General Tso's Chicken

We live in such an interconnected world. The other day, I saw an interesting article about General Tso's chicken; apparently there is much more to the little dish than just garlic, soy sauce, sesame, and chicken. After the Chinese Civil War, the Hunan dish was taken to Taiwan by Chinese chefs, from where it travelled to the US and was enjoyed by the likes of Henry Kissinger. It eventually made its way back to East Asia, taking with it a western spin to an eastern dish. The dish is now understood to be a fusing of various cultures and cooking styles. (see the article for a much better explanation).

Who knew that a simple dish could have such a complex history? It makes you think about all the other foods that we eat, and how they are connected to our past. Why is the fortune cookie so prevalent at Chinese restaurants in the US? Is the pizza as we know it really Italian food? This is one of the reasons why I'm such a Food Network addict.

The most interesting questions to me, though (because you can't find the answer on Wikipedia), are about the homemade comfort foods that we all had as children. Does anyone really know how those dishes were made? Did your mother come up with the recipe? Did one of your grandparents invent it? Or does its history go back several more generations than that? How is it that of the vast number of possibilite events in the past, the events that eventually played out came together to form the one perfect dish for you?

There is a saying that says, "You are what you eat." To realize the significance of this saying, you only have to contemplate the dishes that you eat and enjoy. Contemplating our past is never too far removed from contemplating our favorite foods.

As a side note, you can probably tell that I was hungry when writing this entry... I always end up writing about food.