Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant

According to the Chinese American Restaurant Association, there are over 45, 000 Chinese restaurants peppered across the U.S. These restaurants can be found everywhere from the downtowns of densely populated cities to strip malls in suburbia to main streets of small towns well off the interstates.

It's no wonder why American Chinese food is so ubiquitous. There's a bit of genius to it, especially in the battered and fried dishes slathered in sweet and tangy sauces, e.g., sweet and sour pork, orange chicken and General Tso's chicken. Take any of the aforementioned crispy, deep-fried dishes, pair them with fried rice and top it all off with a splash of dark soy sauce and you have a pretty irresistible plate of food, with

sweet, sour, savory, spicy and tangy all working in unison. And who doesn't love battered and fried cuts of chicken and pork? Those early Chinese American chefs were on to something.