人们知道他们在自己国家吃的中餐和中国人吃的中餐有很大的不同吗？

Kent Fung
, spends far too much time thinking about food.
I think in the past 10 to 20 years, this awareness has really spread. As travel to China became more feasible, people started visiting and some -- those who didn't let themselves be steered into tourist traps by tour guides -- began coming back and saying, "The food they eat in China doesn't look anything like this stuff!!"
This awareness has been helped by an increasing number of Americans who take their food very seriously, in terms of quality ingredients, in terms of authenticity, and in terms of creativity. Cooks and personalities like Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain, following in the footsteps of writers like Calvin Trillin and Ruth Reichl, really gave this movement a massive boost -- both in terms of caring about food and about showing a mass audience that what they'd always thought was Chinese food ... wasn't. Not really.

我认为在过去的10到20年里，这种意识真的已经传播开来了。随着到中国旅行变得更加可行，人们开始访问中国，一些人--那些没有让自己被导游引入旅游陷阱的人--开始回来并声称，"我们在中国吃的食物看起来和这里这些东西完全不一样！"
这种意识得到了越来越多的美国人的助长，因为他们对食物的质量、真实性和创造性都非常重视。像Andrew Zimmern和Anthony Bourdain这样的厨师和人物，追随Calvin Trillin和Ruth Reichl这样的作家的脚步，真正给这个运动带来了巨大的推动力--无论是在关心食物方面，还是在向广大观众展示他们一直认为的中国食物...实际上不是这样的。并非如此。

In the U.S., this growing awareness about Chinese food probably started from the big cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago) and to a lesser extent, from your better universities, where non-Chinese befriended students of Chinese descent, kids who knew what the good stuff was. That's how my white college roommate first got into Chinese food; two decades later and I often tell him he eats more authentically Chinese than I do, and I'm not bullshitting him.
Here's the thing you should consider: that fake Americanized Chinese food? It's not always bad. A few months ago, I had the hugest craving for General Tso's chicken. And who cares that it wasn't real Chinese? It was freaking delicious. My late father? His guilty pleasure was egg rolls. Not what Chinese call spring rolls and serve at dim sum ("egg rolls" to a Chinese person is more of a cookie or a sweet biscuit): those nasty, fake American ones that he bought from the canteen at the local K-Mart -- a bunch of random savory crap wrapped in a bad tortilla and fried. He'd make a special trip there just to scarf one of those things down sometimes.
tl;dr: A growing number of Americans do. Only a small portion care all that much.

在美国，对中国食品的认识不断提高，可能是从大城市（纽约、洛杉矶、旧金山、芝加哥）开始的，在较小的程度上，也是从较好的大学开始的，在那里，非华人与华裔学生结成朋友，这些孩子知道什么是好东西。这就是我的白人大学室友第一次接触中餐的原因；二十年后，我经常告诉他，他吃的中餐比我吃的更地道，而且我不是在胡说八道。
你应该考虑的是：那些假的美国化的中餐？ 它并不总是坏的。几个月前，我最想吃的是左宗棠鸡。谁在乎它是不是真正的中国菜？这只是太美味了。我已故的父亲呢？他心怀愧疚但乐此不疲的是蛋卷。不是中国人所说的春卷和点心（"蛋卷"对中国人来说更像是一种饼干或甜点）：他从当地K-Mart的食堂买的那些恶心的、假的美国蛋卷--一堆随机的咸味垃圾包在一个糟糕的玉米饼里并油炸。他有时会专程去那里，就为了吃上一个这样的东西。
简而言之：越来越多的美国人知道了这件事。但只有一小部分人关心这些。

