“Chinese” food, or, how I stopped worrying and learned to love ginger beef

I remember watching Family Feud (the 1970s-80s version with that creepy Richard Dawson) when I was a teenager and the question was “name a food that kids hate.” Among the usual suspects (broccoli, brussels sprouts) was… Chinese food. Chinese food? I LOVED Chinese food when I was a kid, getting take-out tubs of “fine cut pork chop suey” from New Moon in Munster, Indiana (still listed, 8250 Calumet Avenue), and that taste- the bean sprouts, the sesame oil, the RICE which was like rice never tasted when my mom made it, the smell of the bags full of these exotic goodies when I was lucky enough to be with my parents when they picked it up and the whole car would smell of New Moon… it was beyond pleasurable. It was my first real food ecstasy as a kid and the sort of thing I looked forward to having EVERY SINGLE DAY as a grown up. That and nacho-cheese Doritos with Dr Pepper. So to see this as something that kids stereotypically hated… I was shocked and condemned those little survey respondents for their utter lack of taste

Fast forward to college and my unhappy discovery that what I had enjoyed and lorded over my unwashed peers as a sign of my good taste was… not a sign of good taste at all. What I’d grown up adoring was, in fact, Americanized gwai lo food. Inauthentic crap. And I had to learn to use chopsticks!

And so part of my cultural change that I’ve undergone over the last, oh, 25 years has been to disavow the Chinese food of my youth and to aim for “authenticity.” And now, I’m having second thoughts. We just had a little discussion on chowhound about Calgary ginger beef. Ginger beef is deep-fried, breaded strips of beef that’s tossed in a sticky, sweet/spicy sauce, and done right (so it’s tender), it’s completely delicious. But it was invented in Canada- Calgary even! No self-respecting foodie could enjoy this, right?

Well, chowhound poster “Mawson Plan” had some thought on this. He (she?) writes,

This is a search for Calgarian food so it is both interesting, and predictable that there would be a strong Chinese relation, as Chinatown and Chinese culture is a big part of Calgary. It’s interesting that you can’t get ginger beef in China, but we call it Chinese food. It is interesting to me to think about Calgarian food. I wonder why we don’t celebrate ginger beef like Montrealers do smoked meat, and Philadelphians do cheese steaks.

My reply:

I find your discussion about “Chinese food” really interesting. Part of becoming a “chowhound” is a stage wherein you are taught to denigrate local (especially North American) versions of “Chinese” because of its inauthenticity- but I think that becoming a TRUE chowhound and not a poseur entails learning that every country has its vernacular “Chinese” and they’re all interesting and as varied as the countries themselves.

There is nothing at all wrong with enjoying a particular country’s spin on it, aside from it sometimes being less than healthy, but all things in moderation and all that… I also think it behooves the chowhound to understand a bit about the cuisine’s history and to understand that this dish (Calgary ginger beef, for example) is part of the history of the Chinese diaspora. It’s CHINESE and reflects the adaptability and resourcefulness of Chinese people and their culture, something to celebrate and take seriously. What’s unfortunate are people who EQUATE ginger beef (or in the states things like twice-cooked pork or crab rangoons, “Chinese” things I cannot find in Canada) with “Chinese.” But equally sad are those who refuse something on the basis of its lack of authenticity when what they are doing is ignoring an “authentic” aspect of the Chinese diaspora and an important little nugget of history.

That’s my story now, and I’m sticking to it. I had delicious takes on “Chinese” in Trinidad (well, on Tobago actually) and in Berlin. Seeing these alterations as interesting and really appreciating them as part of the human condition- it’s pure chowhounding. I’ll still do dim sum (with joy!) and am really looking forward to “authentic” experiences next Christmas when we head to Singapore and Malaysia. But I’ll never refuse a nice bowl of chicken fried rice or some ginger beef- or fine cut pork chop suey.