From the Gold Rush to MSG, via the scandalous story of gender-bending Chinese restaurants in 1920s New York City, this episode of Gastropod serves up a tasty buffet of American Chinese food. Listen in to this episode of Gastropod for all this and more, including the economics of the Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet and the curious regional and global variations on Chinese cuisine. Heather Lee is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, working on a book about the Chinese immigrant experience, and Chinese restaurants in particular, in America.