the search for general tso

i don't know about other asians, but general tso's chicken was never prepared in our household (or any other asian households i went to), but always served in the chinese restaurants we would go to.

through the years, i noticed different configurations of the name of this dish, named "general tso's chicken", "general chao's chicken", "general tsao's chicken". one began to wonder, is this a real chinese dish? and is general tso a fabled character created for marketing purposes?

tonight we learned the truth behind general tso's chicken, including a lot of interesting history on the proliferation of chinese restaurants through even the most remote parts of the US in the 1920s. and we learned that general tso is in fact a real general from hunan province in china, though the dish was created originally in taiwan and then brought to nyc.

a short fun documentary - totally worth the watch!