The Search for General Tso

Better read the Wikipedia page. It has all the information in a shorter form. As the whole documentary is about 5 minutes long. The rest is fluff. With relevant testimonies that are probably supposed to enhance the archaeological abilities of a lazy, yet greedy production team. The testimonies are as relevant as "I remember I've just got off the Grayhound and was attracted by the neon sign and surely I was eating chop su..." What? Yea, even the food reference is about something else! And what has the prejudice has anything to do with the food? Was it originally made with urine?

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Awesome documentary and explores what might seem like a nothing topic in an enlightening and amusing way. Definitely worth the time!

This amusing film centers around the question "Where did General Tso's chicken come from?" but the movie is more than that. It uses this relatively silly question to frame Chinese mass emigration to the United States starting with the 1849 Gold Rush in California. This is ground that other sorts of live performances, plays, and movies have covered but "The Search for General Tso" has a particular focus on Chinese restaurants as a major force in spreading the Chinese population in the US out from San Francisco during the 20th century using a series of vignettes shot at Chinese restaurants across the country in the most unlikely (Flagstaff and Phoenix, Arizona; Tucumcarrie, New Mexico; Springfield, Missouri) and likely (San Francisco, New York City) places. Apparently, there were 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the US to choose from.

The movie discusses the origins of what's perhaps the most popular Chinese dish in America, General Tso. This dish is the seed crystal for the movie's existence. General Tso did exist. He was a 19th century general in China's Hunan province. He never ate General Tso's chicken, which is a 20th century dish that didn't make it to China until it became popular elsewhere. Part of this movie's charm is the step-by-step investigation into the origin and evolution of this dish to suit national palettes.

I really enjoyed the light tone of this movie. It and the people interviewed in the movie don't take themselves too seriously. Everyone on screen is having fun and it shows. If the movie has one flaw, and the reason I marked it down from 10 stars, is that it seems to drag at points even with its short run time. But that should not stop you from seeing it. I heard about it on NBC News and quickly found it could be viewed on Amazon Prime for a few bucks. It's not likely to get a national run, so Amazon is a good distribution choice.

Who was General Tso, and why are we eating his chicken? This feature documentary explores the origins and ubiquity of Chinese-American food through the story of an iconic sweet and spicy chicken dish.

One of the first things viewers will notice are the pronunciation issues. Just as there are many spellings, there are also many pronunciations of Tso. The most common seems to be "so" or "sew", but "tau" and others come up, with no clear winner.

Although the core of this doc is tracking down who Tso was and what he has to do with chicken, there is a secondary message: one of Chinese assimilation to America, and how there have been hiccups over the years, particularly during the Korean War.

As someone who loves authentic mainland Chinese cuisine and is consistently perplexed by the Chinese dishes here in USA I was delighted to see this film on the big screen at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and was not in the least disappointed. The film delves into the history of how and why Americanized Chinese dishes and restaurants spread from San Francisco to the East Coast and also briefly delves into China's banquet culture and the history of the General himself. The only thing missing from this film for me was some kind of explanation of the extreme use of MSG in dishes such as General Tso's Chicken but hopefully the directors will take that subject and make a sequel! The style, pace and commentary were all great.