There are many recipes for this deep fried delight. One calls for:
Protein:
3 lb Chicken
1 egg
Fat:
1 cup oil
Simple carbs/sugars:
1-1/2 cups cornstarch
1/4 c sherry
3/4 c sugar
Salt and free glutamate:
3/4 cup soy sauce
1-1/2 c Stock, chicken
1 tb MSG (optional)
Other:
2 c Onions, green; sliced
1 1/2 ts Garlic; minced
1 ts Pepper, white
1 1/2 ts Ginger; minced
16 sm Hot Dried Peppers
1/4 c Vinegar, white
1/4 c Water
Those who have been following "The End of Overeating" will quickly recognize the earmarks of a "highly hedonic" dish -- loaded with fat, sugar and salt, guaranteed to make some of us eat more than a healthy portion size and keep us coming back.
This evening we're continuing a group review of David Kessler's The End of Overeating, started by Edward Spurlock, whose last contribution, on Ch. 19 -- with links to previous installments -- is here.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
Having shown us in Ch. 21 how the food industry engineers in irresistability, in Ch. 22 Kesler takes a quick look at how "The World's Cuisine Becomes Americanized." This cuts both ways. American's adapt world cuisines to their own tastes by adding, guess what? -- fat, salt and sugar. And we export to the rest of the world our own highly indistrialized fatty, salty, sugarly eatables...including our Americanized versions of international items.
General Tso's chicken (ingredients listed in the intro) gets only a passing mention from Kessler, actually, but it's a case in point. General Tso's chicken is probably an American invention.
The dish is not found in Changsha, the capital of Hunan. Nor is it found in Xiangyin, the home of General Tso. Moreover, descendants of General Tso still living in Xiangyin, when interviewed, say that they have never heard of such a dish.
While there is no proof, one story tells that Chinese chef named Peng Jia
moved to New York to open a restaurant. That was where Peng Jia started inventing new dishes and modifying traditional ones; one new dish, General Tso's chicken, was originally prepared without sugar, and subsequently altered to suit the tastes of "non-Hunanese people." The popularity of the dish has now led to it being "adopted" by local Hunanese chefs and food writers...Ironically, when Peng Jia opened a restaurant in Hunan in the 1990s introducing General Tso's chicken, the restaurant closed without success because the locals found the dish too sweet
Deneral Tso's chicken may have derived from "old peel chicken".
Traditional orange chicken is first deep-fried, and then stir-fried in a lightly sweet soy-based sauce flavored with chopped dried orange peels... While popular in China, the authentic orange chicken is generally unknown in the west, in order to appeal more to western palates.... The typical recipe used in Western-influenced restaurants may use orange juice or fresh orange peel rather than dried peel, a great deal of sugar...In Chinese...the dish is always known as "陈皮鸡", literally "old peel chicken", referring to dried orange or tangerine peel, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine as well as cooking.
Kessler does tell us about the orange chicken at the American Panda Express restaurant chain, and readers of the book will by now not be surprosed to learn that the pre-processed chunks of dark meat are sopped in up to 19% of some kind of "water-based solution" containing oil and salt, battered, pre-browned and salted at the factory before being frozen, then fried again at the restaurant for 5 minutes and served with a sauce containing more fat, salt and sugar. I will spare you the details of the pork cubes, as well as the spring rolls (which contain sugar). :-)
And the tide flows the other way. Kessler's chapter is light on this, but for interest's sake, here is what one traveler has to say about Paris fast food.
First of all, it’s easy to find a McDonald’s restaurant in Paris; they are everywhere (including Disneyland Paris)...The food is practically the same as you’ll find in any other McDonald’s in the United States, or in the world...The only difference I really see between American McDonald’s stores and French stores in terms of food is that the French stores sell beer...
If you like more specialized fare, KFC has a few restaurants in Paris...
The Forum area is one of many that hosts a selection of mostly American fast-food restaurants, including McDonald’s, Laura Todd (cookies), the aforementioned KFC, Quick, Pizza Hut, Häagen-Dazs, etc...
Starbucks Coffee opened multiple stores in 2004 throughout Paris, and now they seem to be on every corner, even in places like the Louvre.
Subway has started opening stores in Paris, at various locations...
There are more traditional chain restaurants. Pizza Hut has several locations, plus a couple of Pizza Express take-out locations and the usual pizza home delivery....Near the Opera, there is the Paris Hard Rock Cafe, with its unhealthy but tasty food and live music that is loud enough to rapidly damage your hearing...There is also a Rainforest Cafe at Disneyland Paris, and it is very popular, with tasty (but high-calorie) food.
