Chinese food may have been supplanted by Italian and Mexican as America’s favorite cuisine, but it is no less beloved. There are about 45,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., and few are the towns and cities that don’t have at least one.
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so it’s a great time to celebrate Chinese food. There are eight great regional Chinese cuisines: Szechuan, Cantonese, Hunan, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong. Hunan and Szechuan are “heart-clutchingly spicy,” according to “China The Cookbook,” an excellent reference guide. (Fuschia Dunlap’s various books on Chinese food are also highly recommended).
