General Tso wants you to eat something other than Panda Express

There are about 20 cities in China with at least 5 million people and each of them have specialty cuisines they are known for because the food culture has been developing for thousands of years. In the west, you only really get a handful of those available at Chinese restaurants. The western Chinese dishes (General Tso's chicken, etc.) were created during brutal repression of Chinese communities in America after the Chinese exclusion act when Chinatowns were in survival mode building neighborhoods and modifying their food so that it would appeal to westerners so they were less likely to burn everything down and murder them. If you're interested, one place to start is to try the Ten Great Noodles of China (中国十大面条). It's a fun cooking adventure if nothing serves them in your area but you have access to a Chinese or maybe Pan-Asian grocer.

Chinese food is so good and diverse. I had this spicy white fish dish once in Guangdong that was just incredible, I think about it often lol, can’t remember what it was called

That being said there is something about american chinese food that makes me crave it from time to time (probably all the salt and sugar)

Permanently Deleted
- I think that might be the dish thanks !!

You can follow Food Ranger on youtube if you want to see a Westerner try all kinds of Chinese food, in China, without political bullshit attached (he goes to Xinjiang as well)

I'll return the rec with another. Katherine's journey east is also pretty good. American who got her phd in China and tours/blogs small rural towns. Same to it not being bs.

It's also generally healthier than american food I would assume

I think this mostly has to do with the extensive use of vegetables cooked in various tasty ways. Western dishes (specifically West European) seem to have very few good techniques to cook vegetables, leading white children to hate veggies. I think this is exacerbated in Britain and their Anglo-Saxon colonies (cue the meme about British food having no seasoning).

Also, proper Asian dishes tend not to actually use much oil. Stir frying only lightly coats the outside of food with oil, very different from western deep frying.
Anecdotally, I feel less greasy and sludgy after eating fried Sichuan dishes than comparable fried Western dishes.
It depends. Definitely tastier.
- Yeah, McDonald's tastes like cardboard
Really depends but they do use a ton of oil.

David Chang has a fantastic episode on Chinese food. I think it's Ugly Delicious?

"Chinese people will eat anything that has four legs other than a table, anything that flies other than an airplane, and anything that swims other than a submarine."

I don't think westerns have ever thought they don't have a diverse appetite. The joke has always been that it is too diverse.

westerns have ever thought

Bold of you to assume. In seriousness though, I think it’s likely that a lot of Westerners don’t even think to think about how diverse Chinese food may or may not be, or even if they do, would have difficulty grasping how diverse it truly is.
- I think part of that stems from Westerners (at least where I live) struggling to comprehend how large, populous, and diverse China is as a country. It's presented and taught as a monolith, unless the media/government is trying to push a secessionist movement, then all of a sudden everyone thinks they're an expert on an ethnic group they only thought of as "Chinese" until influencers told them they're oppressed.

i enjoy both panda express and authentic chinese cuisine. there are some niche things like drunken shrimp eaten alive, but the vast majority of chinese people don't eat "weird" foods like it. they eat stuff you'd typically find in a chinese restaurant in the west, which tend to be pretty authentic.

I can't do americanized Chinese food I confess, I'm not American enough for that ;D

Get some duck tongue.

Although Chinese food is pretty diverse, I don't want to be that foreigner who travels to that one small village in the middle of bumfuck China where they serve a village delicacy of virgin piss eggs.

virgin piss eggs

I’m genuinely confused what you’re imagining here, but I’m going to guess it’s probably not a real food
- I don't remember the vid title, but there is a video on Bilibili of a Chinese national who does things like food reviews who actually went to this very remote place to investigate and try one of the eggs.
  
  I'll have to try and either find it, or a yt reupload.
  
  Edit:
  
  Here is a video in Chinese of someone from Hong Kong trying them.
  
  Piped Link
  
  YT link if other fails
I guarantee that is not going to be the only thing on offer.
- I know it's not the only thing they have to offer, but it's one dish I will be sure to avoid my whole life if at all possible.

Lol “westerners” is such a broad group of people that this comment makes you look ignorant.

Not understanding the prevalence of orientalism makes you look ignorant
Okay, yanqui debatelords are ignorant.
OP did not write that article for The Economist
- The Economist, well known tankie publication, all their staff browse lemmygrad
found the westerner
Cope, seethe, and order crab rangoons and shrimp fried rice instead of 辣子鸡.
- 辣子鸡
  
  Sounds interesting. Wonder what Sichuan peppers taste like.