How about Irish-Chinese
. Chicken Balls from Panda Mama (Cork)
. Spice Bag from Xian Street Food (Galway)
. Crispy Chilli Chicken from Tung Sing (Cork)
. Duck Yuk Sung from Hang Dai (Dublin)
. Chicken Noodles from Wok in Noodle (Dublin)
. Siu Mei from Orchid (Dublin)
. Chicken Satay from Chai Yo (Dublin)
. Crispy Spring Rolls from Yuan Ming Yuan (Cork)
. Crispy Chicken from Q’s Creative Asian Dining (Dublin)
. Pan Fried Noodles with Ginger & Scallion Sauce (Galway)
I had General Tso’s chicken here maybe 5 years ago, I think they were claiming it as theirs at the time. I checked, it is still on the menu for Taipei residents who want to try the supposed original.
The last time I had General Tso’s Chicken—at Kao Chi in Taipei City—I thought: this is a sugared up, more oily (deep fried) version of Kung Pao Chicken. Given its relative ubiquity, I’m happy to stick with the latter as one of my guilty pleasures.
Xiang ba lao is a part of the Pengyuan group, whose founder Peng Chang-kuei invented the dish for admiral Arthur William Radford in 1952.
Peng moved to the US in the 70s, and opened several restaurants named Peng’s. The one in Manhattan, Uncle Peng’s Hunan Yuan, was frequented by Henry Kissinger who really loved Genreal Tso’s chicken. It was probably popularized in the US as a result of Henry Kissinger.
The Pengyuan group in Taiwan was founded after Peng was invited back to Taiwan in 1983. So all the restaurants under the Pengyuan group could claim they have the authentic General Tso’ chicken.
The original dish created by Peng was not sweet and sour. The earliest sweet and sour version was probably just some someone calling sweet and sour chicken (most likely a form of orange chicken) General Tso’s by mistake.
Unfortunately the US’ foreign policies were so influenced by the guy in the later half of the last century. The guy thought every contest is finite, each conflicts ends neatly and remains regional, so that the US can use whatever means to gain an edge, as long as we win this round, anything is justified.
That mentality surely came back to haunt us repeatedly for the last 20 years.
According to Trader Joe’s, it’s General Tsao!!
I bring several bottles of this sauce to Taiwan every time I visit back the States. I haven’t been able to find any General Tsao sauce in Taiwan.