Immigration laws reason for the US Chinese restaurant boom

[Photo/VCG]

American Chinese food

While Americans love Chinese food Chen admits the dishes they crave the most are not really made in China.

"When Chinese restaurateurs started to carry their food to non-Chinese neighborhoods, they also modified it to make it more suitable to the taste of Americans," Chen told CGTN Digital. "Over time, such modified dishes became a distinctive tradition itself, known as American Chinese food, which is found in areas that do not have a large Chinese community."

One of the most popular Chinese dishes in the US is General Tso's Chicken, but like so many of the western world Chinese favorites, this is a mystery to China.

Lee showed the man who invented General Tso's Chicken what had become of his dish he was shocked. "That's not right. This isn't authentic," he told her.

Even so, Chen said this assumption that American Chinese food is unauthentic has been around for more than a century is largely an incorrect assumption.

"The differences are that food in China is more diverse and it has been changing far more rapidly," he said.