There is no better way to celebrate the Chinese New Year then by going to your favorite Chinese restaurant and eating the most Americanized food ever.

If you are unsure what I mean, then it is a time for a history lesson on how American Chinese cuisine came to be.

Our story begins with the immigration patterns of the Chinese people.

They first came into American prominence during the Gold Rush. It is important to note that nearly all these immigrants originated from the rural districts of Toishan, outside the city of Canton. The Chinese Exclusion Act effective between 1882 and 1943 would mitigate the number of immigrants with a specific quota, but that did nothing to diversify the Chinese population. Immigrants would still come to American surreptitiously, but again, almost all of those immigrants had some ties or relations with the Toishanese. This homogenous coalescing would become the starting point of American Chinese food.

These people were not representative of the vastness of Chinese culture and cuisine. This would be the equivalent of only Bostonians traveling to a foreign country and having them be representative of Americans as a whole. This was of little concern to the American public as they considered Chinese immigrants to be alien and lesser. This train of thought translated to how Chinese food was first perceived. Americans thought because these Chinese were exotic and an oddity, then their food must be the same as well; many of them thought they ate rats. Hipsters seemed to gravitate towards the new and exciting food because it wasn’t the mainstream. Only after World War II did Chinese food become popular and many chefs capitalized on this with the creation of an American menu and a Chinese menu.

The Americanized menu would dominate and a new mutating wave of dishes came through in the 1960s giving the public foods like kung-pao chicken, mushu pork and General Tso’s chicken (called Admiral Tsao’s chicken at the Naval Academy). Most of these dishes were created in the hands of Taiwanese immigrants whom had an affinity for spicier foods than their Hong Kong or Toishanese counterparts. Much of the Chinese food as we know it is syncretism of the American palate during a period in time and whatever immigrants seemed to be coming through. The best example of this would be how many classic “Chinese” dishes utilize sweet, syrupy, fruity sauces and are fried to satisfy an American palate that loves canned and or fried foods. Even many vegetables used in classic Chinese dishes have no presence in mainland China. Broccoli is an Italian vegetable and only recently has the Chinese started importing the ingredient that they consider a delicacy and exotic.

The humble fortune cookie is based off a 100-year-old Japanese recipe and the bakery shops that make these cookies still exist today. When Japanese immigrants came over to America, a few restaurants featured the Japanese cookie, but it was only when we locked up all the Japanese in internment camps did the Japanese treat become a Chinese staple for an American palate.

The most Americanized Chinese dish might be chop suey. The dish was invented at the turn of the 20th century, but the rest of its history seems to be foggy. Chop suey essentially translates into “odds and ends,” which basically means leftovers.

Chinese food has become the most Americanized food in our epicurean history. If one were to think of classic American dishes, they wouldn’t compare to our consumption of Chinese food. As of 2008, there are more Chinese restaurants in this country than Mcdonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and KFC combined, Jennifer 8. Lee said in a TED Talk titled “The hunt for General Tso.” She said the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved in a Chinese restaurant in Washington D.C. and even the house that John Wilkes Booth plotted the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in is now a Chinese restaurant. Chinese food is served in all seven continents and in space with research stations in Antarctica having Chinese food nights on Mondays and it being a menu option for astronaut meals.

For authentic Chinese food, the best place to go would be its namesake country. Chinese food has evolved based on its environment so much that there are entirely new sub categories and dishes native to only those regions. Peruvian Chinese, Italian Chinese, Japanese Chinese, and so much more have its own unique flavors and traits that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Even American Chinese has categories and dishes of its own depending on which state you’re in. That kind of growth and deviation should be exciting for any adventurous eater. One must admit that often times they are not eating authentic Chinese food, but they just might be eating authentic American Chinese food, and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that; food after all is a celebration of cultures, history, people, and the colorful flavors of whatever life brings.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone. It is the year of the Monkey and I wish everyone health, happiness, good friends, good family and good eats.