Not Just Orange Chicken

An Examination of Authentic Chinese Cuisine in Austin

By Kevin Li

Chinese food in America sucks. Ok, not exactly, but there are some not-so-good parts about it. In the United States, what is served in many places as “Chinese Cuisine” is a far cry from what true Chinese cooking is. Chef Larry Bai, the main cook at local Austin Sichuan restaurant, “House of Three Gorges”, stated his thoughts on Americanized Chinese food. “Americanized Chinese food exists because there are people that want to eat it, so there are people that will make it. I am not saying that it is bad, it has its place. But when talking in the context of Sichuan cuisine, there are way too many changes and deviations.” says Bai.

Good flavor in Chinese cooking is not an easy task to accomplish, it involves effort, patience, and skill. Those flavors are integral to making authentic Chinese food. Bai goes into detail about how small details make a big difference in cooking. A chef has to pay very close attention to the ingredients they pair together. They have to pay attention to the fire they use to cook, the sauces they add, and many other factors. Laziness results in a subpar, often inauthentic dish.

“Many inauthentic chefs will just cook whatever and hope that people won’t be able to taste the difference,” says Bai. Americanized Chinese food is rife with this sentiment. Many restaurants that offer that type of cuisine don’t use traditional methods for cooking, use inauthentic ingredients, and heavily rely on a small number of sauces for flavor. As Chinese restaurant customer Qiping Xiong said, “It is too sweet, but is still edible.”

After all this about what isn’t authentic Chinese food, what is? The definition of the word authentic is different for every person. When it comes to Chinese cuisine though, most of them line up well. To Sichuanese chefs like Bai, authenticity lies in the essence of the cooking style. There is a common saying that Sichuan cuisine has “A hundred dishes and a hundred flavors.” “ A hundred dishes will have a hundred different flavors and aromas,” is how Bai interprets that, which is why he is dissatisfied with how many Americanized dishes taste the same, stating that “You can have 10 different chicken dishes and you will probably get confused about which is which.” Xiong, as a customer, has a more tasteoriented view of authenticity, stating “Authentic Chinese food should have a specific sensation in your mouth and be satisfying to eat”. She also offers input on what differentiates authentic and Americanized food, stating that “Good food, especially Sichuan food, should be cooked one dish at a time. That ensures quality. Places like Panda Express cook everything in large batches and then serve you a portion”. Bai agrees with that detail, explaining how subpar restaurants often cook everything in batches with large woks but still use limited ingredients and flavors.

Stir-fried pork kidneys are a lesser known, but still beloved dish. The chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorn add the distinctive mala flavor of Sichuan cuisine. It is cooked with bamboo shoots and other vegetables.

At the House of Three Gorges, Bai uses the same authentic techniques a chef in Sichuan would use. Every detail from the ingredients, sauces, cookware, knives, and fire is as authentic as you can possibly get outside of a Sichuanese home. “In America, the ingredients won’t always be the same as they would be in China, you simply cannot get all of them, but the techniques are identical,” states Bai.

Here in Austin, we have a lot of people from China and of Chinese descent. Unfortunately, the Chinese restaurant scene here has been what many would consider lackluster.

According to House of Three Gorges owner, Jim Li, the few restaurants that served up these beloved dishes were not the best quality. “There used to be a lot more quality Chinese restaurants in this city, but unfortunately, many of them have closed down. So we wanted to open our own.” And so he did, with Bai as his chef.

When asked about the name of the restaurant, he stated that the Three Gorges is a very scenic region in China where the Yangtze River flows through. “My family and I were born and raised in that region, it is where we come from. So when we came to America, we wanted to remember our hometown.”

That led to Li naming his restaurant as such. Walking into the building, one will notice the various framed pictures hung on the walls, each depicting a part of the famed region; some, according to Li, date back over a hundred years.

Many Americans see Chinese food as a singular entity, consisting of spring rolls, rice, and whatnot. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. While there are certain dishes that are ingrained in Chinese cuisines, such as dumplings, the truth is that every area and province has its own cuisine that is representative of the region. Most people agree that there are eight main cuisines in China. Those are Anhui, Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, and Zhejiang cuisines. These eight cuisines are the most famous and well-known. They share similarities but ultimately have very complex differences. Xiong states, “I am from Hubei, which has many Sichuan influences due to its proximity to it, so our food tends to be spicier. But something like Shanghai cuisine can tend to be sweeter, they like to add more sugar to their dishes.”

Each cuisine has its specialties, ingredients, and techniques that make it unique. For instance, the aforementioned Sichuan cuisine draws its signature flavor from

“mala”. The word is composed of the character “ma,” which refers to a numbing sensation, and “la,” the term for spiciness. According to Li, “It involves chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and many other complementary ingredients.” The chili peppers give a dish spice while the peppercorns create the numbness felt in the mouth. While certainly one of the most famous flavors in Chinese cuisine, there are a plethora of others, such as fish aroma and red oil fragrance.

Alongside the myriad of flavors present in these cuisines, there are also numerous methods of cooking Chinese food. The most famous of which is probably stir-frying, a widespread method of stirring ingredients in a deep round-bottomed skillet of cooking. That includes stirfrying, deep frying, steaming, boiling, searing, braising, and many more. “These are very important to be authentic, you can’t just boil everything or fry everything, different ingredients should be cooked in different ways.” known as a wok over high heat. It is an integral part of many cooking styles, especially Sichuan cuisine. Despite its popularity, not all cuisines rely on it to the same degree. For instance, in Hubei where Xiong is from, it is more common to steam dishes. Bai states that it is important to use multiple different methods

Chances are that you, the reader, didn’t know much about Chinese cuisine before this article. Hopefully, this has inspired you to learn more about it and the culture it comes from. You might be intimidated by not being Chinese, but that doesn’t matter. Li states, “Obviously we get a lot of Chinese folks, however, we are also getting more non-Chinese customers than we’ve gotten in the past. They make up about maybe 50% or more of our clientele. Many of them come because they wish to taste what real authentic Chinese food is.” Xiong also states that “It is a big part of our culture to share it with others.” If you’ve decided to give authentic food a shot but don’t know what to order, Bai has some suggestions. When asked what he would suggest to someone that has never tried Sichuan food before, he said that “I would probably recommend our Mapo tofu, twice-cooked pork, jumping fish, and maybe our wonton soup. It doesn’t matter what your tastes are, we probably have a dish that you will like.”

Chinese cuisine is a mix of colors, spices, and smells that define the nation and it’s people. Its large presence abroad is a testament to the flavours and people of mainland China. Although Chinese-American dishes have become staples in U.S cities, it’s important to maintain that beyond panda express, it’s not just orange chicken.