Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Wellness

Chinese restaurant favourites that aren’t from China – fortune cookies are Japanese, prawn crackers Indonesian, what about egg rolls, chop suey and General Tso’s Chicken?

STORYTracey Furniss
The dispute over who created General Tso’s chicken forms the basis for a documentary called The Search for General Tso’s Chicken, that premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. Photo: handout
The dispute over who created General Tso’s chicken forms the basis for a documentary called The Search for General Tso’s Chicken, that premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. Photo: handout
Origins series

Served in restaurants all over the world, are these staple dishes really Chinese, or were they cooked up in the US to suit Western tastes?

Just as French toast was originally found in Roman recipes of the fourth or fifth century, some of the world’s most popular Chinese dishes did not originate in China. Many of the dishes found at Chinese takeaways and restaurants in the West have been invented or adapted for local palates. Conversely, some Chinese-style dishes we thought were made in the west are Chinese. Here’s the lowdown on your favourite dishes.

Prawn crackers

Advertisement
Prawn crackers might be on the menu at every Chinese restaurant outside China, but that doesn’t make them Chinese. Photo: uniontreethai instagram
Prawn crackers might be on the menu at every Chinese restaurant outside China, but that doesn’t make them Chinese. Photo: uniontreethai instagram

Although prawn crackers often accompany a Chinese meal, they originate from Indonesia and are popular throughout Southeast Asia. Made by mixing prawns with tapioca flour and water, then sun-dried and fried, Chinese restaurants often make them lighter and non-spicy, and sometimes use pink food colouring.

Egg rolls

Egg rolls at What to Eat, a Taiwanese restaurant at Carfield Commercial Building, 77 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong on November 09, 2018. 09NOV18 [27NOVEMBER2018 -100] SCMP: MARTIN CHOI
Egg rolls at What to Eat, a Taiwanese restaurant at Carfield Commercial Building, 77 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong on November 09, 2018. 09NOV18 [27NOVEMBER2018 -100] SCMP: MARTIN CHOI

These deep-fried appetisers are often stuffed with shredded cabbage and chopped pork and wrapped in a thick wheat flour skin. They taste good dipped in plum sauce and are a Chinese staple in the US. Although they are closely related to spring rolls found throughout China, you will not find egg rolls in China itself.

Their origins are unclear. In 1917 a recipe appeared in the US for vegetables wrapped in an egg omelette, hence the name egg roll. A modern version using wheat wraps probably came from a Chinese restaurant in New York City in the early 1930s, according to Andrew Coe’s book Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States. Two New York City chefs claim to have invented the dish – chef Lung Fong of Lung Fong restaurant and Henry Low of Port Arthur restaurant. The fillings back then included bamboo shoots, roast pork, shrimp, scallions, water chestnut and seasoning.

Fortune cookies