Mongolian chicken's name suggests a connection with Mongolia, yet the dish has almost nothing to do with the country. Instead, the name traces back to comedian Wu Zhaonan, who was born in Beijing and escaped to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. In 1951, he opened a food stall in Taipei, placing the history behind the name in a setting far removed from the country it appears to evoke.
For his griddle-cooked dish, Wu would have preferred the name “Peking barbecue”: a reference to his hometown, Beijing, which is also known as Peking. That preference, however, coincided with a political change: Beijing had just been designated the capital of Communist China. The history of the name thus brings together Wu's birthplace, his move to Taiwan and his Taipei food stall, rather than establishing a substantial connection between Mongolian chicken and Mongolia.
