Tso

in Chinese restaurant dishes, a reference to General Tso Tsungtang (1812-1885), military leader during the late Qing dynasty who crushed the Taiping rebels in four provinces. The chicken dish that bears his name (for no apparent reason) in Chinese restaurants apparently is modified from a traditional Hunan chung ton gai and may have been named for the general c. 1972 by a chef in New York City during the time Hunan cuisine first became popular among Americans.