General Tso's chicken and orange chicken are both variations on the same thing — and both are somewhat unrecognizable in China.

Fortune cookies have Japanese roots but they were popularized by American-Chinese restaurateurs.

"Chinese" or "Asian" salads are not authentically Chinese.

"Chinese takeout boxes" are an American invention.

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It's easy to knock Chinese food served in American restaurants as being mostly inauthentic, but as Clarissa Wei asked, how can it be inauthentic if it's made by Chinese people for Chinese people (and others)?

As people from different cultures travel and adapt to new places, their food naturally changes. When my dad came to the US from Bangkok, he couldn't find fresh, fat rice noodles in nearby stores, so he substituted lasagna noodles to make pad siew. At the time, it was a necessary — and ultimately delicious — adaptation.

Food is like language: It adapts slowly over time to fit conditions, as any culture spreads around the globe. Diners in China might not recognize Indian-Chinese cuisine either, but that doesn't mean that it isn't tasty.

That said, here are some Chinese-American foods that aren't as traditionally Chinese as you might think.