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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2016)
U.S.A. December 19, 2016 Chef credited with inventing General Tso’s Chicken has died By Verena Dobnik The Associated Press N EW YORK — The chef credited with inventing General Tso’s Chicken, a world- famous Chinese dish smothered in a sweet sauce that was never a staple in China, has died in Taiwan at age 98. Peng Chang-kuei died of pneumonia in Taipei, his son, Chuck Peng, told The Associated Press. He was still cooking in the family’s Taipei restaurant kitchen just a few months ago. Peng first brought the sticky, sweet, and spicy dish to New York about 40 years ago. It’s now on Chinese res- taurant menus across the United States, exploding in popularity after President Nixon visited China in 1972. The dish also report- edly became a favorite of famed statesman Henry Kissinger, who with Nixon helped open the communist country to the west, spot- lighting its culture and food. But General Tso’s chick- en was never part of the Chinese culinary tradition. The chef created the dish in the 1950s in Taiwan, where he fled in 1949 with Chiang Kai-shek after the communists took over, said Chuck Peng, speaking from his home in Taipei. In Taiwan, the chef helped welcome the com- mander of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet in the Pacific with a banquet that included the new culinary creation named after a 19th-century Chinese military leader from Peng’s native Hunan province. By the 1970s, he was in New York running a res- taurant named after him- self near the United Na- tions on Manhattan’s East Side. Kissinger was a fre- quent guest, said Chuck Peng. “General Tso’s Chicken GENERAL TSO’S CREATOR. In this undated photo, chef Peng Chang-kuei, right, cooks in his restaurant, Peng’s Garden, in Taipei, Taiwan. Chef Peng, who has been credited with inventing General Tso’s chicken, the sticky, sweet-and-sour dish brought to New York 40 years ago, has died at age 98. (Yung-Chuan Hou/United Daily News/World Journal via AP) is so famous because of Americans love. It is easily Henry Kissinger, because a billion dollar industry in he was among the first to and of itself.” Lee also worked as a eat it, and he liked it, so others followed,” said Peng. producer on The Search for Americans quickly took General Tso. Chuck Peng runs the to what is now a mound of deep-fried chunks of family’s chain of 10 floured chicken, smothered restaurants in Taiwan, all in sweetness that usually called Peng’s. Until he was includes soy sauce, sugar, hospitalized a few months ginger, and other spices. In the dish’s first incar- ago, his son said Peng was a nation, the chicken report- daily presence at their edly was not fried, and its flagship Taipei restaurant unsweetened flavor came which opened after the chef from garlic, soy sauce, and left New York in 1983. The restaurant space on East chilis. The story of the delicacy 44th Street was later is told in a 2014 docu- occupied by a steakhouse mentary called The Search that also is gone. “My father thought other for General Tso, which traces the roots of Chinese people’s cooking was no food in America through good,” his son said, chuckling. “The way he the iconic dish. “The march of General cooked was different, it was Tso’s chicken has been long much better.” While he was “very good and wide,” said Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune to other people, he was very Cookie Chronicles. “It’s the hard on his family” — most popular of Chinese seven children from three dishes in America, because mothers. “He was very it is sweet, fried, and demanding, he didn’t want chicken — all things us to make any mistakes.” Tiger cubs raise cuteness quotient at Milwaukee County Zoo MILWAUKEE (AP) — Three 11-week- old Amur tiger cubs romped and wrestled together as they made their public debut at the Milwaukee County Zoo. The two females, named Eloise and Bernadette, and the male, named Kashtan, were born September 14. Zookeeper Amanda Ista said the cubs are doing well, but the male is being hand raised. In October, Kashtan developed an ab- scess on his leg. Zoo officials weren’t sure if the mother would accept him after being away, so they now keep him in a separate area and feed him by hand. But Ista says Kashtan regularly visits with his sisters to socialize and exercise, like he did during the debut. Ista says Amur tigers are extremely endangered in the wild, so their zoo cousins act as ambassadors to raise aware- ness. Real Madrid contests Club World Cup in Japan TOKYO (AP) — Hundreds of Japanese