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.
