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China is not Chinatown, and I think your sample size is a bit small considering how many Chinese exist.

by derwiki 10y ago

stcredzero 10y ago
China is not Chinatown Said dozens of times by my Chinese-born girlfriend in SF Chinatown: "I have no idea what this is." "This is weird."
- mixmastamyk 10y ago
  Born where? I believe west coast Chinatowns were built by Cantonese and separated by 100+ years. See the recent post about american chinese food.
  - ithinkinstereo 10y ago
    That's correct. The first influx of Chinese immigrants were mostly from the south. After the CCP took over, immigration from the mainland basically ceased. During the 60s-80s most of the Chinese immigrants that were not from HK were from Taiwan. Immigration from the mainland started picking up after the Cultural Revolution in the late 70s / early 80s through now. "Chinese" food in the US is mostly Cantonese food. Only fairly recently have you seen an uptick of non-canton style food. The latest trend is Sichuan / Chongqing style of cuisine (spicy!). My favorite Chinese regional cuisine is Xinjiang cai (food of the uighurs, China's muslim minority group). Very tasty - lots of bbq meats, delicious noodles, and spicy. Also bonus that its halal/kosher.
    - inferiorhuman 10y ago
      Chinese food in the US is fairly diverse (and has been for a while). Hunan food is, IIRC, quite common in New York and accounts for most of what New Yorkers think of when they conjure up images of Chinese food. Even in SF, places like Henry's Hunan have been around for a while (early 70s). If you go to the LA area you'll find a large proliferation of Taiwanese restaurants (which are relatively scarce in SF).
  - princeb 10y ago
    american chinese food is still quite similar to cantonese food. at least, much more similar to cantonese food than it is to northern chinese food, which in my (cantonese heritage) opinion look more like korean, given its extreme use of sour preserved vegetables and grains.
munchbunny 10y ago
Indeed, Chinatown is often more like Americanized-Cantonese-Town. When it comes to cooking traditional Chinese foods from cuisines outside the Guangdong (Canton) area, you often have to source more widely for seasonings, ingredients, and sauces (the internet helps with that a lot). It's better in major cities where there's some degree of specialization among Chinese grocery stores, in which case you just need to be willing to search a bit for the more region-specific ingredients.

China is not Chinatown, and I think your sample size is a bit small considering how many Chinese exist.

by derwiki 10y ago

China is not Chinatown, and I think your sample size is a bit small considering how many Chinese exist.

China is not Chinatown Said dozens of times by my Chinese-born girlfriend in SF Chinatown: "I have no idea what this is." "This is weird."

mixmastamyk 10y ago
Born where? I believe west coast Chinatowns were built by Cantonese and separated by 100+ years. See the recent post about american chinese food.
- ithinkinstereo 10y ago
  That's correct. The first influx of Chinese immigrants were mostly from the south. After the CCP took over, immigration from the mainland basically ceased. During the 60s-80s most of the Chinese immigrants that were not from HK were from Taiwan. Immigration from the mainland started picking up after the Cultural Revolution in the late 70s / early 80s through now. "Chinese" food in the US is mostly Cantonese food. Only fairly recently have you seen an uptick of non-canton style food. The latest trend is Sichuan / Chongqing style of cuisine (spicy!). My favorite Chinese regional cuisine is Xinjiang cai (food of the uighurs, China's muslim minority group). Very tasty - lots of bbq meats, delicious noodles, and spicy. Also bonus that its halal/kosher.
  - inferiorhuman 10y ago
    Chinese food in the US is fairly diverse (and has been for a while). Hunan food is, IIRC, quite common in New York and accounts for most of what New Yorkers think of when they conjure up images of Chinese food. Even in SF, places like Henry's Hunan have been around for a while (early 70s). If you go to the LA area you'll find a large proliferation of Taiwanese restaurants (which are relatively scarce in SF).
- princeb 10y ago
  american chinese food is still quite similar to cantonese food. at least, much more similar to cantonese food than it is to northern chinese food, which in my (cantonese heritage) opinion look more like korean, given its extreme use of sour preserved vegetables and grains.

munchbunny 10y ago

Indeed, Chinatown is often more like Americanized-Cantonese-Town. When it comes to cooking traditional Chinese foods from cuisines outside the Guangdong (Canton) area, you often have to source more widely for seasonings, ingredients, and sauces (the internet helps with that a lot). It's better in major cities where there's some degree of specialization among Chinese grocery stores, in which case you just need to be willing to search a bit for the more region-specific ingredients.