If you appreciate it for what it is rather than try to measure it by how closely it resembles real Chinese food...

If you appreciate it for what it is rather than try to measure it by how closely it resembles real Chinese food, cheap take out/buffet style American "chinese" food can be really good. I would go as far as to put it in its own category just like Tex-Mex is considered its own category rather than being considered a knock-off of Mexican food. What do you think, Veeky Forums?

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Most American Chinese food is actually really shitty, trashy cornstarch thickened sweet oily fried garbage that pretty much all tastes the same and is usually of dubious quality. Authenticity has nothing to do with it being bad. In this day and age there is so much better Asian food available literally everywhere that there's no longer any reason to keep eating that crap; it's honestly kraft dinner and tendies tier nostalgia, and if you haven't grown out of those type of foods you don't belong here.

Ok I'm leaving forever now.

OP, I'm with you. It's good to expand your palate. Even American-style chinese food has more green veg than a McD's value meal combo.

Don't worry about whether it's "authentic". Food is food. Whatever you toss in your mouth is food. Whether it's authentic is a cultural consideration. So don't dismiss food because it's "inauthentic", and don't assume that food is good because it's "authentic".

North American "Chinese food" is loaded with sodium, often has a lot of msg, is often deep fried, and even the fresh veggies are drowning in "oyster sauce" which is full of sugar. But it's still arguably better than McDonalds.

Should it be its own category? Maybe. Whatever. Who cares. Just investigate what you're putting into your mouth if you haven't cooked it yourself.

Good riddance.

>it's good because it has more green stuff than mcdonalds

You and OP should both fuck off and die in a hole.

Agreed. American Chinese food isn't gourmet cooking or really authentic but that doesn't mean it can't be tasty. Honestly Asian buffets and cheap Chinese restaurants are some of my favorite places to eat out at.

I mostly just eat dumplings anyway.

I live in a place that has a large chinese population. I eat at a lot of these places. Would OP consider these places american chinese as well?

Chinese-American interpretations of Chinese food for other Chinese people are infinitely better than Americanized Chinese food.

End of story.

I've never seen anyone get so passionate about food.

I'm here every day.

I like craft dinner...

You hawaiian?

Honestly I think the only people who whine about authenticity are white people are white washed Asians.

Orange chicken is pretty tasty man

Both of these opinions have value.

Americhinese food is worth regarding if you don't compare it to actual Chinese foods. But it is definitely overwhelmed by more fried food and starchy sauces than you would see in Asia, and that's a bad shortcoming.

>If you appreciate it for what it is rather than try to measure it by how closely it resembles real Chinese food, cheap take out/buffet style American "chinese" food can be really good.
I agree.
> I would go as far as to put it in its own category just like Tex-Mex is considered its own category rather than being considered a knock-off of Mexican food.
I agree.
>What do you think, Veeky Forums?
See above.

As an aside, are 'Southwest' and 'Tex-Mex' generally synonymous? I have difficulty telling where one ends and the next begins.

>it's not authentic
Isn't it, though? Isn't it authentically American Chinese?

An interesting article I read on this once

cnn.com/2016/01/14/foodanddrink/american-chinese-food-opinion/

>Opinion: Why American-Chinese food is real Chinese food

I fucking love orange chicken from Pei Wei.

I would say that Southwest and Tex-Mex are not the same. If you look at Arizona-Mex or New Mex-Mex (heh), it will be different from Tex-Mex and also different from the foods southwesterners eat that aren't a blend with Mexican food.

Texas also has the advantage of a large German influence on their foods. Back in the day, Germans flooded the Hill country.

It's also the reason for Texas producing some of the county's best beers.

Well, are you able to clearly identify Southwest from Tex-Mex and, if so, what are the dead giveaways for them?
Saying "they're different!!!" with no explanation of how they are doesn't help much and looking up examples of each, I see such huge overlaps that in my mind, I consider them two regional variations of the same cuisine (which we'll call Actually Good Amerimex, maybe?)

I'm not the guy you're replying to, but IMHO:

Tex-Mex is a variation of foods that people generally consider "Mexican": Nachos, tacos, burritos, fajitas, etc. If it has a Spanish-sounding name then it would be Tex-Mex.

Southwestern is not limited to dishes with Spanish-sounding names.

>German influence
What's interesting is that while German influence is all over the place in Texas I see very little German influence in Tex-Mex food specifically, except perhaps beer.

It's been a while since I had much texmex, but I remember it always heavily featuring beef, with chicken coming in second. In Arizona at least, beef doesn't necessarily seem to occupy the same special place. The -mex food here also seems to use a lot more sauce in general, while texmex prefers simpler grilled food. Arizona also really loves chimichangas, you almost can't get away from them. In New Mexico, obviously the big factor is the hatch green chili sauce. If you don't consider those different enough to be differeent categories I could see that, but the food you get in Arizona for example wouldn't be mistaken for texmex.

Chinese American food is really interesting. Dishes like Egg Foo Young, Chop Suey, giant eggrolls and General Tso's Chicken are uniquely American, and clearly show the experience of Chinese immigrant restaurant owners in America.

