Recipe Thread

[Lindsey]

There's an awesome Indian place near me where I've gone probably thirty times, and I've had the exact same dish every time.  But I'll sample things other people get....they're never as good. 

Thats what I do with General Tso's Chicken. 

I could open the menu to a Chinese place, scan for General's chicken, and if its there the other 700 things are meaningless. 

I swear, I could open a menu and the only thing listed could be General's chicken, like this:

General Tso's Chicken   7.95

And I'd be like "Hey, lets try this place!"

BTW, the rating scale for Bourbon is "Less Bad".  You start deep in the negatives, and work your way up to zero, which is where Scotch begins. 

can we clear this up, once & for all?
i see gen. gao
i see gen. tso.
same, fried-ass, chicken-in-spicy-sauce dish.
what gives?

I've only seen "The General's Chicken" on a couple menus.  Then again, I eat relatively bland food so I don't pay much mind. 

[Diogenes The Cynic]

Lindsey, so, you eat borscht often, eh?

[anarchir]

Mmmm yes, General Tso's Chicken. Thats what I almost always see it as. And I love it. I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce it though.

General sow's? As in female pig.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

Mmmm yes, General Tso's Chicken. Thats what I almost always see it as. And I love it. I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce it though.

General sow's? As in female pig.

Every time an American mispronounces the name of General Tso's chicken, Sun Tsu rolls over in his grave from the bellittling of the Chinese military.

[Dylboz]

There never was a General Tso, he and the dish were invented for Americans, and Chop Suey translates roughly to "kitchen scraps in brown sauce for round eyes." I worked for years in a Chinese restaurant, and I loved the dinners we'd have after the place closed. It was real Chinese food, made by the owner and the honorary Chino, José. The Fungs had their ancient mother tooling around the back yelling at us to make it right, from de-veining shrimp to peeling snow peas, and they'd always ask me, ever the authority on what white people like, if this authentic Hong Kong dish or that genuine Szechuan spiciness would fly with the crowd of retirees who populated the lunch buffet crowd. Sadly, the more pedestrian flavors of the made for 'mericans dishes of gooey fried sweet sticky crap prevailed, despite my attempts to broaden their horizons. But there are still gems to be had on their dinner menu to this day, like Hong Kong style fish pots, cabbage soup and Kung Pao squid. I try and make it up there often, and I can't resist their take on one common round eye delight, walnut shrimp. Mmmmmm...

Still, the best Chinese food I ever had was in Mexicali Mexico, which has the distinction of the most Chinese restaurants per capita in North America. They have a well established Chinese population, workers who came south to work the fields after the railroads were finished. It's really weird seeing a Chinese person speak broken English to you with a thick Mexican accent.

[Riddler]

Peng's Restaurant on East 44th Street in New York City claims that it was the first restaurant in the city to serve General Tso's chicken. Since the dish (and cuisine) was new, Chef Peng made it the house specialty in spite of the dish's commonplace ingredients.[1] A review of Peng's in 1977 mentions that their “General Tso's chicken was a stir-fried masterpiece, sizzling hot both in flavor and temperature”.[6]

New York's Shun Lee Palaces, East (155 E. 55th St.) and West (43 W. 65th St.) also says that it was the first restaurant to serve General Tso's chicken and that it was invented by a Chinese immigrant chef named T. T. Wang in 1972. Michael Tong, owner of New York's Shun Lee Palaces, says, "We opened the first Hunanese restaurant in the whole country, and the four dishes we offered you will see on the menu of practically every Hunanese restaurant in America today. They all copied from us."

[Riddler]

There never was a General Tso,

you liah......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuo_Zongtang#General_Tso.27s_chicken

Zuǒ Zōngtáng, 1st Marquess Kejing of the Second Class (traditional Chinese: 左宗棠; Courtesy name: Jigao traditional Chinese: 季高) (November 10, 1812 - September 5, 1885), spelled Tso Tsung-t'ang in Wade-Giles and known simply as General Tso or General Tsuo to Western Europeans, was a Chinese statesman and military leader. He was born in Wenjialong, north of Changsha in Hunan province in the waning years of the Qing Dynasty. He served with distinction during China's most important (and the world's largest) civil war, the 14 year long Taiping Rebellion, in which it is estimated 20 million people died. The Tso in General Tso is sometimes misspelled "Cho" in English, probably due to Cantonese influence. The correct pronunciation of the name in Mandarin is [ʤuɔ ʤʊŋtʰɑŋ].

altho, you are somewhat correct about the origins of the dish

[anarchir]

Or is it pronounced Tao?

[Lindsey]

Lindsey, so, you eat borscht often, eh?

I don't like beets. 

[Bill Brasky]

Mmmm yes, General Tso's Chicken. Thats what I almost always see it as. And I love it. I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce it though.

General sow's? As in female pig.

I think thats pretty close. 

When they repeat it back to me over the phone, it sounds like a silent T is pronounced in front of "so" like "tso what?"

I actually want to learn Chinese.  Since I'm gonna conquer China, and all. 

[anarchir]

So...not sow as in pig but sow as in hoe.

General So's Sauce. Cool.

[Bill Brasky]

So...not sow as in pig but sow as in hoe.

General So's Sauce. Cool.

Thats what this big dumb Roundeyes calls it.  And magically, the stuff I want appears.  So it must be somewhat close.   

[Dylboz]

There never was a General Tso,

you liah......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuo_Zongtang#General_Tso.27s_chicken

Zuǒ Zōngtáng, 1st Marquess Kejing of the Second Class (traditional Chinese: 左宗棠; Courtesy name: Jigao traditional Chinese: 季高) (November 10, 1812 - September 5, 1885), spelled Tso Tsung-t'ang in Wade-Giles and known simply as General Tso or General Tsuo to Western Europeans, was a Chinese statesman and military leader. He was born in Wenjialong, north of Changsha in Hunan province in the waning years of the Qing Dynasty. He served with distinction during China's most important (and the world's largest) civil war, the 14 year long Taiping Rebellion, in which it is estimated 20 million people died. The Tso in General Tso is sometimes misspelled "Cho" in English, probably due to Cantonese influence. The correct pronunciation of the name in Mandarin is [ʤuɔ ʤʊŋtʰɑŋ].

altho, you are somewhat correct about the origins of the dish

OK, so General Tso never ate the dish. So, the name is just arbitrary, or honorary at best.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

There never was a General Tso,

OK, so General Tso never ate the dish. So, the name is just arbitrary, or honorary at best.

Or, dishonorary, rather.

[Rillion]

Hey, Joy!  I was wondering if you have any good recipes using cauliflower as a centerpiece.  I would like to explore the possibilities for this exciting healthy vegetable.  

Also I found a post I made in this forum in March raving about a soup Boyfriend made, and sent it to him to try and get him to make it again.  He looked at the thread, and now wants to make Shaw's chili.  That's okay by me too.   (And if you want to share the recipe, Shaw, that would be great)

This thread really should not die.