Tso's what? Chinese general becomes American takeout legend

WENJIALONG, China -- Zuo Kuanxun wrinkled his face in skepticism, and you could hardly blame him. A foreign visitor appeared without warning to inform him that his great-great-great-grandfather -- battlefield hero and crusher of rebellions against the imperial Qing court -- is renowned on restaurant menus across the sea.

Gen. Zuo Zongtang, a hometown legend in his south-central province of China, was the fiercest of 19th-century warriors. Yet today, most of America associates the late military strategist with a chicken. And a tasty one at that.

Odds are you know him as General Tso, General Chao, General Zhou, even General Ching -- namesake of the succulent, sweet-spicy chunks of dark-meat chicken that features in most every Chinese restaurant in America but is almost entirely unknown in China itself.

General Tso/Zuo himself, however, is well-known -- decidedly real and born in 1812 in this tiny valley in Hunan province. And a bit of detective work turns up the fact that, indeed, there is an obscure Hunan chicken recipe that bears his name -- though no one can say quite how that happened.

"We have chickens here. We make chicken. But it's nothing special," said Zuo, sitting in the shade of his open-front house a few yards from the general's old homestead. As he spoke, a hen wandered in. "You say millions of Americans are familiar with our ancestor?"

Chinese food in the United States is full of such anomalies. Dishes that Americans consider takeout-joint stalwarts leave mainland Chinese scratching their heads.

Chop suey? Describe it to anyone across the land and you get blank looks. Lake Tungting shrimp? There is a Lake Tungting -- or Dongting, as they spell it -- here in Hunan, and it does have big shrimp, but locals say it's not a recipe per se.

Don't even ask about fortune cookies.

Though the recipe for General Tso's chicken is malleable -- in some American restaurants the chicken is sweet and unbreaded, in others spicy or batter-fried -- it was a hit in the United States and remains on many American Chinese restaurant's list of "chef's specials."

'You'd think I'd know'This is somewhat bewildering to folks in the place that the general called home.

"You're telling me there's a chicken dish named in his memory?" said Geng Ermao, proprietress of a popular family-style restaurant in Changsha, the provincial capital. "You say Americans who eat Chinese food are familiar with his name? I don't know of it, and you'd think I'd know."

Head north from Changsha, drive for about an hour and you'll reach Wenjialong, a verdant valley of tucked-away farms and small houses. Here, living quiet lives, are the remaining descendants of the general, who died in 1885.

Zuo Rensi, another great-great-great grandson, opened the decaying gate of his ancestor's courtyard home and led visitors quietly into what was once the kitchen. He spoke quietly of the dish known here as "Zuo gongji," or "Zuo's rooster."

"I don't know if he created the dish or it was made for him," Zuo said. "But we all know about it. No one knows how to make it anymore, though."

In a recent random sampling of more than a dozen restaurants in Hunan province, only one -- near Changsha's main train station -- offered Zuo's rooster on the menu.

What arrived was a melancholy mix of vegetables, shallots and greasy, scrawny pieces of chicken studded with perilous slivers of bone -- a far cry from the juicy, boneless poultry chunks familiar to Americans.

Usually the Chinese version of Chinese food is far tastier than its American imitation. Not this time. And there's not a Zuo in town who can explain why.

On the Net:

The Definitive General Tso's Chicken Page: www.echonyc.com/ 7/8erich/tso.htm

General Tso's Chicken: A Comparative Study of Prices in Park Slope, Brooklyn: www.echonyc.com/ 7/8jkarpf/home/tso.html