There are restaurants that serve American food and Tex-Mex, including several at Disney Village at Disneyland Paris...ChiChi’s chains around the city...
There are many pizza places that will deliver, including Pizza Hut, Domino’s...
But Kessler doesn't discuss Paris...he simply recalls a visit to South Africa, where he found rampant obesity among health care workers even in poor townships. A co-worker explained:
Simple, she said. Kentucky Fried chicken had come to town.
Yes, Kentucky Fried chicken has been there long enough that its worries include holding onto market share
The primary aim of the research was to critically analyze and evaluate the different customer retention strategies being implemented by fast-food outlets such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Nando's, and Steers in South Africa. The fast-food industry in South Africa is experiencing numerous market-related changes, which range from intense globalization forces to heightening competition levels. The pressure on businesses today is further increased by a market where the customer acquisition rate is slowing, customer loyalty is decreasing, and sales cycles are lengthening.
Meanwhile, South Africa is returning the favor:
South African fast food chicken outlet Nando's has taken its first steps into one of the biggest fast food consumer markets in the world with the opening of a restaurant in downtown Washington DC, USA.
[Robert] Brozin and Fernando Duarte started Nando's in 1987 with a single restaurant in Rossetenville, Johannesburg. Today Nando's is the largest South African restaurant group to expand internationally with more than 750 restaurants operating in 26 countries across the world including Canada, Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
On its own website for the D.C. restaurant (anyone been there?), Nando's downplays the South African angle and bills its product as Portuguese chicken. Here is the legend:
Indigenous Africans introduced the Portuguese to the African Bird’s Eye Chilli. The locals called this fiery little chilli Pili-Pili, which means Pepper-Pepper in Swahili.
‘Peri- Peri’ was the best stab the explorers could make at pronouncing Pili-Pili, so Peri-Peri it became. They immediately added it to their cooking and it soon became an integral part of their lives. The women found that Peri-Peri aroused passion in their men and were delighted that something so small could prove so satisfying.
413 years later the gold rush started. Many Mozambican-Portuguese settlers rushed to Johannesburg to prospect for gold. They took their unique Peri-Peri chicken with them.
Some prospectors found digging for gold too tough and decided that feeding hungry miners with their Peri-Peri chicken would be a more lucrative business. In Rosettenville, a restaurant named Chickenland flourished. Then in 1987, two great friends - Robert and Fernando - visited and fell in love with Peri-Peri flame-grilled chicken. They bought the restaurant and changed its name – the first Nando’s had been created.
I really can't say one way or another whether the product is healthy, as the website offers no ingredient list or nutritional information. And the restaurant south of Dupont Circle looks on the website a bit better than what we think of as fast food, though it does provide carry-out.
So I will refrain from slamming Nando's, even though it does remind me of what I learned in Wansink's "Mindless Eating" -- wording that associates a food with sensory qualitities, emotion, history or prestige is amost guaranteed to make it seem more desirable and even taste better! So for instance, people presented with "silken chocolate pudding" (sensory smoothness plus prestige value of silk) will tend to like it better than people who get the same thing labeled "chocolate pudding"! If the same doesn't hold true of elaborate food legends, I will eat my miner's helmet!
Meanwhile, of course, traditional cuisines around the world offer some of the most amazing and nutritious delights, without all that layering and loading. Some can be duplicated at home; some can't, or not easily, either because the ingredients are not available or because the techniques are too special. The real thing, however, or a less layered and loaded American adaptation, can be a true delight.
Perhaps you have a favorite recipe or restaurant to share? Also, please check out the poll after the housekeeping!
Oh, and...sorry, General...it seems our affair of the heart for all those years was just a mistake...parting is such sweet sorrow.
Here's the WHEE schedule! We want to hear from you! sign up for any blank slot by writing a comment the the tip jar, and I will add you.
Scheduled WHEE Diaries
November 11
Weds AM - ???
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock - Geek My Fitness: "He's the DJ, I'm the Rider"
November 12
Thurs AM - ???
Thurs PM - juliewolf
November 13
Fri AM - ???
Fri PM - ???
November 14
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 23)
November 15
Sun AM - louisev Turtle Diary
Sun PM - Open Thread and Holiday Fit Club
November 16
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - ???
November 17
Tues AM - ???
Tues PM - Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 24)