Originally Posted by
iluvcruising2
I guess you are referring to Chinese restaurants in America. Chinese food is actually very varied. Even with all the variety we get in Singapore, some of the food in parts of China are quite alien to me (and I'm Singaporean Chinese).
Different dialect groups have their own type of food. I think what is more commonly served in the USA are variants of Hong-Kong style food.
You're absolutely right regarding the variety of Chinese food -- it's more varied than any other world cuisine.
In Hong Kong, you're getting mostly Cantonese.
In the US, unless you go to authentic restaurants in Chinese communities, you're not really getting Chinese food at all. The western-style Chinese food served in the [redacted] restaurants is much sweeter, much less subtle and contains a much greater mix of ingredients than the real thing, regardless of purported regional cuisine. When my wife, who is Chinese, first came to the US, I took her to what was my then-favorite Chinese restaurant in Hollywood. She spent the evening laughing and said, "So you really think this Chinese food?" We never went there again.
