The Search for General Tso (2014)

General Tso's Chicken is good, but I prefer Yu Shiang Beef, 31 July 2015

I'm not sure what I expected from The Search for General Tso, but I really got a lot out of it. Being a documentary, I suppose one of its main purposes is to inform and teach the viewer. A few things I learned:

1. There really was a General Tso. He seems to have been a very proud man, intent on preserving Chinese culture. And, he never ate the chicken dish bearing his name.

2. President Nixon's trip to China not only opened the doors for trade with China, but led to an explosion in Chinese restaurants across the U.S.

3. General Tso's Chicken was not created in either China or the U.S. It made it's first appearance in 1955 in Taiwan. And Chef Peng, the creator of General Tso's Chicken, seems unamused in what has happened to his original dish as it's spread across every corner of the U.S.

4. Just as I suspected, there is no agreement on how to pronounce Tso. I believe I heard at least four, maybe five, different pronunciations in the film. Pretty funny.

Informative and entertaining, The Search for General Tso is a winner.

7/10