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Who Was General Tso?
10 Feb 2004 by Matthew Linderman
Some yummy Chinese food the other night got me wondering: Who was General Tso and why are we eating his chicken?
General Tso never ate the dish named after him. The great warrior, the prop of the Qing dynasty, the subduer of rebels and uprisings who carved his name into Chinese history at the point of a sword, had to wait more than 100 years for an inventive expatriate chef to award him his American triumph and make his name famous in the West.
6 comments so far (Post a Comment)
11 Feb 2004 | Benjy said...
Ha! I got to wondering the same thing a few months ago and my seach yielded the same article. I quized a couple friends about the name... nobody knew.
Anyone ever see the "Dr. Katz" episode with a bit about General Tso, and how getting a Chinese Food dish named after you was the highest honor in the Chinese Army?
11 Feb 2004 | Zelnox said...
What about General Tao? They the same guy?
11 Feb 2004 | Brad Hurley said...
And who was that French guy, De Tour, whom so many roads are named after?
11 Feb 2004 | Ryan Schroeder said...
I've Always prefered General Gao's Chicken. To each their own I guess.
11 Feb 2004 | qwerty said...
I'm more familar with General Failure. He took out two drives in our supposedly fail-safe RAID within 24 hours.
12 Feb 2004 | alex Buda said...
Please, redesign Papajin website... =)
Your post on food make me go in unger.
One thing interesting about the so called chinses food ist that chinese dont really used to eat that =)
All The Best and Congratulations on Basecamp =)
alexandre Buda
TEYATA OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNAYE SOHA