Yì Yáng
, lives in Beijing, China (2008-present)
As a Chinese, I know my American friends know American Chinese food is different from "authentic" Chinese food.
However, let me offer a different perspective: even a Chinese won't really know about authenticity.
The problem is China is vast and there are many local dishes and local variants of the same dishes. I can't tell if there's a random village in China where people really cook chicken with oranges, or if there's a random village in China where people really name their spicy chicken dish after General Tso.
That OP finds American Chinese food terrible for him isn't a special case. A Chinese person from Guangdong may find Beijing food terrible; a Chinese person from Hunan may find Cantonese food tasteless; a Chinese person from Heilongjiang may find Shanghai food too sweet. That is, if you live anywhere for a long time, you develop a local taste and you find food from anywhere else "terrible".
To make things worse, Chinese people, like any other people, can learn from other people. Shanghai cuisine uses Worcestershire sauce, for example. Macau cuisine includes egg tarts, which they learnt from the Portuguese. While western broccoli wasn't found in Chinese dishes 20 years ago, now nobody in China will think a stir-fried dish of broccoli is not in Chinese style. So I think the debate over whether something is authentic is redundant. If Chinese people start to like to eat something, it will eventually become part of Chinese food.
If people like the food just let them enjoy it. We should simply accept the fact that no food suits everybody, and enjoy whatever we enjoy.

作为一个中国人，我知道我的美国朋友知道美国的中餐与"正宗"的中餐是不同的。
然而，让我提供一个不同的观点：即使是一个中国人也不会真正了解所谓的“正宗”。
问题是中国幅员辽阔，有许多地方菜和同一菜系的地方变种。我无法去判定中国是否有一个随机的村庄，人们真的用橙子煮鸡，或者中国有一个随机的村庄，人们真的用左宗棠的名字来命名他们的辣子鸡菜。
OP认为美国的中餐对他来说很糟糕，这并不是一个特殊的情况。一个来自广东的中国人可能会觉得北京菜很难吃；一个来自湖南的中国人可能会觉得广东菜没味道；一个来自黑龙江的中国人可能会觉得上海菜太甜。也就是说，如果你在任何地方生活了很长时间，你就会形成当地的口味，你会觉得其他地方的食物很"糟糕"。
更糟糕的是，中国人和其他民族一样，可以向其他民族学习。例如，上海菜使用伍斯特郡酱。澳门菜包括了蛋挞，这是他们从葡萄牙人那里学到的。虽然20年前中国菜中没有西式西兰花，但现在在中国没有人会认为一盘炒西兰花不符合中国风格。所以我认为关于某样东西是否正宗的辩论是多余的。如果中国人开始喜欢吃什么，它最终就会成为中国食物的一部分。
如果人们喜欢这种食物，就让他们享受它吧。我们应该简单地接受这样一个事实：没有一种食物适合所有人，我们喜欢什么就享受什么。

David Zheng
This is very true, food migrates along with the people. Variations of same dish can be found within city, county, province, etc. It’s hard to say what is authentic. Once people are living in a place for long period, they get “stuck” with certain taste. Unfortunately, not many people move around so their experience is limited. “If people like the food just let them enjoy it. We should simply accept the fact that no food suits everybody, and enjoy whatever we enjoy.” - Great comment!

这是非常正确的，食物随着人们的迁移而迁移。在城市、县、省等地都可以找到同一道菜的变种。很难说谁才是正宗的。一旦人们在一个地方生活了很长时间，他们就会被某种味道"困住"。不幸的是，没有多少人到处走动，所以他们的经验是有限的。"如果人们喜欢这些食物，就让他们享受它吧。我们应该简单地接受这样一个事实，即没有食物适合所有人，并享受我们喜欢的任何东西。" - 很棒的评论!

Bosley Plourde
, Historical Carpenter, Inclement weather survival expert
Chinese food in North America can be divided into two categories: Western-style and authentic. Plenty of restaurants serve up the overly sweet glop that the suburbanites seem to relish, but the restaurants where Chinese immigrants eat can be very authentic indeed.
If you are in Richmond B.C., the food won't be ‘Chinese'; it will be regional. The competition is fierce among restaurants, so you can find a good meal in a wide variety of styles: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and many other locales are represented in the restaurants of that city. The chefs are mostly first generation immigrants, and they are cooking for other first generation immigrants — and if the food isn't authentic, their restaurant will soon be out of business.
Richmond is perhaps an outlier because of its large Chinese population, but even a small city like Edmonton, where I live, has some pretty good Chinese food. Because a lot of the Chinese people here came from Hong Kong, Cantonese food is the most popular, and if you go downtown you will find places full of Chinese people enjoying the food of their ancestors. Dim-sum is a big favourite, and lunchtime will find big restaurants full of people eating dishes prepared by cooks straight from Hong Kong.
So don't be too quick to make such sweeping generalizations. If you walk into a restaurant and 75 percent of the customers are Chinese, you'll be getting real Chinese food. In these modern times special ingredients are easily imported, so aside from a few of the stranger foods that Chinese people eat — like bats, say — everything is available here to make dinner just like Grandma used to cook.

