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| - Growing up in the Upper Midwest we had two basic types of food - normal food and Chinese food. Normal food was anything your mother could cook at home, which included Italian, Mexican and the cultural staples of a largely Scandinavian and German population.
Chinese food was different because most families could not make it at home unless they used those nasty supermarket brand La Choy products that made you want to misbehave so mom would send you to bed without supper.
If you wanted Chinese food and you didn't want to toss your cookies, you went out to eat. Every town of any substantial size had a Chinese restaurant or two, all offering AYCE buffets so everyone could get exactly what they wanted. It didn't matter which restaurant you chose, because they all tasted the same.
Naturally, as soon as anyone escapes the confines of the frozen tundra, they are surprised to discover what "real" Chinese food tastes like. Some choose to reject this new cuisine as an imposter and run back to their sheltered concepts, while others will embrace the discovery and begin an adventure to see what else can be found down the rabbit hole.
If you are visiting our great city from those upper plains and you want to find that Chinese food that is so adored by the hordes of Midwesterners, check out China Ginger. This place will make you feel right at home - the chicken is thin and stringy like a worm, the beef is tough and sinewy and feels like tapioca in your mouth, the shrimp are pathetically small and harder to bite through than a fruitcake.
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