Immigration laws reason for the US Chinese restaurant boom

[Photo/CGTN]

Americans craving General Tso's chicken or any other Chinese cuisine have more than 40,000 restaurants to choose from to satisfy their taste bud delights.

According to Jennifer 8. Lee, the producer of "The Search for General Tso" and author of "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food", there are around 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the US that are more than the total number of McDonald's, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Wendy's restaurants combined.

America's love of Chinese food is one of the most unexpected stories of cultural exchange in world history.

"It started to become popular among non-Chinese consumers towards to the end of the 19th century because of the growing need for convenient and inexpensive restaurant food," Yong Chen, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine and author of "Chop Suey, USA: The Rise of Chinese Food in America."