Historian Haiming Liu takes readers on a compelling journey from the California Gold Rush to the present letting us witness both the profusion of Chinese restaurants across the United States and the evolution of many distinct American-Chinese iconic dishes from chop suey to General Tso’s chicken. Along the way historian Haiming Liu explains how the immigrants adapted their traditional food to suit local palates and gives us a taste of Chinese cuisine embedded in the bittersweet story of Chinese Americans.