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Jennifer 8. Lee: Who was General Tso? and other mysteries of

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http://www.ted.com Reporter Jennifer 8. Lee talks about her hunt for the origins of familiar Chinese-American dishes — exploring the hidden spots where these two cultures have (so tastily) combined to form a new cuisine.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10 .

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34 Comments

  7. I’m the opposite of a right-wing flag-waver. That being said, I found it kind of offensive to see the photo of the flag raising on Mt Suribachi as some meaningless, generic depiction of ‘war’, or worse some depiction of a Chinese civil war. Get some respect.

  10. The only "Chinese" food available in my area is so dreadful that I can't gag down a single bite. I don't care that this food isn't "authentic". I only care that the oil used to fry everything is clearly (at least to me) rancid. That doesn't seem to detour plenty of other people from eating this food (alleged). I spent almost 15 years living in Thailand. The Chinese food there was MUCH better than anything I've ever eaten here. The Chinese food I had on a vacation in Singapore was excellent. I'll take a simple bowl of noodles or dumplings from China any day over the glop I've been served here.

  18. Super interesting. But.. the fact that Japanese Americans were locked up shouldn't have been a laughing point…

  27. Ofcourse Chinese had to steal something that is originally from Japan. China never is innovative from itself. And the way she talks about the fact that this happend because the Japanese were locked up because of WW2 is also pretty tasteless. Typically Chinese and their lack of respect.

  28. at the end Jennifer; you wanted to give credit to the Chinese chefs who invented the food . But did you have to bum rush their Names? Nobodies name is chef! its Chuck Peng. stop talking like a young sorority girl.

  29. General Tso's chicken is Hunan. It was created for General Tso, a Hunan general who fought against Mao. Great netflix documentary on this topic.

    Also, Chinese food can be, and is, literally anything and everything that's edible, and some things that aren't– like mud. If anything, the Chinese people should be praised for their adaptability when it comes to food.