ate came from a farm in Indiana. In terms of eating methods, in addition to the conventional China eating methods, such as duck skin dipped in white sugar, duck meat and green onion sweet noodle sauce, there is a more localized eating method-1 grams of Kaluga black fish roe at $42 becomes a new partner of roast duck.

unlike community stores and chain stores, the location of high-priced stores is more focused. First, Asian communities. In new york, Lower Manhattan, Flushing in Queens and Sunset Park in Brooklyn are all popular choices. Second, a well-developed white community with strong ability to pay. The above-mentioned Dadong is located in midtown Manhattan. On the one hand, it can meet the daily banquet needs of the core business district, and on the other hand, it can radiate to core attractions such as Times Square and Bryant Park to attract tourists to eat.

in the 184s, the first Chinese restaurant opened in San Francisco. In the past hundred years, people have come and gone, and the definition of overseas Chinese food has been constantly refreshed by historical changes, flavor integration and dish color innovation. However, eating a proper Chinese meal and saying thank you for your hospitality will bring the same simple happiness as it did a hundred years ago and will continue.