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Every so often, Chinese cuisine seems poised to shed its tired takeout-staple image and join the Asian dining boom that has swept the U.S. in recent decades. Yet it has never taken off in the way that Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Korean cuisines have. Why has it lagged behind? Nina and Tim Zagat offer some thoughts in yesterday's New York Times:
"There is a historic explanation for the abysmal state of Chinese cuisine in the United States. Without access to key ingredients from their homeland, Chinese immigrants working on the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s improvised dishes like chow mein and chop suey that nobody back in their native land would have recognized. To please the naïve palates of 19th-century Americans, immigrant chefs used sweet, rich sauces to coat the food – a radical departure from the spicy, chili-based dishes served back home.
But today, getting ingredients is no longer an issue. Instead, the principal obstacle to improving Chinese fare here is the difficulty of getting visas for skilled workers since 9/11."