In the early hours of Monday morning, fireworks rang out across the globe to mark the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year. The festival week begins with a bountiful New Year’s Eve dinner with extended family in China. Celebrants feast upon auspicious fare such as dumplings, rice cakes, fish and “longevity noodles.” Snacking on tangerines is also thought to bring good luck.
In the United States, the Chinese diaspora celebrates too with parades, firecrackers, and delicious food. Among the largest Spring Festival celebrations in the country is the one held every year in San Francisco, the city with the biggest and oldest Chinatown in the United States. It was here that Americans were first introduced to what is now one of their favorite cuisines.
The first Chinese immigrants to this region went into the lucrative business of providing services for miners as traders, grocers, merchants, and restaurant owners. By the mid-19th century, the United States had a fledgling restaurant scene, but Chinese cuisine was not well-received at first. American eaters were shocked when they learned that “chop suey” wasn’t actually Chinese – it means “Odds & Ends,” or leftovers.
Throughout the early 20th century, “Chinese” dishes became sweeter, boneless, and more heavily deep-fried. Broccoli, a vegetable unheard of in China, started appearing on menus, and fortune cookies finished off a “typical” Chinese meal.
It wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that the United States got its first taste of “authentic” Chinese cuisine. The liberalization of American immigration policy brought new arrivals from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Mainland, who in turn brought with them the foods they had enjoyed in areas like Hunan, Sichuan, Taipei, and Shanghai.
Today, according to the Chinese American Restaurant Association, there are over 45,000 Chinese restaurants currently in operation across the United States. This number is greater than all the McDonald’s, KFCs, Pizza Huts, Taco Bells, and Wendy’s combined. When asked to rank their favorite types of restaurants, Chinese places almost always come out on top. On every day of the Lunar calendar, it seems there’s nothing quite as all-American some good Chinese food.
Source: https://time.com/4211871/chinese-food-history/