New Changes of Chinese Cuisine in the United States

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Moreover, as mentioned above, in the early times, Chinese food was first catering to poor railroad workers and miners, therefore even today Chinese immigration has slow down, but most Americans associate Chinese food with relatively impoverished Chinese immigrants, while for Japanese cuisine, most of the Japanese Americans are familiar with are business folks, are executives, so Americans may relate Japanese food to haute cuisine.

2.2 Realistic reasons

Today there are more than 45,000 Chinese in the United States, but most of them remain operated small businesses or they are express food chain, which provide a variety of cheap and take-out food like Kung Pao Chicken, fried rice, steamed rice, chow mein, or mixed vegetables in the folded paper boxes folded, Chinese takeout became a staple of city life in America. Panda Express, the largest chain of American Chinese food in America, it is a good example for the image of Chinese food to Americans. The rise of Chinese express food chain performed a social service rather than an admiration of Chinese cooking as a culinary art or an art of hospitality (Brudner, 2015). According to Professor Yong Chen, Americans prefer the cheap Chinese food like chop suey due to its affordability and convenience, but reject Chinese haute cuisine such as such as shark fins or bird’s nests which enjoyed by Chinese aristocrats (P.126).

While for Japanese cuisines, unlike the low-cost of Chinese food, many Japanese restaurants consider to use freshest and expensive ingredients, miso paste, seafood, wasabi, fresh fish, even sushi rice, all these are more expensive than Chinese ingredients, and some ingredients even sent over from Japan. One more realistic reason is that Japanese food is seen as more trendy than Chinese food in America, this is largely influenced by celebrities who don’t eat anything apart from fish and vegetables, which created a trend to pursue relatively simple food like Japanese food rather than Chinese food.

People don’t think about what they eating, who makes it, and where it comes from, but even if it’s subconscious, food is directly tied to people’s identities. The way we see other people’s food is tied with how we think about them, stereotypes and all (Eisenberg, 2016). Consequently, due to these historical and realistic reasons we can see why Chinese food is considered as cheap food which lack of hospitality in America. But as the oldest cuisine and very complex, Chinese food is actually much more cheap take-out food. The real Chinese food is like a never-ending artichoke, the more layers you peel back, the more people can find inside (Chou, 2012).

III. The new changes in American Chinese cuisine

In 2008, the San Francisco Professional Food Society, the Asia Society and the Chinese Culture Center have all joined to tackle a question over Chinese restaurants, the discussion focused mostly on the challenges of finding great Chinese food in America. Despite many people didn’t mind American Chinese cuisine, but they all agreed that it is necessary to have authentic Chinese food in the US (Sherman, 2008). There are four main factors impede the development of the authentic Chinese food in America: Lack of availability of ingredients; the domination of American Chinese food; perception of Chinese dish as cheap take-out food.

Fortunately, the face of Chinese food in America is changing these years. It has become too easy for Americans to dismiss American Chinese food is truly inauthentic. Americans are beginning to be more aware, gain broader exposure, to see what authentic looks like. They’re more curious about what authentic Chinese food tastes and feels like.

For this question, Chinese cuisine is often referred to in China as the “Eight Great Cuisines”, the cuisine of China is a real art of hospitality and it's diverse and complex. Popular sweet and sour American Chinese cuisine only represents a part of Southern flavor. New restaurants are appearing in American cities with regional, authentic concepts.

For instance, the regional cuisines of Sichuan and Shanghai which have gained significant traction and more recently restaurants like Jason Wang’s Xi’an Famous Foods in New York that are introducing new vocabularies, new flavours, and new dining experiences to Americans. On the menu are liangpi noodles, a spicy, cool, stretchy hand pulled noodles loaded with peppers, imported and recreated from Northern China without dumbing down its authentic flavor. In the past, the dish was unknown and unnamed in New York (China Hands, 2016). But now it has become a staple of Chinatown. And as was the case in the past, dishes like these are carried by changes in the Chinese population in the United States. Many new chefs and restaurateurs, they are second generation Chinese immigrants who are highly educated and sensitive to the American palate.They are turning into the process to bring authentic Chinese food which is with high-quality ingredients and hospitality to the Unites States. Moreover, It is not enough to let Chinese culture run rampant, it must be thoroughly integrated into the local scene, the restaurant owners should partner with local businesses, local government, and local residents to ensure an honest business that is as much rooted in authenticity of the United States as Chinese cultural roots.

IV. Conclusion

In conclusion, the evolution of American Chinese cuisine has always been driven by Chinese immigrants in America who brought their food ways with them across the Pacific during the Gold Rush. As Chinatowns in San Francisco began to grow in size and the American public began to visit Chinese restaurants, Chinese cooks began to adapt their dishes for public taste and then Chinese food gained popularity quickly, but at the same time due to the low price of Chinese food, it is concerned as cheap take-out food which lacks of hospitality in America. But the evolution never stop, nowadays, more Americans are trying to know authentic Chinese food, a new wave of Chinese cuisine in America, which brings to life a translation of flavours that does not dumb down to the American palate, and in the future there will be more authentic Chinese food and more high-class Chinese restaurants with art of hospitality ready for American market and change Americans’ views.

Reference

Chou, K. (2012 ). City news -- lunchbox / lotus blue: A new chinese cuisine. Wall Street Journal

Chen, Y. (2014). Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America. New York, NY: Routledge. 126-130