General Tso
Welcome to General Tso’s hometown! Xiangyin, Hunan
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008This is the billboard from when I visited General Tso’s hometown in rural Hunan province in my journey to find the source of General Tso’s chicken. (yes he is real, he played a huge part in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, started by a guy who thought he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ)
It basically […]
General Tso shares an issue with Maxim with a semi naked April Lavigne.
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008This is the March issue of Maxim magazine with my piece on the origins of General Tso’s chicken. For some reason I find this all very amusing. My research is sharing pages with “Why Women Secretly Love Porn.” (Why do we secretly love porn?)
One of the cooler things they did was take pictures of General […]
General Tso’s empire expands to bean curd
Friday, January 4th, 2008
Saw this on the menu at Tung Shing House in Rego Park, Queens, where my family and my South African friend (who introduced ubuntu to me) had Christmas dinner. Side note: General Tso’s tofu is served on Antarctica, at McMurdo Station, an American scientific outpost.
My South African friend claimed he did “really well with parents.”
My […]
General Tso’s duck?
Sunday, December 30th, 2007Apparently, te new Mt. Lebanon restaurant in Pittsburgh now serves General Tso’s duck. This goes along with other dishes I have discovered, including General Tso’s shrimp, General Tso’s tofu, General Tso’s dumplings, General Tso’s pizza.
He has an expanding culinary empire
General Tso, general tsos duck
Petraeus has nothing on Tso
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007I thought this article from The Times Record-Herald by Steve Israel had a very telling line:
Pine Bush — Why did a real, live U.S. Army general — with two black stars on his chest — jet to Pine Bush High School yesterday?
After all, the only general most schools around here see is General Tso chicken.
But […]
A real General Tso — actually General Cao
Monday, November 5th, 2007Someone pointed to me that the defense minister is named Cao Gangchuan. He is a real General Cao, which is (more or less, though you can’t tell unless you know pinyin) pronounced General Tso, as Americans pronounced.
Except of course, that General Tso is actually General Zuo Zongtang, and Zuo is pronounced, roughly, like “juoh.” (Why […]
General Tso’s Kitten? Only if He Misbehaves
Thursday, June 28th, 2007My friend Jennifer sent me a picture of her cat named General Tso!
I’m sure the Qing Dynasty Chinese warrior would be amused to learn that he has pets named after him overseas more than a century after his death (yes he actually existed, watch this blog for more details. I’ve even met his family, which […]
Whatever happened to The Long March of General Tso?
Thursday, June 14th, 2007If you are here, you will notice that my book on Chinese food is no longer called The Long March of General Tso, as reported previously.
Many people are sad about this, I among them. This brilliant title was conceived by my colleague Michael Luo. But the logic by my editor was this: If you […]