Americans, Chinese tastes differ when it comes to Chinese food

By Szu-Hui Lin

12/10/10

Chinese food has more than 3,600 years of history and has perhaps the widest popularity in the world. It is a flexible cuisine in that it can modify dishes to fit into different regions' preferences. Such is the case with American-Chinese food.

"Chinese people have the strongest adaptabilities to live in the world and Chinese food has the same spirit to alter the taste to meet the local needs," said Mark Yu, who used to own five Chinese restaurants in Boston.

The general American-Chinese food flavors are really heavy and oily. "American taste buds are more fond of sweet, sour, salty, bold flavors and Americans also enjoy solid, crispy texture," said Wesley Chen, the owner of Lotus Blossom restaurant. "The Chinese sense of taste is more compounded. We look for more layers of flavors combined, we also enjoy more soft and gooey texture," he said.

Restaurateurs also contend that Americans don't like to change. When they like Kung Pao Chicken, they like to apply the sauce to different meat or vegetables for Kung Pao Shrimp and Kung Pao Tofu. For example, six years ago, when Shanghai Gate opened in Allston, many American customers came in asking for Chicken with Broccoli, Lo Mein and Egg Foo Young or dishes that are considered American-Chinese food. So owner Jeff Zhang decided to put General Gao's chicken, Chicken with Broccoli and Kung Pao chicken on the menu. "That is what Americans know about Chinese food, and you need to offer them for the business," said Zhang..

Shanghai Gate offers different Chinese food from Chinatown. Zhang mentioned that the earliest Chinese food in Boston is considered to have been Cantonese food, using heavy sauces such as oyster sauce and black bean sauce. In general, the Cantonese American Chinese food flavors are really heavy and oily. "Our food is lighter than the rest of Chinese food, but as long as the food is good, people will still come back," he said.

When it comes to food, Chinese people are full of adventure. Chinese people eat everything from seafood, meat, vegetables, intestines, flowers, even insects. Stinky tofu, which uses fermented vegetables, has a special smell and is famous in China and Taiwan. But it is unknown and unpopular in the United States. "We have American customers who order stinky tofu because his friend told him, but he only bit a small amount of it and gave up," said Jennifer Li, the manager of Dumpling Café. She mentioned Americans prefer to eat boneless meat. "American clients like julienne pork or chicken because it is easy to eat, and they will never order intestine and blood pudding" Li said.

Americans may also be afraid of eating poultry parts like chicken feet and duck tongues, but Chinese people love them. Zhang said he has met American teenagers who ordered duck tongues as a punishment. But after eating them, they discovered they liked the tongues and continued to order them. "Young people are more willing to try new things and they are more open-minded to different food." Zhang said.

Sometimes, Americans refuse to eat things they don't know what it is, so they like the dish that they can see all the ingredients in it. "Americans like clear soup like fish tofu soup and fish soup, but Chinese people have clear soups and thick soups which are cooked slowly, blending the essence of ingredients into the soups like Shanghai Soup," Zhang said. Shanghai Soup is a soup of lean pork, Jinhua ham, bamboo shoots and tofu cooked for an hour. The soup is white and thick like milk."The soup is traditional Shanghai food and Chinese people really enjoy it, but Americans don't," he said. "They don't know what is inside of the soup, so they won't order it."

Chinese people also eat beans as dessert like red bean soup, mung bean and barley soup and shaved ice. Shaved ice is a cold dessert that you can put all kinds of toppings over the ice such as red bean, kidney bean, mung bean, peanut, barley, sweet potatoes, and taros. Chinese people think beans should be sweet but Americans don't. "Americans have an image that beans are supposed to be salty instead of sweet, so they are not willing to try our traditional Eight Treasure Ice with Beans," Feng said.

Americans and Chinese people have different tastes of food from the flavors, ingredients, cooking skills and so American Chinese food is created to fulfill of people's needs.