北美的中餐可以分为两类：西式和正宗。很多餐馆都提供郊区居民似乎很喜欢的过甜的糊糊，但中国移民吃饭的餐馆确实可以非常地道。
如果你在不列颠哥伦比亚省列治文市，食物不会是"中国"的，而是地区性的。餐馆之间的竞争很激烈，所以你可以找到风格各异的好菜。北京、上海、香港和其他许多地方的餐厅都有代表。厨师们大多是第一代移民，他们为其他第一代移民做饭--如果食物不正宗，他们的餐馆很快就会被淘汰。
列治文也许是一个例外，因为它有大量的中国人口，但即使像我居住的埃德蒙顿这样的小城市，也有一些相当不错的中餐。因为这里的很多中国人都来自香港，所以粤菜是最受欢迎的，如果你去市中心，你会发现很多地方都有中国人在享受他们祖先的食物。点心是人们的最爱，午餐时间会发现大餐馆里坐满了人，吃的是直接来自香港的厨师做的菜。
因此，不要急于做出这种一概而论的判断。如果你走进一家餐馆，75%的顾客是中国人，那么你就会吃到真正的中国菜。在这个现代社会，特殊的原料很容易进口，所以除了中国人吃的一些奇怪的食物--比如说X--这里有一切可以做的晚餐，就像奶奶以前做的那样。

Steve Sockolov
, Love to travel and eat. I write about both at InternationalFoodDictionary dot com.
On my first trip to Hong Kong I ate at one of the floating restaurants. I ordered what my family would have ordered in America. One of the dishes was shrimp. In America all of the shrimp I'd eaten were deep-fried in a thick batter. You couldn't even see that it was shrimp. In Hong Kong the shrimp were whole including head and legs. I didn't even recognized them. This was many many years ago. I've changed and so has America.
After many trips to China, I've seen so many regional and types of Chinese food that anyone would have difficulty recognizing the huge variety of Chinese food; Hunan, Haka, Shandong, or the many others. It's not surprising that the food tried in America isn't the same as "back home".
All of this doesn't mean that the food here is the same or even similar to original Chinese food. But if you live in an area that has a large immigrant population, you can find regional variations of Chinese food that are very similar to those found in China.
I'd say that people who love and care about food know that much of the Chinese or Mexican or any other ethnic food just isn't the same as it's region of origin. They also know where to find the few wonderful places that are authentic.

在我第一次去香港的时候，我在一个水上餐厅吃了饭。我点了我的家人在美国会点的东西。其中一道菜是虾。在美国，我吃过的所有的虾都是用厚厚的面糊炸的。你甚至看不出这是虾。在香港，虾是完整的，包括头和腿。我甚至都不认识它们。这是很多很多年前的事情了。我已经改变了，美国也是如此。
在多次到中国旅行后，我看到了这么多地区和类型的中国食物，任何人都很难认全中国食物的巨大种类：湖南、客家、山东，或许多其他地方。在美国尝试的食物与"家乡"不一样也就不足为奇了。
所有这些并不意味着这里的食物与原汁原味的中国食物相同或甚至相似。但是，如果你住在一个有大量移民人口的地区，你可以找到与中国非常相似的中国食品的地区性变体。
我想说的是，热爱和关心食物的人知道，许多中国或墨西哥或任何其他民族的食物就是与它的原产地不一样。他们也知道在哪里可以找到少数正宗的好地方。

