• Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    I thought this too, especially after I lived in China for years, but I just went to Southern China and tangerine chicken is a traditional food used for celebrations.

    Even if you don’t eat it, since it’s sweet, it’s like a traditional celebratory good luck food to always have with your feasts at weddings or promotion dinners or family get-togethers.

    First time I ever saw orange chicken in China, but apparently it is a traditional food down south, as far back as anyone I talked to remembers, and it’s important to note that in the south, every spring festival every family and business buys a tangerine tree like a Christmas tree, so definitely not an original Hawaiian creation in 1987 or whatever that cook says it was.

    Maybe he independently created it, but it doesn’t look like he originally created it.