It's one of many 20th Century food crazes based on adapting immigrant food for the American taste. Other classic examples include hot dogs, chili, sub sandwiches, Italian American cuisine (especially pizza), the Greek diner, burritos and sushi. These dishes all have a fascinating history behind how they came to be popular in America.

But I'd also make the case that 20th Century American taste was generally not all that great. The country went from a depression to a war to boom times and developed a taste for cheap fast/convenience food. The combination of salty, starchy and fatty flavors ruled, often accompanied by sweet sauces. And lots of cheap cheese shoehorned into dishes wherever possible.

It was not a particularly good time for American cuisine. Sure, lots of new flavors appeared, but they generally got a pretty rough treatment. I would say in almost every case thwe immigrant cuisines that gave birth to 20th Century food crazes are better than the crazes they inspired, because 20th Century American taste just wasn't all that good. There was way too much emphasis on food being cheap and filling, and not much concern for nuance. It's completely understandable given the history, but the result was everything turning into fast/convenience food, which just isn't that good.

>I see very little German influence in Tex-Mex food specifically,
I disagree. Chili is just goulash made with chili peppers instead of sweet paprika. Germans not only taught Texans and Mexicans how to make beer, but cheese as well - if cheese is a big part of the popular dishes it's probably the result of German cowboys. Favoring wheat over nixtamalized corn seems pretty German as well. Flour tortillas are far more popular in places where there is a strong German influence. Also the torta sandwich is based around a pretty German looking roll, and much of the stuff found in a Mexican bakery shows as much German influence as Spanish.

>Chili is just goulash made with chili peppers instead of sweet paprika.
Goulash isn't a German dish. It's Hungarian.

>>but cheese as well - if cheese is a big part of the popular dishes it's probably the result of German cowboys.
Fair enough.

I guess my point was that there are far more obvious signs of German influence than Tex-Mex cuisine. The ubiquitous German-inspired food around here is "chicken fried steak"--basically a variation on Schnitzel. And if you turn the radio to a Tejano station you are very likely to hear polka. Those, to me, scream German influence far louder than cheese on a tex-mex plate.

Do other countries bastardize our food like we do with China/Japan's? I'd love to see a McSquid or whatever.

AFIK all countries do this in one way or another.

Check out Japanese "yoshoku". It's Japanese-ified western food that's become its own thing.

>The Japanese take on spaghetti is literally called "naporitan" instead of "neapolitan"

My sides

Does it come with the truck?

japanese is a language composed, mostly, of consonant-vowel pairs....this mean neapolitan is a gets translated as na po ri ta n, its flows better and sounds more natural in japanese

>It's Hungarian.
No shit. But at the time the German influence hit Mexico the borders were different in Europe. Austria ruled Mexico for a minute around the same time it ruled Hungary. I'm talking Germanic influence, which is really strong in Mexico. If you doubt that listen to the bass lines in much of their music - that 1 - 5 thing (also popular in country music) is straight up oompah. Their inordinate fondness for accordians and tubas speaks volumes as well.

I know, engrish is always funny though. Don't get all catty. I'm sure the Japanese think the same thing when westerners try to say their shit.

>karioki instead of karaoke
>saki instead of sake

that's incorrect though. most borrowed words are very close, and vowels can be solo in japanese

this is actually a mistranslation most likely, or a transcription error that stuck- it should be "ni o pa ri tan"

Two other examples of German influence on Tex Mex: Favoring meat that has been smoked instead of just grilled. And enchilada sauce thickened with flour.

I don't think the name comes from either. It's most likely simply a transliteration of the French.
Ikeda (I think that was the guy's name) knew some French because he'd studied culinary arts in interwar France. Things from Naples are called 'Napolitain' in French. The man wanted to give it a fancy, French-sounding name and so naporitan was named.
It's not a mistranslation because it's not one definition being misconstrued for another or one word being mistake for another, similar-sounding word.
It's not a transcription error because it's not a mistake of typography.
It's just Japanese lacking phonemic distinction between L and R. That's all.

Italian here.

We don't have too much interest in American cuisines, but American barbecue was trendy a few years ago and we messed it up to holy fuck and back.

To make Italian-style American barbecue sauce, we add pretty much everything we stereotype as American into one, horrible concoction: maple syrup, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce (I know it's English, but none of us ever heard of it until American servicemen arrived in Italy after the war), American prepared mustard, apple cider vinegar (which has since become common, but was brought to Italy 70 years ago by American military people) and cumin.
This doesn't sound remotely American to me.
Doesn't sound remotely Italian, either.
It's just a garbled mess.

And many of us think this is indicative of American barbecue. It's fucking terrible.

Italian-Chinese food, however, is the shiznizzle.

Someone ought to start a real American barbecue joint in Italy. Just don't do beef because most of us don't have half a fuck to give about beef. Do pork and you'd be golden.

>Someone ought to start a real American barbecue joint in Italy. Just don't do beef because most of us don't have half a fuck to give about beef. Do pork and you'd be golden.
Then you wouldn't want Texas style BBQ, you'd want Carolina style. It would be interesting to see how that competed with porchetta stands.

fuck off OP

rude

I didn't know this needed to be discussed