Lorri Robinson
, I prepare, cook and eat food.
You bet we do. But that's not always something we can do anything about.
I live in a small town in NW Georgia, US. We have a very very small Asian community here (not even here -- it's in the somewhat larger town 10 miles south of us). We have a limited number of Chinese restaurants available to eat at, and they all serve the Americanized version of "Chinese" food.
Will we find 鳯爪 served here? Or perhaps 佛跳墙? How about a nice bowl of
鸭血粉丝汤? Not a chance.
Will we find things like egg rolls, spring rolls, General Tso's Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Hot and Sour Soup (my favorite), Cashew Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken/Shrimp, and any number of lo meins? Yes indeed.
The reason these Americanized dishes are so important is that it allows us to sample an exotic cuisine in a comfortable, familiar frx -- it's got a recognizable meat in it, it's served over rice, and it doesn't look too weird -- and it awakens our palates to unusual flavors. Five spice, soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, anise, fresh ginger, white pepper -- all these things are now found in just about every mainstream grocery store. I myself have all these things in my home, as well as a large wok (and I'm not afraid to use it!) and a sextion of Asian style noodles.
I also have several Chinese cookbooks, written by actual Chinese people from actual China. I can't get all the ingredients (I'd kill to find some sweet bean paste), so I can't cook everything in there, but there are plenty of dog-eared pages of authentic recipes I can and do cook on a regular basis.
So don't low-rate the American version of Chinese food. Think of it like training wheels on a bike. After all, you don't hand a braised phoenix claw to a baby with no teeth to eat the meat!

我们确实知道。但这并不总是我们可以为此做些什么的事情。
我住在美国乔治亚州西北部的一个小镇上。我们这里有一个非常非常小的亚洲社区（甚至不在这里--它在我们以南10英里的大一点的镇上）。我们有数量有限的中国餐馆可提供食物，而且它们提供的都是美国化的"中国"食品。
我们能在这里找到鳯爪吗？或者是佛跳墙？一碗美味的鸭血粉丝汤？不可能。
我们能找到像蛋卷、春卷、左宗棠鸡、蒙古牛肉、酸辣汤（我的最爱）、腰果鸡、宫保鸡丁/虾，以及任何数量的捞面吗？是的，确实可以。
这些美国化的菜肴之所以如此重要，是因为它允许我们在一个舒适、熟悉的框架内品尝异国美食--里面有可识别的肉，盖在米饭上，而且看起来不太奇怪--而且它唤醒了我们的味觉，让我们感受到不寻常的味道。五香粉、酱油、蚝油、海鲜酱、八角、鲜姜、白胡椒--所有这些东西现在几乎在每个主流杂货店都能找到。我自己家里也有所有这些东西，还有一个大炒锅（而且我不怕用它！）和一些亚洲风格的面条。
我还有几本中国菜谱，是由实际的中国人从实际的中国写的。我无法得到所有的材料（我很想找到一些甜豆沙），所以我不能做里面的所有东西，但是里面还是有很多正宗食谱是我可以而且经常做的。
因此，不要对美国版的中国菜评价过低。把它看作是装了两个辅助轮的自行车上。毕竟，你不会把红烧凤爪交给一个没有牙齿的婴儿去吃！

Michael Dougan
, Cafe Owner at Michael's Cafe American (2017-present)
Are most Europeans aware that the American food they have in their countries is totally different than what we have in America?
If a Japanese person were to dine in a Greek restaurant in Vancouver B.C., are they aware that the authentic Greek food they have in Greece is totally different than what the Greek food they have in Canada?
Are most Americans aware that Ethiopian restaurants in London, England are totally different than Ethiopian food they have in Ethiopia?
If a guy from Texas were to dine in a Polish restaurant in La Conner, Washington, would he be aware that the food they have in Washington state is totally different from the food they have in Poland?
Xavier, if you were to order a pasta and shrimp dish in Italian restaurant in in Shanghai, would you be aware that the Italian food they have in Shanghai is totally different than the Italian food they have in Italy?
The question answers itself, don’t you think?

大多数欧洲人是否知道他们国家的美国食物与我们在美国吃的食物完全不同？
如果一个日本人在不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华的一家希腊餐馆用餐，他们是否意识到他们在希腊吃的正宗希腊食物与他们在加拿大吃的希腊食物完全不同？
大多数美国人是否知道，英国伦敦的埃塞俄比亚餐馆与他们在埃塞俄比亚吃的埃塞俄比亚食物完全不同？
如果一个来自德克萨斯州的人在华盛顿州拉康纳的一家波兰餐厅就餐，他是否知道他们在华盛顿州的食物与他们在波兰的食物完全不同？
泽维尔，如果你在上海的意大利餐厅点了一道意大利面和虾，你会意识到他们在上海的意大利菜与他们在意大利的意大利菜完全不同吗？
这个问题本身就是答案，你不觉得吗？

