https://www.menuism.com/blog/blending-chinese-regional-cuisines-america/
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I also located this LA weekly article about the beef roll but question their sources and research
http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/is-the-chinese-style-beef-roll-an-la-invention-5404982
Though I think the beef roll is not a LA invention. However it could be correct to say that the craze once it hit California, started in LA and got popularized by the likes of 101 or Liang’s at first, then that’s probably a more accurate statement.
In Taiwan you can easily find the beef roll as 牛肉捲餅 and no doubt they have been offering this longer than LA has. Liang’s Kitchen offered this a bit earlier on (not sure if 101 started this first or them), suggesting that this may have partial origins (if not a variant stronghold) in a Southern Taiwanese Military Village cuisine. As we all know trends take longer to get popularized in the USA from abroad…look at boba milk tea and Taiwanese old school iced black tea that had been around since the early 80s but took almost 20 years before it started exploding in California and then later worldwide. Type in 牛肉捲餅 and you will get hits from websites in shorthand Chinese as well.
Taiwanese breakfast shops in Taiwan have also been doing variants with marinated beef shanks with shaobing (multi layered baked / sometimes charcoal roasted flatbread with sesame seeds on top) available in both rectangular/elliptical and flat round spherical versions.
Beef noodle shops (or dumpling noodle shops) if they offer scallion pancake and/or marinated beef shank slices as cold appetizer dishes, it’s a no brainer or money maker to do something like this anyway, regardless of whether this is in Asia or LA.
If there’s anything about the LA style Shandong beef roll that is drastically different and unique to the beef roll found in Taiwan (and other parts of Asia) and if there’s journalistic proof that LA has had it first before Taiwan, and Taiwan breakfast places in Taiwan copied 101 Noodle Express, Liang’s or some LA based Chinese restaurants, I’d love to see verified references in English or Chinese.
That article is completely wrong. It’s already been proven.
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Glad to hear it. The article could have said the California roll originated in Shandong and some people would buy it. But unfortunately the original link in the post also mentions LA roots.
That article is the epitome of the old hackneyed saying “an article in search of a story”
Actually this is chop suey all over again. First everybody said chop suey was purely an American invention, then others pointed out similarities to some dish that was found historically in China. Is food produced in a new host country using certain ingredients and cooking methods from the old country, but also ingredients/methods from the host country a local invention? Beats me.
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