In article , OM
om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote:

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 01:37:45 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:

General Tso's Chicken...YUM!

...You know, here's one I've never seen the answer to - who the hell
was General Tso, and if he was a general why the **** was he cooking
his own chicken instead of a private chef?


OM

Suppose some restaurant chef wants to associate a dish with a dignitary to
give it some tint of glory.

General Tso is a famous general in China about a hundread years ago. He
prevented the separation of East Turkestan (Xinjiang) from China during
1800s when China was badly beaten by the Western powers. The job is
regarded as almost impossible because the Chinese govenment was on the
verge of collapse then. His name in Pinyin is "Zuo Zongtang". Tso is
Wade-Giles spelling for "Zuo". I think he has nothing to do with the dish.

--
Tao Tong