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Kagomefog t1_jdic05c wrote

Reply to comment by Sdog1981 in TIL that Chinese Food was introduced into America during the California Gold Rush, starting in 1848. As 30,000 immigrants had arrived from the Canton region of China, the restaurants gave the predominantly male population a connection to home and provided gathering places for the Chinese community. by jdward01

Cecilia Chiang introduced non-Cantonese Chinese food to the US. She was a rich lady from Shanghai, grew up in a 52-room mansion and had many servants. She looked down on the poor Cantonese people in San Francisco and thought their food was slop. Basically major cultural and class differences.

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firelock_ny t1_jdir57v wrote

> Cecilia Chiang introduced non-Cantonese Chinese food to the US.

Northern non-Cantonese Chinese food. My great-uncle introduced the US to Southwestern non-Cantonese Chinese food. ;-)

(OK, he probably wasn't the first...but Sichuan cuisine is quite different from Northern (Shandong?) cuisine.)

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