Chinese Food

Of course as part of this cultural experience, I had to eat some Chinese food. When I was home for the weekend I went to a local Chinese restaurant with my dad. I ordered the Orange Chicken and Rice dinner and my dad ordered the General Tso's Chicken dinner. While I was there I got to talk to the owner of the store. He had a very thick Chinese accent, so it was difficult to understand him most of the time. From our conversation, I got that he really enjoys owning the restaurant and is there most days that it is open because he likes to know that everything is running smoothly and that the customers are pleased. He also said that he enjoys being there because repeated customers come in often and he likes talking to them and catching up with them. I thought it was awkward to take a picture with him, so instead I quickly took a picture of my meal. It was delicious, and with such a large serving I took half of it home to eat the next day.

I did some Chinese food research and found that people in China do eat foods such as Orange Chicken and General Tso's Chicken, but their version is much different than that at American Chinese restaurants. This could be difficult for Chinese ESL students to understand because when you are so used to a specific food it is sometimes hard to completely change that and eat a different version of it. The American version happens to be a lot more fried than the traditional Chinese version.
Another thing that I learned, and did not expect, was that fortune cookies were originally made in the United States! People in China most often times will not eat fortune cookies because they view them as being "too American".