Myths About Chinese Food You Should Stop Believing

If you or your family ever lived near a Chinese restaurant, you'd probably just have assumed that whatever it was you were ordering, be it chow mein or lo mein, General Tso's chicken, egg rolls, or chop suey, was the real deal. But what if we told you that what you thought were popular dishes in Chinese cooking are in fact less Chinese and more American, and which had been adapted to suit American tastes? And that these adaptations, per Jennifer 8. Lee in her TED Talk, actually introduced ingredients into Chinese American cuisine that weren't actually native to China — like broccoli (of the hit duo "beef and broccoli")? 

Because Chinese cooking in America has been exceedingly adaptable, many myths surrounding the cuisine have become accepted as fact — and these myths might easily be debunked after just one trip to an authentic Chinese restaurant. Here are just a few.

The world of Chinese cooking is vast. So vast that it encompasses at least eight different regional cuisines including Cantonese, Szechuan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, and Shandong. Some of these cuisines like their soy sauce, others embrace chilies and specialty peppercorns that numb the mouth (via China Highlights). 

This may explain why, although soy sauce is a popular condiment, it isn't exactly at the center of the cooking universe that is Chinese cuisine. Instead, it shares the limelight with vinegar, cooking wine, chili sauces, and soybean paste. Daxue Consulting notes that while Chinese diners do enjoy salty foods, spicy reigns supreme; and when special diets take spicy condiments out of the flavor equation, soybean pastes and tahini come in second and third, respectively.

If you go to a Chinese restaurant in Asia, don't be surprised if your takeout comes to you in a plastic bag or packed into a nondescript box where a lid is held in place with rubber bands. The genesis of what we think is an awesome takeout box was the brainchild of American inventor Frederick Weeks Wilcox who took a patent in 1894, for what he called a "paper pail." 

Inspired by existing oyster pails of his time, Wilcox's brainchild was made with a single sheet of paper, creased into segments and folded into a nearly-leakproof container with a delicate wire handle (via The New York Times). One of the producers for this cool container was a company named Fold-Pak, which, in the 1970s, had a graphic designer who went on to add a pagoda and "Thank you" in what was meant to look like Chinese calligraphy, both printed in red (via Reader's Digest). For what it's worth, Fold-Pak doesn't remember who that graphic designer is, but the company knows one thing — it doesn't sell the takeout boxes in China.

If you've ever eaten at an American-style Chinese restaurant, you've probably come across a multipage menu, complete with dish descriptions and photos. While Chinese restaurant menus in the U.S. may seem huge, appearances can be deceiving. As pointed out by a Reddit member, many of the dishes simply contain a mix of the same ingredients in different formulations.

While some diners enjoy the large selection, others aren't so impressed. In his article for the HuffPost, Joe Satran bemoaned the fact that it took him three tries to eat a decent meal at a Sichuan restaurant in Manhattan simply because there were 218 items on the menu. "No one kitchen can make 218 different dishes, or even 118 items, equally well," he wrote. "So why not, to use a culinary analogy beloved by editors, trim away the fat, leaving a much shorter menu brimming with, say, 30 or 40 fantastic dishes?"

To cater to both American and Chinese tastes, some Chinese restaurants actually have two different menus. If you want to avoid looking through pages of American-style Chinese dishes, it may be a good idea to inquire about this secret menu. In an article for Reader's Digest, Sarah Madaus writes that anyone in search of a more authentic Chinese dining experience should find restaurants with Chinese customers, communal rice dishes, and fish tanks with live seafood.

Chinese cuisine is far from uniform which shouldn't come as a surprise since the country occupies around 3,700,000 square miles (via World Atlas). In fact, China boasts eight popularly recognized culinary styles: Cantonese, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Hunan, Szechuan, Shandong, and Zhejiang (via Hakkasan). The cuisines come from different regions of the country, each with distinct geographic, environmental, and historical characteristics.

The most internationally recognized style of Chinese cuisine is Cantonese food from Guangdong. This is because most of the Chinese immigrants first coming to the U.S. hailed from the province and brought the culinary style along with them. The situation changed in the '60s and '70s with the easing of American immigration policy. Migrants — and their culinary traditions — came from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, per Time. According to the outlet, in 2016 there were over 45,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S. — more than the sum of McDonald's, KFCs, Pizza Huts, Taco Bells, and Wendy's outlets — representing different styles of the country's cooking.

With eight regional cuisines, Chinese food has many different flavor profiles. And while some dishes are indeed spicy, this definitely doesn't apply across the board. In fact, the most internationally popular Chinese cuisine isn't spicy. Instead, Cantonese food from Guangdong is characterized by an abundance of seafood and moderate use of spices. Other regions that feature relatively mild flavors include Fujian, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang (via Hakkasan).

This isn't to say that Chinese food can't be spicy. In particular, Hunan and Sichuan foods are known for their chili pepper kick. Infused with Sichuan peppercorns, Sichuan cuisine is famous for its effect on the tongue — some have equated it to tingling, and others describe it as an electric current. Hunan cuisine is touted as being even hotter than its Sichuan counterpart (via Silky Kitchen). Arguably one of the fieriest Hunan dishes is white pepper smoked beef, which combines dried meat, egg, tofu, scallions, and crushed white pepper (via Foodeiz).

In the U.S., there is a misconception that Chinese food is cheap. However, this isn't the case in many other countries. In Japan, for instance, Chinese food is considered haute cuisine. Meanwhile, in China, restaurants range from cheap hole-in-the-wall joints to elegant establishments that deliver a five-star dining experience (via Thought Catalog). Even in the U.S., a number of Chinese restaurants cost a pretty penny (via HuffPost). 

So why is Chinese food often perceived as cheap? Krishnendu Ray, an associate professor of food studies, tells The Atlantic that it's due to a "global hierarchy of taste." To sum up his idea, the wealthier and more powerful the immigrants from a certain country are viewed to be, the more prestigious — and by extension, expensive — their cuisine. "With China, [Americans] are still filled with this funny disdain, that it is [...] about cheap and crappy food," Ray says.

Jing Gao, founder of the condiment company Fly by Jing, agrees with this notion. According to her, Chinese food commanded such low prices in the U.S. in the 19th century primarily because staff in restaurants were paid abysmally. "Real food, real ingredients, ethical sourcing, and manufacturing come at a cost. Our food, our culture, and our people have value, and it's about time our compensation reflects that," she wrote in an article for Food & Wine.