Looking for Gen. Tso's chicken

Reporter Jennifer 8. Lee's quest to understand Chinese food brought her to these truths:

Chinese food, Lee concluded, is as American as apple pie.

Or the larger truth about Chinese food in America, as she wrote in "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food," might be closer to this:

"It's American. It just looks Chinese."

Lee, 32, is a city-beat reporter for The New York Times whose middle initial is indeed "8" -- the numeral connoting good fortune in China. She will be in Richmond tomorrow at 6 p.m. as the featured speaker at the second annual Women-Only Night Out at the Weinstein JCC.

Lee is an American-born Chinese who grew up in New York. Her parents had emigrated from an island off the coast of China. She grew up eating traditional Chinese food and less-than-traditional American cooking.

"My mom tried to make hamburgers and spaghetti with a kind of Chinese take on them," Lee said with a laugh.

The hamburgers were fried in a wok, and the spaghetti sauce was prepared like a stir-fry dish, the concept of long hours of simmering not being a typical Chinese method of cooking. Baking also is not part of traditional Chinese cooking. The Lees' oven was used primarily as an extra cabinet for dishes.

Lee acknowledges an obsession with Chinese restaurants since childhood, so the research required for the book -- three years spent visiting and eating in 42 states and 23 countries -- was truly a labor of love.

"It was fantastic," she said. "It was my life passion, and I got a book out of it so I can share it."

She also answered a lot of questions she had about offbeat matters, such as where fortune cookies came from, and more serious ones involving the difficult existence of some Chinese restaurant workers.

As for the food itself, her travels proved Chinese food in America is not particularly close to authentic Chinese food in China. American favorites, such as General Tso's Chicken, are virtually unknown in China -- as part of her book research, she hunted for General Tso and the answer to why his chicken is so famous here -- and popular U.S. ingredients, such as broccoli, are used sparingly, if at all, in China.

She also discovered, during visits to China, that she enjoyed such traditional dishes as jellyfish and chicken feet, which features tender meat but precious little of it.

"I think Chinese people have the feeling," she said, "the harder you work to eat your food, the more fulfilling it is."

You'd be hard-pressed to find such dishes in most American Chinese restaurants since they might prove alarming to many American diners.

The differences between Chinese food in America and Chinese food in China, however, are not merely about what some might consider strange dishes. John Kang, president of the Organization of Chinese Americans, the Central Virginia chapter, prefers to avoid the "exotification" of such differences, for fear it might drive an unnecessary wedge between cultures. It might also prevent someone from trying something different.

"I think the main difference might be that authentic Chinese food makes less use of deep-frying of breaded meats, less oil in general, less emphasis on thick sauces," said the American-born Kang who grew up in Richmond, has lived in Asia and works as an acupuncturist and herbalist.

"In an American Chinese restaurant, the boneless spareribs are kind of like an authentic dish called cha shao. Egg drop soup is not far off. Wonton soup, while not exactly authentic, is similar to 'real' wonton soup. Depending on the restaurant, some lo mein is similar to some real Chinese noodle dishes."

One of his favorite authentic meals, which can be found in a few local restaurants, is zha jiang mian ("fried sauce noodle," he said), a spaghettilike dish made with ground meat and, instead of tomato sauce, pressed bean curd.

"Why should a non-Chinese want to try real Chinese food?" Kang asked. "You might find something you really love."

Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or wlohmann@timesdispatch.com.