7 Familiar Chinese Dishes That You Won’t Find In China

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It’s rare that a cuisine can travel across borders without losing some of its authenticity. When a cuisine comes into the U.S. it tends to become Americanized, often because of the lack of availability of certain ingredients or because of the chefs that are preparing it.

It happens with Chinese food in America and even with American food in China. There are pockets of traditional Chinese cuisine all over the country, but many dishes have adapted to American ingredients and preferences over the years. While a lot of Chinese food is traceable to its roots, there are a good amount of dishes that have completely taken on a life of their own. The odds of you finding these American-Chinese dishes in China are slim to none.

1. Crab Rangoon

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In American Chinese restaurants, these deep-fried wontons are stuffed with cream cheese, imitation crab (sometimes real crab), scallions and garlic or onion. The origins of this dish are a little hazy considering it was named after the former name of the capital of Myanmar.

2. Orange Chicken 

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The kind of orange chicken you’ll find in North American Chinese restaurants consists of chicken that’s chopped, battered, fried and coated with a thick, sweet orange-flavored chili sauce.

3. Sweet And Sour Pork

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Sweet and sour pork does have roots in Chinese cuisine, but the kind you’ll usually find in the U.S. is deep-fried and heavily coated in a glue-like neon pink/orange sauce. There might even be some Southern BBQ influences in there.

4. Beef And Broccoli

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The biggest difference between Americanized beef and broccoli versus the real stuff is the actual broccoli. Chinese broccoli, also known as gai lan, is a dark green vegetable with thick stalks, large flat leaves and small flower buds. It’s often made with beef, broccoli florets and sauce of ginger, garlic, soy sauce, cornstarch, oyster sauce, beef broth and brown sugar.

5. Fortune Cookies 

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The crisp cookie that’s made with sesame seed oil and served at the end of your meal is an American invention. There’s a theory that Chinese immigrant groups popularized the cookie in California in the early 20th century.

6. Chop Suey

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This dish is served over rice and usually consists of meat and eggs cooked rapidly with vegetables, cabbage and bean sprouts in a starch-thickened sauce.

7. Lo Mein

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Lo mein is made with wheat flour noodles that are drained, thrown back into the wok and tossed with meat, vegetables and sauce. The noodles used in lo mein are fat, round and dense and kind of resemble spaghetti. They’re added towards theend of cooking to soak up the sauce, which makes it a heavier dish than its cousin chow mein.