Who Is General Tso Really?

I just found myself looking up the true identity of General Tso. I have eaten his chicken twice this week and I wondered if he was a real General or China's version of Colonel Sanders. As we all know, Colonel Sanders was just given the title of "Kentucky Colonel" in 1935 by Kentucky governor Ruby Laffoon. And although he did serve as an army private in Cuba, he never actually attained that title in the U.S. Military. Okay, I looked him up too.

Anywho, back to the T.S.O. Yeah, so anyway, apparently he was an incredibly skilled warrior and a bit on the bloodthirsty side. He actually helped to snuff out the disastrous Taiping rebellion which almost extinguished the Qing dynasty.

And here I thought that he was only a flavorful, deep-fried chicken dish that gave my bowels a nice bear hug.


And funnily enough, "he raised a force of 5,000 volunteers and took the field in September 1860, driving the Taiping rebels out of Hunan and Guangxi provinces, into coastal Zhejiang." -- Michael Browning of The Washington Post.

And lo, I was thinking that Tso was just a delicious combination of the poor man's poultry parts and a sauce made from the sweetened waste products of gasoline and ether.

General Tso, a fatty chicken for a phatty general.