Just Curious

General Tso's chicken

In your typical cheap Chinese restaurant in America, one could almost always find a dish called General Tso's chicken. The recipe is not terribly original, and those of us who grew up in China or Hong Kong have never heard of the name before we came to the States.

Nevertheless, it was named after a real person, China's answer to General William Sherman, Tso Tsung-Tang (1812-1885), who was not only a Field Marshal of the Army but also a tremendously important late Qing (Ching) period statesman, diplomat and bureaucrat. Lionized by most and villainized by many, he was a deeply controversial figure. A true Chinese patriot, he had the vision to build the first modern shipyard in China as well as her first Navy and Naval Academy; nevertheless, he was also utterly ruthless towards his enemies, defined as whoever disagreed with the Imperial Government he served. To a lesser degree, he, together with his colleagues Tseng Kuo-Fan (1811-1872) and Li Hung-Chang (1823-1901), was also a founder of what is sometimes called "Chinese Warlordism"; for it was these men who first raised their own regiments (who owed their allegiance not to the Emperor but to their commanding generals) on the land of China since early 10th century

Here's a great article about the man and the dish:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59302-2002Apr16

posted by James Chang @ 3:09 PM