Chinese Cooking

As one travels around the world these days one cannot help being impressed by the extent to which Chinese food and cooking have become established in almost every corner of the continent. The growing appreciation of Chinese food may have been a gradual process during the 19th Century and first half of the 20th century, but during the past couple of decades this popularization seems to have gathered sudden and overwhelming momentum. It is as if overnight there is Chinese food everywhere!
At one time there were no more then a dozen Chinese restaurants in London, and you could only get authentic Chinese food in the East End, along the West India Dock Road. But nowadays there is Chinese food not only in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, but also in Carlisle, Inverness, Ipswich, Taunton and Truro.
In the U.S. the establishment of Chinese food has a longer history; initiated by early settlers in San Fransisco, it became a part of the Wild West scene and lore during the Gold Rush. With Chinese working on the Pacific Railway, the tradition of Chinese cooking gradually spread eastwards towards the Eastern seaboard. Nowadays Szechuan and Hunnan cooking is all the rage in New York!
If We looking further afield, Chinese catering establishment opening not only in European cities - Stuttgart, Copenhagen and and Vienna ; but also in Sydney, Nairobi, Mombasa, Lagos, Sao Paolo, Lima and Santiago.