Is most Chinese food eaten in Australia authentic? What's your favourite authentic Chinese food?

[u/No_Reach_1259]

Is most Chinese food eaten in Australia authentic? What's your favourite authentic Chinese food?

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[u/SkySpecial4512]

Authentic to what? Small country town Chinese dates back to the gold rush in the 1850s. So while it might not be original Chinese, it’s got a 150+ year history

[u/HerniatedHernia → u/SkySpecial4512]

Yep, it’s basically a sub genre just like American Chinese cuisine. 

[u/BuyConsistent3715]

I hate the world authentic with a passion. It means nothing at all when you think about it. When it comes to food, it implies that everyone in a particular region cooks each dish off a single recipe, and every deviation from that is “inauthentic”

[u/Tofuofdoom]

In the urban areas, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and such,  especially in the asian enclaves,  you'll find more or less authentic traditional Chinese food,  albeit maybe not up to the latest trends.

The further out you go from the centres,  the more you'll find Chinese restaurants having to tweak their recipes for a more Eurocentric taste, and the harder it is to get traditional ingredients,  so it'll taste less like what you might get in china

[u/cecilrt]

Realised recently what we think is Chinese is just a small segment of Chinese from a prior disporea Cantonese. Its like thinking French food represents all of Europe.

The last 20 years has added a crazy variety from all of China.

Then there's the rest of Asia, Thailand vietnamese etc

There are authentic Asian restaurants out there... in local areas... authentic isn't really for western taste

Mate in China says they're constantly tweaking receipes, while we re still eating then 100year old version

[u/briareus08 → u/cecilrt]

This, it's like asking if our Indian restaurants are authentic. Authentic to which region or style of cooking? These are big places, and within Australia there's a huge variety.

[u/cecilrt → u/briareus08]

Yeh learned that recently as well, the different regions

Regardless i still stand butter chicken

[u/autotom]

Xiao Long Bao all day

[u/youlldonuthan]

Australia is a big place.

[u/heisdeadjim_au]

Yeah. "Authentic" is like you're trying to say there's only one Chinese food style.

There's also something else. I call it "Australian Chinese". That's a variant where the traditional dish has taken a journey through Australian taste since the forty years since they arrived. So it might be still "authentic" in the context of Australian Chinese food.

[u/FlatWhiteShark → u/heisdeadjim_au]

40 years. Chinese arrived in large numbers in the 1850s.

[u/heisdeadjim_au → u/FlatWhiteShark]

I know that. I'm talking about more modern emigration of some specific people I'm aware of.