soccer fans showed up at the crack of dawn to greet Real Madrid as they arrived in Japan to contest the Club World Cup. Led by Cristiano Ronaldo, the European champions were met by about 300 fans at Tokyo’s Haneda airport before boarding a team bus. Zinedine Zidane’s team held a practice session in Yokohama as they prepared for the semifinal clash with Mexico’s Club América, which Real Madrid won 2-0. At presstime, Real Madrid was scheduled to play the Kashima Antlers of Japan’s J-league, who became the first Asian squad to reach the Club World Cup with a 3-0 win over Atlético Nacional, in the championship match. Madrid returned to the competition with 13 of the players who lifted the Club World Cup title in 2014, when they beat San Lorenzo in the final. THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7 Sammy Lee, two-time Olympic diving champion, dies at 96 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sammy Lee, a two-time Olympic gold medal-win- ning diver who later men- tored four-time Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, has died. He was 96 years old. The University of South- ern California (USC) said Lee died of pneumonia in Newport Beach. He was the school’s oldest living Olym- pian. The five-foot Lee, who was of Korean descent, was the first Asian American to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S. Lee became the first man to win consecutive Olympic titles in platform diving in 1948 and 1952 and was the oldest diver at age 32 to win Olympic gold. He also earned a bronze in three- meter springboard at the 1948 Games. Lee later coached Olym- pic diving champions Pat McCormick and Louganis, who swept the springboard and platform events at the 1984 and ’88 Olympics. Lee coached the U.S. team at the 1960 and ’64 Olym- pics. He remained an active swimmer and golfer into his 90s. Lee was the AAU nation- al champion in platform and springboard diving in 1942, becoming the first person of color to win a national diving title, and in ATHLETE & COACH. American Sammy Lee enters the water at the end of a back dive at the Empire Pool in Wembley, London, on August 4, 1948 during the men’s Olympic Games high-diving competition. (AP Photo) platform in 1946. He won Medical Corps in the the 1953 Sullivan Award as Korean War. the nation’s top amateur Sammy Lee Square in athlete. the Koreatown section of He was inducted into the Los Angeles was named in International Swimming his honor in 2010. In 2013, Hall of Fame in 1968 and the Los Angeles Unified U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame School District named one in 1990. of its elementary schools After attending Occiden- the Dr. Sammy Lee tal College in Los Angeles, Medical and Health he graduated from the USC Sciences Magnet School. Lee is survived by his School of Medicine in 1947 and became an ear, nose, wife, Roz, children Pamela and throat physician. He and Sammy II, and three served in the U.S. Army grandchildren. Christmas delivery at space station, courtesy of Japan By Marcia Dunn AP Aerospace Writer C APE CANAVER- AL, Fla. — Christ- mas gifts have ar- rived at the International Space Station, courtesy of Japan. A Japanese cargo ship pulled up at the orbiting lab four days after launch- ing. The capsule — called Kounotori, or white stork — contains nearly 5 tons of food, water, batteries, and other supplies. NASA said there also are Christmas presents for the two Ameri- cans, three Russians, and one Frenchman on board. Commander Shane Kim- brough, an American, and France’s Thomas Pesquet used the robot arm to grab the capsule 250 miles above Chile. Flight control- Ground broken on new 2020 stadium Continued from page 5 godas. It is intended to blend in with surrounding parkland and will be struc- tured to minimize costs for heating and cooling. The structure will use Japanese-grown larch in its wood and steel compos- ite roof and prefabricated panels to help speed the work along and contain costs. lers in Japan and Houston applauded — and some of the Japanese even bowed. Kimbrough said the crew was “really excited” to accept delivery and radioed thanks to all. “The vehicle is beautiful, and it performed flaw- lessly,” he said. Barely two weeks ago, a Russian supply ship was destroyed shortly after liftoff. At the same time, one of NASA’s main sup- pliers, SpaceX, is ground- ed. So the Japanese deliv- ery is especially welcome. The astronauts need the six new lithium-ion bat- teries for next month’s spacewalks. They will re- place the old nickel-hydro- gen batteries that store energy generated by the station’s big solar panels.
