Diet for Easing Depression and Anxiety

Diet for Easing Depression and Anxiety.

Although I have not found any specific diet that can cure depression and anxiety, certain food style or cuisine have been proven to help improve the mood of someone recovering from depression and anxiety. In the U.S,American Chinese cuisine is known simply as Chinese Cuisine. This food style was developed by Americans of Chinese descent themselves. It was served in several North American Chinese restaurants. The dishes that these American Chinese typically serve in their restaurants cater for the American tastes and they are very different from the Chinese cuisine in the China mainland itself. Even though China possesses many regional cuisines, the regional cuisine that has the greatest influence in the growth of the American Chinese food is the Cantonese Cuisine.

Differences Between American Chinese And Mainland Chinese Cuisines

Usually, American Chinese treat their vegetables as a garnish or side dish in their cuisine, while the traditional (mainland) Chinese emphasize vegetables. We can see this in the use of tomatoes and carrots. The mainland Chinese cuisine very often use Asian leaf vegetables such as kai-lan and bok choy and lay much more emphasis on seafood and fresh meat.

The Chinese cooking techniques that tend to be most common and which are used in the American Chinese cuisine are pan frying, stir frying and deep frying. They are all done with the use of a wok (that is, a Chinese frying pan looks like a bowl). Furthermore, the food is also reputable for its high levels of MSG which enhances the flavor. Customer demand and market forces have inspired many restaurants to go to offer menus that are MSG-Free or No-MSG, or to leave it out on request.

Take-away Chinese food is usually served in a wire-bail paper carton. American Chinese cuisine rarely uses ingredients that are native to and very often used in China. For instance western broccoli (xīlán) is commonly used in china whereas Chinese broccoli (Kai-lan) is commonly used in American Chinese cuisine. At times, people refer to western broccoli as sai lan fa (in Cantonese) so as not to confuse it with the two styles of broccoli. However, among Chinese speakers they typically understand that you are referring to the leafy vegetable except if it is specified otherwise.

The same thing is true of the words for onion (cong) and carrot (lo bac or luo buo , or hong luo buo, where hong means "red").  In Cantonese, Lo bac refers to the daikon, a large and pungent white radish. In some areas of China, the orange western carrot is often called "foreign Daikon" (or in Cantonese, more properly called hung lo bac, where hung means "red"). When you use chung, the word for onion, it is believed that you are referring to "green onions". This is otherwise known by English-speakers as "spring onions" or "scallions". The larger multi-layered onion bulb which is common in the U.S is called yang cong. This means "western onion". All these names provide the evidence for the fact that the American carrot, broccoli and onion are not indigenous to China, and so are not common in the China traditional cuisines.

Because tomatoes are new-world plants, they are also comparatively new to Chinese cuisine and China. We can find tomato-based sauces like the "beef and tomato" in a few American Chinese dishes. Therefore, if there is a significant amount of any of these ingredients in a dish, it is very likely that it has been Americanized. In an American Chinese cuisine, egg fried rice is also differently prepared, with the addition of more soy sauce for more flavor unlike the traditional egg fried rice in Chinese culture that uses less soy sauce. Dim sum and some other food styles were also altered to fit American palates, such as extra soy sauce and the addition of batter for fried dishes.

In the traditional Chinese cuisine, salads that contain uncooked or raw ingredients are rare, as are Japanese style sashimi or sushi. Nevertheless, a rising number of American Chinese restaurants, as well as a few upscale restaurants, have begun offering these items in response to the demand of customers.

The proprietor of the Blue Ginger establishment in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Ming Tsai, explained that American Chinese restaurants usually try to prepare food representing three to five China regions at a time, prepare chop suey, or prepare " some protein and fried vegetables in a very thick sauce", "8 different sour and sweet dishes", or even "an entire page of twenty different dishes of fried rice or chow meins ". Ming Tsai went on to say "the China-American cuisine is 'dumbed-down' Chinese food. Chinese adapted it and made it thicker, blander and more tasty for the American people".

Many of the American Chinese restaurants cater to their customers who are non-Chinese by writing menus in English language or adding pictures. If they have separate menus that are written in Chinese language, they usually feature delicacies such as chicken feet, liver or some other dishes of meat that might discourage their American customers. In Chinatown, N.Y, the American Chinese restaurants were famous for possessing a "phantom" menu containing foods that are preferred by the ethnic Chinese, but thought to be despised by the Americans who are non-Chinese.

American Chinese Restaurant Dishes

The following dishes frequently appear on the menus of American Chinese restaurants:

1. Sushi: Although it is part of the traditional Japanese cuisine, there are some American Chinese restaurants that usually serve different types of it on buffets.

2. Chop suey: In Chinese, this means assorted pieces. Usually it is just a brown sauce made from a mix of meat and vegetables but sometimes it can also be made and served in a white sauce.

3.  Almond chicken :  This is battered breaded chicken containing some ground almonds. It is fried and then served with onions and almonds.

4.  Sesame chicken: This is battered, boned, and deep-fried chicken that is then dressed in a translucent orange or red, mildly spicy and sweet sauce. It is prepared by mixing corn starch, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and chicken broth.

5.  Chinese chicken salad: It normally contains shredded or sliced chicken, fried wonton skins or crispy noodles, uncooked leafy greens and sesame dressing. There are some Chinese restaurants that serve mandarin oranges with the salad.

6.  General Tso's chicken: This is made from deep-fried chunks of chicken that are plunged in a batter and then seasoned with garlic, ginger, sesame oil, hot chili peppers and scallions.

7. Crab rangoon: It is made from fried wonton skins that is usually stuffed with cream cheese and surimi (artificial crab meat).

8. Fortune cookie: Fortune cookie was invented in California and is the westernized version of the Japanese omikuji senbei. American Chinese have sweetened Fortune cookies so they now appear in many of their restaurants.

