# General Tsao's Chicken **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2002, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380 "2002-07-23T14:38:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Kahuna_Burger)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/21 "2002-07-24T01:02:40Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s Zuo? Goddamn, Wades-Giles can eat me. Well, Peking Duck is Wades-Giles, so why wouldn’t General Tsao be as well? They probably figured in 1980 that they wouldn’t bother switching names of well-liked dishes (“What happened to the General Tsao’s Chicken?” “It’s General Zuo’s Chicken” “Why?”) so the names have stuck. Also, isn’t “ts” evident of Wades-Giles? ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vampire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Space\_Vampire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vampire)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/22 "2002-07-24T01:06:09Z")
What? Peking is Wades Giles? I thought it was Cantonese derived. It doesn’t make any sense as a Mandarin phonetic thingy at all. Oh yeah, I forget, it’s Wades-Giles, it doesn’t need to make sense. Yeah, Ts indicates WG, but I thought that was “c” as in “cao,” hence my warning. Zuo? What the hell. I hate Wades-Giles. ---
**Author:** ![puubs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/779978/32.png) [@puubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puubs)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/23 "2002-07-24T01:11:36Z")
In Mandarin (pinyin), General Tsao’s Chicken = zou gong ji ---
**Author:** ![puubs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/779978/32.png) [@puubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puubs)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/24 "2002-07-24T01:12:59Z")
oops, i meant zuo gong ji… :o ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vampire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Space\_Vampire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vampire)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/25 "2002-07-24T01:13:46Z")
That article says it’s “zuo” are they wrong? Zou I can see as Tsao, Zuo just doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![puubs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/779978/32.png) [@puubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puubs)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/26 "2002-07-24T02:06:24Z")
My apologies again. It’s zuo zong ji in mandarin (pinyin). Zuo zong is the name of the general. I’m pretty sure it’s right since I just looked at a menu with Chinese characters. In Chinese, Zuo (probably a surname) literally means “left”. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/27 "2002-07-24T02:22:07Z")
After work update: vibrotronica was forced to buy his coworker a lunch of zuo zong ji. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/28 "2002-07-24T03:00:06Z")
How’s this for tangential: Chicken Marengo was General Napoleon’s chicken. It was invented in the middle of a campaign in Italy, right after the Battle of Marengo in the year 1800. Napoleon, being a Frenchman, took his chef along when he went to war. After the battle, the countryside being ravaged and all, it wasn’t easy to rustle up some grub. The chef managed to get hold of an old chicken. What to do with it? He threw in whatever else that was edible he could scrounge up. Doesn’t sound very appealing, but this was, _après tout_, not a French chef for nothing! Napoleon liked the result so much (“You must feed me zis after every _battaille_”), Chicken Marengo became a popular dish. I don’t know but always assumed General Tso had a similar culinary experience. ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/29 "2002-07-24T03:28:10Z")
Up here, it’s called General Tao’s Chicken. Tao, pronounced Ta-oh. Same deal: battered chicken with sweet/salty sauce over rice. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/30 "2002-07-24T04:53:39Z")
I pronounce it “Tao”, too. Dang. Well, I can’t change now. ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380/31 "2002-07-24T05:38:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\* > Eve: I was just curious . . . Who was the chicken named after? I mean, what if General Tso was the Chinese Hitler? > \*\* Brilliant! Mind if I use it as a sig? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-tsaos-chicken/120380.md?page=1)