what is chinese food in america?!

There is authentic Chinese food and then there's American-Chinese food.

Most of the stuff you see in movies is the American-Chinese variety. This includes a few authentic dishes, like potstickers, but also chop suey, General Tso's Chicken, and so on.

The authentic stuff is what you'll find in China. Most Chinese people think Americans won't like their food, so they altered it to try and meet Americans' tastes. Pity because some of my favorite Chinese dishes aren't on the American-Chinese menu, and I think they'd actually do rather well.

Egg foo young(chicken, shrimp, pork, lobster, plain), fried rice (chicken, shrimp, pork, lobster, plain), sweet and sour chicken and shrimp- the sauce usually has green bell pepper, tomatoes and pineapples. Shrimp in lobster sauce. Different combination of seafood stir fry's, mostly shrimp, clam, lobster mixed with assorted veggies . Egg rolls (chicken, shrimp, pork, lobster, plain).

That's a general summary. Most all places carry, at the least, theses items.

Love my local Chinese carry out William Ho's!

There are 2 answers. In major cities with a big Chinese population like New York and San Francisco, there are many authentic Chinese restaurants that serve dim sum, roast duck and pork, noodle soup, stir fried noodle etc. and the westerners are used to enjoying them.

In other parts of the country which in fact is the majority, the most popular Chinese food are sweet and sour/orange chicken, general tso chicken (like spicy orange chicken), broccoli beef, mongolian beef, kung pao chicken, egg rolls, fried wontons, chicken/pork fried rice or noodle, usually served with fried rice/chow mein and hot & sour soup or egg flower soup. Because American people like deep fried food and cheese, the Chinese in the US have invented something called "crab rangoon" which is cream cheese wrapped in wonton wrap and deep fried. Americans love to dip the fried items in sweet & sour sauce.

There are a few nice chinese restaurants, but the majority are smaller inexpensive restaurants that offer carry-out and have buffets for lunch, sometimes for dinner too. I'm sure our popular dishes are very far from authentic chinese food- egg rolls, chow mein, lo mein, General Tso's Chicken, cashew chicken, pepper steak, garlic shrimp, happy family - dish that has chicken, beef, shrimp, scallops, crab & vegs. The poopoo platter is popular too- it's an appetizer with a variety of items including spareribs, chicken on skewers, eggrolls.

For the most part Chinese food in North America is simply qualified as; "Was cooked by a China man" and bears no resemblance to what one would find in a restaurant in China.
Most of the Chinese dishes in North America were developed/invented here to suit the American palate.

REAL Ethnic Chinese Restaurants are more expensive because they serve genuine Chinese cuisine.

Chinese food in America . one is garbage and cheap because they use cabbage, American white onion, Onion average sizes like Chinese women breast. Most people like fried rice, specially blacks and Latinos . Some of the dishes u never heard in China.
Even in real Chinese restaurants, if u not Chinese, they don't eat real Chinese food. its little too expensive .