七选五 Most Americans love Chinese food. However, the Chinese food served in most American restaurants is very different from the authentic cuisine enjoyed daily by people living in China. 36 Then many Chinese immigrants had trouble landing a job in America. To make a living, some of them opened restaurants. Over these years, Chinese cuisine has been adapted to reflect Western influences. 37 The Chinese food found in Western restaurants is mainly cooked through frying. Many dishes are cooked using various frying methods. However, traditional Chinese food is rarely cooked through frying. Instead, methods such as baking, steaming, boiling and fermenting ( 发酵 ) are more commonly used. Another big difference between authentic and westernized Chinese food is the ingredients used. 38 Some ingredients — like carrots, onions and tomatoes — are not often used in authentic Chinese cooking. In addition, while you can find some Western cuisines that use strange meats — like pig ears — most Western cultures are pretty conservative about the meats they consume. Authentic Chinese food, in contrast, uses a wider variety of protein sources, including tofu, snake, chicken feet, duck blood and many more that Westerners generally wouldn’t choose to eat. 39 Sweet and Sour Chicken, for example, has no equivalent ( 同等物 ) in traditional Chinese cuisine. Similarly, the fortune cookie is a completely American invention. Indeed, there are numerous differences between authentic and westernized Chinese cuisine, but Western palates ( 味觉 ) adapt to new flavors easily. 40