Originally Posted by Peter N-H
Just as 'I speak Chinese' doesn't tell you very much (there are six different mutually unintelligible Chinese languages and endless dialects of them), neither does the expression 'Chinese food' make much sense.
There are several major cooking schools, and host of minor variations. Most of these are almost entirely unknown to the West. There's probably no town in China without its own speciality dish. The menus of the majority of Chinese restaurants overseas are adulterated versions of Cantonese dishes, sweetened and made heavier and far less subtle for Western palates, and with a few greatest hits from other cuisines thrown in, but also adjusted by the tastebuds of the Cantonese. Dishes are also made worse by the same impetus that drives the adulteration of dishes in tour group restaurants--the substitution of cheaper ingredients for more expensive ones. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the sweet-and-sour pork dish consisting of a tiny cube of pork in a squash ball-sized globe of dough. After a period in China, run-of-the-mill Chinese food like this overseas becomes almost inedible.
But the original posting a little hard to understand. On the one hand it's claimed that the food away from tour group restaurants isn't much different, but that's compared to relatively expensive restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai that partly target the expat market.
But then ordinary restaurants are mentioned, and Sichuan dishes in particular, and suddenly the food is different after all, although it's admitted that the author doesn't even know commonplaces of Chinatowns world wide, such as dim sum. Perhaps the surprise is that everything doesn't seem strange.
But not even authentic Beijing and Shanghai restaurants can begin to represent the totality and variety of Chinese food, although reliable specialist regional restaurants can be found in both cities.
Instead of visiting restaurants with menus of the usual generalities, such as Xiao Wang, proper Beijing cuisine should have been tried, perhaps at a 'lao Beijing' style restaurant, although there are fewer of those than there used to be, for Beijing classics such as jinjiang rou si, zha qiezi (pork between two slices of aubergine and deep fried), a wide variety of fried and baked snacks, and musky, salty dishes dominated by lamb and pork, noodles (ah--'clanging dish noodles'), and soya beans, not to mention jiaozi (dumplings) galore.
But then there's Sha3nxi's yangrou pao mo (lamb stew with shredded bread); Sha1nxi's vinegary dishes with tomatoes and potatoes and flours made from dried beans, and 'cats' ears' pasta; Shanghai's heavy sweetness, its eel and crab dishes, and snacks such as the hazardous soup-filled xiaolongbao, and panfried shengjian baozi; properly light and subtle Cantonese dishes--familiar names, but completely superior to the standard stodge; the paper-wrapped fish of the Kejia minority, and other Bai and Miao minority dishes; dishes with fruit and coconut and baked in hollow bamboo tubes from Yunnan Province; the hot-and-numbing specialities of Sichuan (Beijing has several restaurants specialising in shuizhu yu, sliced carp swimming in a vat of oily peppers and peppercorns); the uncompromising heat of Hunan and Jiangxi; the delicate Huaiyang dishes (Su Dongpo pork, West Lake carp, Beggar's Chicken, and much more); Mongolian and Sichuan hotpots, and still more. Precious little of any of this can be found overseas, and we've really hardly started.
The reason why the food wasn't found to be different is because different dishes weren't tried, or weren't tried in the right places. (If you want your Sichuan dishes adulterated, just order them in a Cantonese restaurant: instant gongbao jiding--the expat's standard Sichuan dish--but without a pepper in sight.)
And it helps to pay real prices: Y35 for a meal, not $35.
Peter N-H
As is typical of your postings, Peter, your tone is a bit condescending, but I'll try to reply without similar emotion.
My point is that some mythical line between "authentic" and "Westernized" Chinese food does not really exist. Anyone who has eaten in the Chinatowns of any US city -- or even at the more sophisticated Chinese restaurants in suburbia -- has probably had "authentic" Chinese food. The dumplings in San Francisco are not "foreign" to the dumplings in Shanghai. It is variations of the same thing (and, yes, I have had plenty of dim sum before: not surprising it's probably best overall in Hong Kong, but it's probably not better in Shanghai than it is in NYC).
One certainly can be served many different things in China than what is served in Chinese restaurants abroad. This is hardly surprising: an "American-style" restaurant in France is probably not going to have the best gumbo you've ever tasted, do a Wisconsin fish boil or make a mean beef on weck. But they'll likely have decent onion rings and serve you a nice cheeseburger.
Not surprisingly, the more upscale restaurants in China have food more familiar to the Western palate (I assume the same is true with American cuisine -- other than American icons like cheeseburgers, foreigners are less likely to recognize some of the things that come out of our "greasy spoons"). And I think there's a good reason for that: countries tend to export the things that foreigners want to buy! It is hardly surprising that the "best" restaurants in China serve these things. Now you can argue that these restaurants somehow cater to ex-pats and such, but in places like Xiao Wang or Shanghai Uncle, I never saw a single Western diner during my visits.
Chinese food certainly becomes less familiar in China when you go "down scale." Like many, you glorify such "authentic" dishes such as yangrou pao mo. I had it, it was OK, certainly good value for money (maybe I paid 15 yuan for lunch, I can't remember exactly), but if somebody had only a couple of weeks in China, would I recommend they eat it? Only for the atmosphere of eating with the locals. After that, I'd send them to Shanghai Uncle.
Other "authentic" dishes you mention, like Dongpo rou pork (at least the type they serve in Hangzhou) is actually pretty terrible (assuming you're not used to eating pure fat), and is unlikely to find a following overseas. Again, I'd list it in the "try it once" category. Beggar's chicken -- which is not a cheap dish whatsoever -- is significantly better than that, but I confess the "show" which accompanies the dish is probably better than its actual taste.
So, yes, if your digestive system can take it, you can revel in trying plenty of foods in China that you will never see abroad. At the end of the day, however, I think most visitors will opt for meals that are Chinese but not so different from what they have seen before in high-quality Chinese restaurants. I would suggest such dishes are "authentic." The BETTER authentic ones.