9. Royal beef:  This is a sliced beef that is deep-fried and doused in a wine sauce. It is usually served with steamed broccoli.

10. Pepper steak: It is made from sliced green bell peppers, steak, tomatoes and green or white onions that are stir-fried with sugar, salt and soy sauce. Bean sprouts are not usually added.

11. Mongolian beef: This is beef that is fried with white onions or scallions in a spicy and usually sweet brown sauce.

12. Fried wontons: This is slightly similar to crab rangoon. A filling, very often pork, is wrapped in a wonton skin and then fried deeply.

13. Beef & Broccoli - This is flank steak that is cut into little pieces. Broccoli is then used to stir-fry it. Then it is covered in a dark sauce which is made with oyster sauce and soy sauce. Finally it is thickened with corn starch.

14. Sweet roll: This is just yeast rolls that are typically fried, covered in powdered or granulated sugar. There are some variants that are stuffed with icing or cream cheese.

American Chinese Regional Dishes.

1. Chow mein sandwich: This is sandwich made from gravy and chow mein (Massachusetts South east, Rhode Island).

2. Chop suey sandwich: this is sandwich made from chicken chop suey and put on a hamburger bun (Massachusetts North Shore).

3. St. Paul sandwich: egg foo young patty put inside in plain white sandwich bread (Missouri, St. Louis).

4. Springfield-style cashew chicken: This is a cashew chicken style that is made from the combination of cashews, breaded deep fried chicken and oyster sauce. (Missouri, Springfield).

5. Yaka mein: This is a Chinese-Creole food that is found in New Orleans. It evolved from Chinese-Creole to beef noodle soup.

Regional Variations.

San Francisco

Because of the influence California cuisine had on them, a lot of American Chinese restaurants have opened in the Bay Arean and San Francisco since early nineteen nineties. The American Chinese cuisine trademark dishes continued to be on the menu. However, there is much more emphasis on fresh vegetables, and the dishes are vegetarian-friendly.

Exotic ingredients are found in this new cuisine. For example we can find portobello mushrooms and mangos. Brown rice is usually offered but you can opt for white rice. In some restaurants grilled wheat flour tortillas is substituted for rice pancakes in mu shu dishes. This happens even in a few restaurants that are not known as California Chinese, both the more authentic places and the Westernized ones. There exists a bakery in Mexico that is into the selling of some thinner tortillas used by restaurant owners for making mu shu. However, Mu shu purists are not always happy about this trend.

Furthermore, we have a lot of restaurants that serve many more native-style Chinese cuisines because of the proportion and high numbers of ethnic Chinese in the Bay Area and San Francisco. Restaurants that specialize in Sichuanese, Cantonese,Hunanese, Shanghainese, Northern Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese traditions are available in many places, just as there are more specialized restaurants like Hong Kong-style diners, seafood restaurants and cafes (also called Cha chaan teng ), hot pot restaurants and dim sum teahouses. There are several Chinatown areas that also feature boba milk tea shops, Chinese bakeries, roasted meat, specialized dessert shops and vegetarian cuisine. In San Francisco Chop suey is not very much available, and the chow mein sold in this city is different from that sold in Midwestern.

Authentic restaurants that have Chinese-language menus may offer yellow-hair chicken (called wòhng mouh gāai in Cantonese Yale and called huángmáo jī in Pinyin, literally meaning yellow-feather chicken). This is just a free-range chicken, unlike the typical American mass-farmed chicken. This kind of chicken is valued for its flavor. However, it needs must be properly cooked to make it tender because of its lower fat content and its higher muscle content. The English-language menu does not feature this dish.

Since early nineteen nineties, Dau Miu (called dòumiáo in pinyin), a Chinese vegetable, has been popular, and now, it does not only appear on the English-language menus, often as pea shoots, but is frequently served by high-income non-Asian restaurants too. Initially, it was only seen during some months of the year, but now, it is inside greenhouses that it is grown and is available throughout the year.

Hawaii.

Hawaiian-Chinese food went through a little different development when compared to that in the continental U.S.A. As a result of the ethnicity diversity and the Chinese influence history in Hawaii, resident Chinese cuisine constitutes a part of the cuisine of Hawaii, which is a combination of various culinary traditions. There are some Chinese dishes that are typically served among plate lunches in Hawaii. There are differences in the names of the foods as well, like Manapua, which means in Hawaii chewed up pork, for dim sum bao, even though the meat does not have to be pork.

American Jews and the Chinese Restaurants.

The belief that American Jews eat in Chinese restaurants on the day of Christmas is documented by the media that it has a basis in fact. This tradition may have developed from the fact that there are no other open restaurants on the Christmas Day, in addition to the fact that there is close proximity of Chinese and Jewish immigrants in N.Y City. This has been portrayed in television and film.

Locations of Chain Restaurants Belonging to the American Chinese.

Panda Express: It is located everywhere in the United States and some parts of Mexico.

The Great Wall: It is located in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina.

China Coast: It was owned by General Mills Corp. but closed in 1995. It formerly had fifty-two locations throughout the U.S.A.

Manchu Wok:  It has locations throughout Canada, Japan, Guam, Korea and the United States of America.

P. F. Chang's China Bistro:  It has locations throughout the United States of America and it features fusion cuisines of the California-Chinese.

Leeann Chin: It is located in Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was formerly owned by General Mills Corp.

Pei Wei Asian Diner:  It has locations throughout the United States of America and is a subsidiary of P.F. Chang's.

Chinese Gourmet Express: It has locations throughout the United States of America.

Pick Up Stix: It is located in Arizona, California and Nevada.

Stir Crazy: It is located in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, New York, Minnesota, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Texas.