How similar is what we in the United States call "Chinese food" to what people actually eat in China?!
Answers:
It has to depend on where you live. In cities like San Francisco and New York, cuisine offered inside China town is mostly authentic. Apart from such big cities, Chinese food offered by fast food stores like Panda Express, Manchu Wok is similar in that the stir fried food is cooked the same way, but their best sellers like orange chicken, general chicken, sweet & sour pork, teriyaki chicken are definitely seldom found on the dinner table in China. Americans like deep fried food slabbed with sweet sauces, Chinese people do not eat as much deep fried, have more stir fried food, and consume much more bean and vegetable products. During regular meals, almost all Chinese eat steamed rice instead of fried or chow mein with the entrees.
In short, China is a very big country similar to Europe, it has 22 provinces each possessing its unique dialect, culture, and cuisine. Therefore "Chinese food" means a wide variety of cooking methods and foods, different places have different staple, spices, regional specialty, characteristics. Some of the major styles are Cantonese, Shanghainese, Sichuan, Beijing... Most found in the US is a mixture of all of the above.
I lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong for a number of years and most of the Chinese food we eat here isn't very authentic. Much of what we have in the U.S. tends to be very meat centered, which isn't the case over there. Also, a lot of the ingredients they use aren't widely available or widely consumed in the U.S. (some examples: lotus root, bitter melon, weird varieties of tofu). The one thing that always gets me is that fluorescent red sweet and sour sauce that is very common in Chinese restaurants here - not authentic in the least.
Things have changed a lot in recent years and more authentic food is available - usually in "ethnic" neighborhoods. I live in Los Angeles and there are a lot of really authentic places in Alhambra and Monterey Park.
Personal experience
Not very. -_- If you're talking about Scallion Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Lo Mein, etc., it's not close. That's what we would call "Americanized" Chinese food. There are dishes similar to those, of course, and there are some restaurants that serve somewhat authentic Chinese food like Dim Sum, per se--you would find a lot of that in Chinatown (like another user said). ^_^ But, it's not close to "Chinese food" in China if you're eating Orange Chicken or Beef and Broccoli.
I'm Chinese. =_= And no, I don't eat dogs or cats.
I've been to China and also Taiwan a couple of times on business, but all the places I went (I was on business, after all) were Western places for American/Euro travelers and businessmen. I'm told that a typical Chinese meal is more rice than anything, with some veggies and a tiny amount of meat in a thin sauce.
Some items are close. Some items are VERT different. Here are some examples:
Moo Goo Gai Pan:
American version: http://wokby.me/img/food/main/184.jpg Ingredients like carrot slices, water chestnut slices, snow peas are common. It also used a starchy sauce.
Chinese version: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_0YkcOmeeyLE/SSo_WH…
Fried rice:
Typical American version (Panda Express): http://www.pandaexpress.com/images/menuF…
Chinese version: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/19/111302… This fried rice doesn't contain soy sauce?!
Szechuan Chicken:
American: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1250/1380…
Chinese: http://ilearn-culture.com/wp-content/upl… Very different dish.
Sweet and sour pork:
American (Restaurant version): http://www.food-easy-recipes.webseomaste… (Panda Express Version): http://www.pandaexpress.com/images/menuS…
Poured on red starchy goo (sauce) and meat chunks covered in thick batter are very common.
Chinese versions: http://www.openrice.com/english/restaura…
http://www.carjaswong.com/Food/Food_icon…
Lo Mein:
American: http://www.chinabestrestaurant.com/image…
Cantonese Chinese: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/4887… Lo-mein is boiled, drained wonton noodle mixed with a form of sauce.
Crab Ragoon - Chinese do not use cream cheese.
Fortune cookie - Many Chinese love those too! It's an "exotic" item because many Chinese people have never handled a fortune cookie before.
Chinese take out boxes: http://media.photobucket.com/image/chine…
Some Chinese find this amusing too. Many have only seen them on American movies and TV shows.
they eat little meat because of the poverty.
Therefor it does not become the same.
an american chao meng, is not the same amount of meat as
a chinese chao meng.
Pretty much the same except less meat.
Not even close!!!