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.