Joseph W. Hatch
, My wife and "In-Laws" are from Mainland China. I travel there frequently.
I would like to preface my cements by explaining that I am an American married to A Chinese woman from Shandong. I have spent a good amount of time in mainland China. On my first trip to China I quickly learned that the food I experienced in the U.S. is very different from the food I have experienced in China.
Growing up in the U.S. I admit that I was fleeced into thinking that the Chinese food at a medium priced Chinese restaurant was "authentic". Sadly, I was wrong in this belief. The American -Chinese restaurant sells food that is tailored for the American palate. Fried, sweet, and soft are adjectives that come to mind when describing the American-Chinese restaurant experience. Often disappointing after I learned what real Chinese food was all about. To this very day I am still learning.
I have been blessed with a Father-in-law, Mother -in law, and Aunts that have invited me into their homes and their kitchens to teach me about Eastern Chinese cuisine. I have the experience of going to market, purchasing the food and preparing it for that evening's dinner. I have also dinned in some of the city's best restaurants. Low price to expensive. I can say with authority that the Chinese food in the U.S. is very different from the food in China.

我想在发言前解释一下，我是一个美国人，娶了一个来自山东的中国女人。我在中国大陆呆了很长时间。在我的第一次中国之行中，我很快了解到我在美国体验的食物与我在中国体验的食物有很大的不同。
在美国长大的我承认，我被骗了，以为在中等价位的中餐馆吃的中国菜是"正宗"的。不幸的是，我的这种想法是错误的。美国中餐馆出售的食物是为美国人的口味量身定做的。在描述美式中餐馆的体验时，我想到的是油炸、甜和软等形容词。在我了解到真正的中国食物是什么之后，常常感到失望。直到今天，我还在学习。
我很幸运，我的岳父、岳母和阿姨们都邀请我到他们家和他们的厨房，教我学习中国的东方美食。我有去市场购买食物的经验，并为当晚的晚餐做准备。我也曾在本市一些最好的餐馆就餐。从低价到昂贵。我可以很权威地说，美国的中餐与中国的中餐有很大不同。

Alvin Hovasapian
, Haven't missed a day without eating food in a very long time!
In any given country, imported cuisine is altered to match the tastes of the local population more closely.
I visit Japan often and while the Japanese take on Italian cuisine is very different than original Italian cuisine, it is still extremely good and I definitely enjoy it greatly. Same with Japanese Indian food. For example, the lassi I had in Tokyo was extremely sweet. Salty drinks such as salted lassi or Persian/Armenian Doogh would never be popular in Japan.
That said, I had always assumed that the Chinese food in the US was completely different than real Chinese food in China. However, this turned out to be not 100% true and to my surprise I found very similar food when visiting China. The reason for this is that the Chinese restaurants I went to were in the San Gabriel Valley area of California, mostly in Monterey park and Alhambra.
So I had a lot of experience with Sichuan, Hunan, and Cantonese cuisine and I found a lot of similar dishes in China (for example Dan dan noodles).
Honestly, I thought Kung Pao chicken was a US thing like Chop suey but to my amazement it was a common dish in restaurants in China!

在任何一个国家，进口的菜肴都会被改变，以更贴近当地人的口味。
我经常去日本，虽然日本的意大利菜与原来的意大利菜有很大的不同，但它仍然非常好，我还是非常喜欢。日本的印度菜也一样。例如，我在东京吃的拉西是非常甜的。咸的饮料，如咸的拉西或波斯/亚美尼亚的Doogh，在日本绝不会受欢迎。
也就是说，我一直就知道美国的中餐与中国正宗的中餐完全不同。然而，事实证明这并非100%正确，令我惊讶的是，我在访问中国时发现食物非常相似。原因是我去的中餐馆都在加州的圣盖博谷地区，主要在蒙特利公园和阿罕布拉。
因此，我对川菜、湘菜和粤菜有很多经验，我发现中国有很多类似的菜肴（比如说担担面）。
说实话，我以为宫保鸡丁是美国搞出来的东西，就像Chop suey（炒杂碎）一样，但令我吃惊的是，它确实是中国餐馆里常见的一道菜。

