Searching for General Tso

General Shou's crispy chicken, No.10 Restaurant

General Tso's chicken is to American-Chinese cuisine, what chicken tikka masala is to Anglo-Indian cuisine. Whilst not exactly authentic, this combination of lightly battered fried chicken in a tangy spicy sauce with garlic, ginger, and chilli pepper is probably the best-known Chinese dish in America. However, like many things that are popular across the pond such as country music and NASCAR racing, it hasn't really caught on in this country.

I first became aware of this dish a little over ten years ago on a business trip to Hong Kong. My then boss, an American, complained that General Tso's chicken wasn't on the menu in the restaurant we were in. He was also quite incredulous that neither the guys in the HK office nor I had heard of this dish. When I did look this dish up on the internet, I can't say I was that interested in it but over the years my indifference has waned and I've found myself wanting to check it out.

So when meandering around Earl's Court one day, I got quite excited when I spotted the similarly named General Shou's crispy chicken at No.10 Restaurant. I would've tried it on the spot but for the fact that I was full. The other thing holding me back was that I wasn't 100% sure that it was the same dish as General Tso's. With that in mind, I made a note of the Chinese name, 左宗堂雞, and this matched when I checked it on the interweb.

I'm also glad I waited, as I realised having never eaten this dish, I had no idea how it should taste. That's when I decided to call in some expert help in the form of An American in London to organise a tasting of the General's chicken. Upping the North American contingent, Krista, Su-Lin and late substitute, Mr A-in-L also joined us.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when I finally sampled this dish in that it was like a bog standard sweet & sour with some chilli. I'm also not sure what the hell peanuts were doing in there either. It was as if General Tso had started a fight with Kung Pao and won custody of the peanuts. My fellow diners agreed that this faux-General was a bit of a let down. The search for the real General Tso in London goes on.

Spicy shredded chicken cold noodles (before and after)

What about the rest of the meal ? To be honest, it was a mixed bag. My tip would be to stick to the Sichuan specials at the front of the menu. The boiled beef aka shui zhu niu rou, spicy shredded chicken cold noodles, and sea spicy aubergines aka yuxiang qiezi were amongst the better dishes of the evening. On the downside, we were a tad miffed that the dry fried green beans were off the menu.

Less successful was the Cantonese twin platter of siu yuk (crispy belly pork) and cha siu (honey roast pork). The siu yuk was obviously reheated and too dry whilst the cha siu was tired looking and had far too much red food colouring. That said the gai lan stir-fried w/garlic was well cooked.

Together with rice, drinks, and service, the bill clocked in at around £75 or £15/head - pretty good value. For a similar price, Chilli Cool is superior but still it's good to know that there's a restaurant in Earl's Court that knocks out competent Sichuan.



Postscript: There are conflicting claims as to who invented General Tso's chicken. Whilst it is often described as a Hunan dish, it was actually invented in either Taiwan or New York by chefs with Hunan ancestry. For a recipe and a bit more history about the dish, click here and if you're still intrigued, further reading can be found here.