Who Is General Tso, And Why Are We Eating His Chicken?

This exact question came up the other day at work when we got Chinese food. So of course, I went straight to Wikipedia for an answer. What I found was pretty interesting:

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It is unclear how the dish came to bear the name of Zuo Zongtang (左宗棠, 1812-1885), a Qing dynasty general. Zuo himself is unlikely ever to have tasted the dish. Also, there are contradictory accounts as to the origin of the dish. The author of the book Chinese Kitchen (Morrow, 1999), Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, states that the dish has Hunan origins (this speculation may have been because of the prevalence of hot and spicy flavors in Hunan cuisine). Lo states that the dish is a Hunan classic, zongtang ji (宗堂雞), or "ancestral hall chicken." Other sources credit the origin of the dish to New York City's Chinatown in the 1970s.

Regional differences

The dish is typically called General Gau's chicken in the Boston, Massachusetts area. In parts of Canada, this dish is known as General Tao's, and less commonly, General George's chicken. In other regions and restaurants, it is also known or mispronounced as General Tsao's, General Zhou's, General Gao's, General Chou's, General Tzo's, General To's, General So's, General Joe's, and General Toso's. It is also known as General Chow's prominently in the New Jersey area and simply General Chicken in parts of Northern California. In at least one restaurant in Illinois the dish is simply called Governor's Chicken. At the United States Naval Academy, the dish is served in the main mess hall, King Hall, as "Admiral Tso's Chicken," reflecting a nautical theme.

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Now, I'm not sure that Wikipedia is to be completely trusted. Some guy posted that Adolf Hitler was the ping-pong champion of Germany in his twenties, and that info remained on the site for several weeks. But it's a good site, and I did enjoy my General Gau's chicken (that part is accurate, at least). It's a damn shame that the General himself never got the chance to taste his chicken.