Dotsthavesp
I wanted to but couldn't!
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
codypa
The General Tso dish is one of the most popular Chinese dishes today. It is mouthwatering and the most demanded in the Chinese Food Industry. This dish is blended to the American tastes, and will make you want to eat some General Tso chicken after you watch the movie. Just like it did to me. Before General Tso everybody loved Cashew Chicken. In the documentary it talks about who made that dish and the back story behind that. It was very lucky to how Cashew Chicken became popular and without his luck he might have never been famous for his widely known dish. Who is General Tso? General Tso was a man of Great Power long ago.The interviews with the Chinese people was very hysterical. I didn't know we would do something like that but it never fails me. Us Americans always try to make everything our own. This documentary is a good detective story and they keep hunting till they find the truth. They went all the way from New York to China to find answers. The truth is buried in layers of Chinese history. General Tso was a general in the 1800's for the Hunan province during the late Qing dynasty. It is unknown why the dish was named after him because he did not name the meal himself and it isn't known that he liked chicken as well. During the Gold Rush in the 1800's the Chinese poured into America and into different big cities. In despite of all the immigrants the Americans created the Chinese Exclusion Act after the rise of Immigrants due to the Gold Rush. Basically attempted to get rid of all the Chinese out of the country. They lost their jobs and had no way of making money due to the discrimination and hatred from Americans. So they turned to owning their own business, and they discovered that if they tend to American taste with Chinese food then they can make money. In China they interviewed a few people about who General Tso is and what they think of the dish. When asked it was comical what their reaction was to the dish and what it was named. General Tso chicken never was heard of, until it became available in Chinese restaurants in the 1970's. One person they interviewed was a collector of Chinese restaurant menus. He had them dated back to the 40's. He held the Guinness World Record for the most number of Chinese menus. He also had a very interesting item which you don't see very often. So old that he had to make a copy of it to preserve it. General Tso has a Museum in China that most people don't know about. They took a tour of it, and they have a portrait of the famous General that everybody has been wanting to see. Nobody knows what he looks like and everyone just knows the name. This documentary definitely explained the whole back story behind the famous dish. It was very interesting and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in documentaries.
TxMike
Full disclosure - my wife's favorite Asian dish is General Tso's chicken. She always looks at the whole menu but more often than not she ends up ordering this. She has had it at any number of different restaurants over the years, it is always a bit different but always good. So when I came across this documentary on Netflix streaming movies I knew I had to see it. The film seeks to answer the question, "Where did this dish come from?" In the process, with contributions of many historians, chefs, and writers I believe the question was answered but we also get a great review of the history of Chinese in the USA, first lured here by the California gold rush.Chinese food was not always popular in the USA, and to help make it more popular many of the traditional Chinese recipes had to be modified to "Americanize" them. But in 1972 President Nixon made a historic trip to Communist China, and part of that telecast showed him eating Chinese food. That provided the spark that resulted in the boom of Chinese, and in general Asian, food in the USA.General Tso was a genuine 19th century military leader, very successful and well-known in China. There are parks, schools, museums, etc named after him. But the origin of General Tso's chicken was in Taipei when China's leader Deng Xiaoping was to visit, and a famous chef was asked to create something special for him. He came up with a chicken dish that he named General Tso's Chicken, just to play off a famous general from the Hunan Province. It was an immediate success and another Chinese chef borrowed the idea and the name and its first appearance on USA menus was in 1970s New York City. Now it is perhaps the best-known and most frequently ordered Chinese dish anywhere. And the way to prepare it is as varied as are the number of restaurants preparing it.Very good documentary, but only for those who enjoy eating.
gavin6942
Who was General Tso, and why are we eating his chicken? This feature documentary explores the origins and ubiquity of Chinese-American food through the story of an iconic sweet and spicy chicken dish.One of the first things viewers will notice are the pronunciation issues. Just as there are many spellings, there are also many pronunciations of Tso. The most common seems to be "so" or "sew", but "tau" and others come up, with no clear winner.Although the core of this doc is tracking down who Tso was and what he has to do with chicken, there is a secondary message: one of Chinese assimilation to America, and how there have been hiccups over the years, particularly during the Korean War.
anji2
As someone who loves authentic mainland Chinese cuisine and is consistently perplexed by the Chinese dishes here in USA I was delighted to see this film on the big screen at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and was not in the least disappointed. The film delves into the history of how and why Americanized Chinese dishes and restaurants spread from San Francisco to the East Coast and also briefly delves into China's banquet culture and the history of the General himself. The only thing missing from this film for me was some kind of explanation of the extreme use of MSG in dishes such as General Tso's Chicken but hopefully the directors will take that subject and make a sequel! The style, pace and commentary were all great.