Tim Lockwood
, fan of Obama from the beginning.
I'm sure a lot of people know, or have a solid suspicion, that Chinese food in America is not the same as the food people actually eat in China. That being said, the next question would be, don't Americans care about that? And the answer is, no, not really.
It is the same phenomenon as knowing that Olive Garden isn't really Italian, or that Taco Bell isn't really Mexican, or that Outback Steakhouse isn't really Australian. We know that, more likely than not, we are getting a heavily Americanized version of that culture's cuisine, and that is apparently what we want. We want things that are different from our everyday cuisine, but not too different.
There are a few adventurous souls out there who really like to seek out cultural authenticity, and they will not be satisfied with anything less than real Chinese food or real Italian food. The majority, however, will not wander far from their comfort zones.

我相信很多人都知道，或者早就怀疑美国的中餐和人们在中国实际吃的食物不一样。既然如此，下一个问题将是，难道美国人不关心这个吗？而答案是，不，真的不关心。
这与知道橄榄园并不是真正的意大利菜，或者塔可钟并不是真正的墨西哥菜，或者Outback牛排馆并不是真正的澳大利亚菜一样。我们知道，我们更有可能的是得到的是那个文化的美食的一个严重的美国化版本，但这显然是我们想要的。我们想要的东西与我们的日常美食不同，但又不能太不同。
有一些喜欢冒险的人确实喜欢寻求文化的真实性，他们不会满足于任何不是真正的中国菜或真正的意大利菜。然而，大多数人不会远离他们的舒适区。

Pierre Gagnon
, Poker lover.
Hah! I get the sense people feel smug for pointing this out. I first heard it in the 70's when we basically had egg rolls, chicken balls, chop suey, etc. Then in the 80's I was going to Dim Sum just about every Sunday. I heard the same. In the early 2000's, I entertained some Hong Kong associates to Dim Sum in Ottawa, Canada and they made it clear to me it is nothing like the real stuff. A few months later, they took me to a spot in Honk Kong and they commented on the difference in quality and I agreed but only to be polite. There were some differences in the menu items (I suppose) but my hosts ordered the same stuff I eat here and it seemed the same. Of course, I would hardly call myself an epicure and nuances escape me.
Regardless, I'm happier having had an imitation than to not having had any at all.

哈! 我能感觉到人们为指出这一点而感到自鸣得意。我第一次听到这个词是在70年代，当时我们基本上有蛋卷、鸡肉丸子、排骨等等。然后在80年代，我几乎每个星期天都会去吃点心。我也听到了同样的话。在2000年初，我在加拿大渥太华招待了一些香港同事去吃点心，他们明确告诉我这和真正的中餐完全不同。几个月后，他们带我去了香港的一个地方，他们评论了质量上的差异，我同意了，但只是为了礼貌。菜单上的项目有一些不同（我想），但招待我的主人点了和我在这里吃的一样的东西，看起来也一样。当然，我很难称自己是一个美食家，细微的差别让我无法理解。
不管怎么说，有仿制品总好过什么都没有。

Peter
, I love to eat and am an adventurous eater.
That would depend on 1) Which Americans, 2) Which Chinese restaurants in the USA and 3) Which people in China you are discussing.
Some Americans are very knowledgeable; some less so; some know nothing at all
Some Chinese restaurants at least attempt to serve true Chinese food (although you can't get the exact same ingredients); most of the better Chinese restaurants in the USA don't attempt "Chinese" food, they attempt the food of one region. Others serve "Chinese-American" food.
And, of course, what many poor people in China eat is what they can get. They would eat differently if they could afford to do so.

这将取决于：1）哪些美国人；2）美国的哪些中餐馆；3）你在讨论中国的哪些人。
有些美国人很有见识；有些人不那么有见识；有些人根本就什么都不知道。
一些中餐馆至少试图提供真正的中国食物（尽管你不能得到完全相同的原料）；美国大多数较好的中餐馆并不试图提供"中国"食物，他们试图提供一个地区的食物。还有一些餐馆提供 "中国-美国"的食物。
当然，在中国，许多穷人吃的是他们能得到的东西。如果他们有能力，他们会吃得不一样。