CANTON
is the strangest and most unbelievable chapter of them all. Still, he may accept the customs described in the following—as well as those described in the preceding chapters—as the entire truth, for that is what they are. Canton, surely, has earned the name of "Canton the Unbelievable!"
This chapter has to do with the culinary tastes of the Cantonese. One thing which surprises the traveler in Canton is that chop suey and other presumably native Chinese dishes are not native Chinese dishes at all, but concoctions prepared by Chinese restaurants in the Occident and intended almost solely for American and European consumption. The percentage of the people in Canton who eat chop suey is probably not as great as the percentage of occidentals who eat it in their own countries.
In all probability the foods most favored—in Canton at any rate—would find little favor with any American, and were the Chinese restaurants in the United States to serve food most highly relished by many of the Cantonese, they would find themselves without patrons in short order. And so for that reason,
perhaps, the Chinese restaurant keepers in the United States are justified in inventing their special preparations and serving them to trustful Americans, who labor under the delusion that they are dining on native Chinese foods.
Forty- Three
