This Sunday, Zach Brooks of Food is the New Rock and Midtown Lunch is hosting a screening of The Search for General Tso, a movie about Chinese food in America. After the film, Brooks will be joined by Evan Kleiman from KCRW’s Good Food after the screening for a Q&A with the film’s producer Jennifer 8 Lee (author of the Fortune Cookie Chronicles).

According to the film's synopsis:

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THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO is a feature-length documentary tracing the origins of Chinese American food through what is arguably America’s most popular takeout meal––General Tso’s Chicken.

Anchoring the film is an upbeat quest, through small towns and big cities across America and beyond, to understand the origins and popularity of Chinese American food and its top-selling dish. Who was General Tso? And why do nearly fifty thousand restaurants serve deep-fried chicken bearing his name?

Using this Americanized dish and its mysterious mastermind as a lens onto a larger story of immigration, adaptation, and innovation, the film follows a lighthearted journey, grounded in cultural and culinary history, through restaurants, Chinatowns, and the American imagination. Visits to present-day Chinese restaurants spark forays into the past, guided by chefs, scholars, and the occasional opinionated customer. The film’s lively soundtrack and shadow-puppet animations contribute both whimsy and momentum, as viewers find they’re on a search to answer a deeper question: how did America’s Chinese food become so… American?

The screening takes place at 5:10 p.m. on Sun., Jan 4 at Arena Cinema in Hollywood. After the movie and Q&A, there will be free General Tso's chicken and beverages in the courtyard. Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased here. 

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