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Chinese Food in the US
Winter Volume: 2017 Issue: 25(4) page(s): 22
When the first wave of Chinese immigrants
come to the United States (U.S.), most did
arrive in San Francisco, their ‘Gold Mountain’.
If any came before this large group, there are few if
any, records about them. They may have come as
individuals or in very small groups, surely by boat, and
from China; though maybe some did trek up the Baja
Peninsula from Mexico or Peru, a few may have even
trekked south from Canada were poor men; who came
to the U.S. facing racial hatred, language barriers, and/or
other barriers in the US. Most may have remained on the West Coast taking
jobs at low pay running laundries, tailor shops, fruit
stands, and some menial tasks; though not all did. A few
eventually opened restaurants or worked in them. Some
of these did serve dollar dinners and inexpensive foods
first attracting a mostly male clientele. As more and more Americans did discover these eateries,
they learned mostly about Cantonese food and liked it.
These were exciting new foods. Eventually, they brought
friends and family to them. As their numbers grew, these
restaurants expanded. The earliest dishes might have included steaks and
hamburgers. Many soon added Chinese dishes including
fried rice, chop suey, and chow mein. Their Chinese
chefs added other items. A few reporters did write about
them and this did increase interest in them. A few local
churches also did include recipes for some of their dishes
in fund-raising cook books. A few did use a Chun King
ingredient in them. Their few dishes did use an ingredient or two started
by Jeno Paulucci, an Italian in middle America that was
thought to be Chinese. Maybe they became popular
because a New York City restaurant famous for its
cheesecake used them. These dishes included Chow
Mein Reubenola, a recipe that used two non-Chinese
ingredients, butter and sour cream. They also had a dish
with seven vegetables including bean sprouts, onions,
celery, mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots,
and tomatoes. This and their other dishes did gain a
following. After World War II, this and other Chinese
dishes actually lost popularity as soldiers stationed in
Asia knew better. Authentic Chinese dishes took their
place. Other Chinese restaurants opened and served
newer-to-Americans-Chinese-dishes that were more
exotic or more recognized. The fear of the thousands of Chinese who fled communism
after 1943 did abate thanks to the ten thousand Chinese
war-brides of American servicemen allowed to enter
the US (between 1945 and 1952). Married to American
GIs who fought the Japanese during World War II, they
joined the thousands of Chinese after the repeal of the
Chinese Exclusion Acts in the late 1940s and 1950s. Many of the newer Chinese immigrants did open Chinese
restaurants serving regional Chinese foods unknown in
the US. They quickly became popular and the returning
GIs and others had no fear of trying them. They went
with their families and friends and found that they loved
Chinese foods. They also made some of them at home
thanks to books such as those by Helen Brown’s West
Coast Cookbook (1952), and Buwei Yang Chao’s How to
Cook and Eat in Chinese (1945). These and others had a
huge impact on Chinese food consumption. As more Americans were exposed to better Chinese
food, the Chinese dishes in Chinese eateries did improve.
The number of Chinese restaurants did increase, too.
The Brown book was written by a West Coast American
living where half the Chinese population in the US lived
then. The Chao book was written by a Chinese lady on
the East Coast who spoke little English but her eldest
daughter helped with it. Her book received frequent and
excellent reviews though few knew it was published by
Pearl Buck’s company, an author whose own books were
adored. This may have helped as did the explosion of
interest in Chinese food and places that served it. New Chinese immigrants also helped as their American
neighbors did see, smell, and savor some of their aromas
and cooking. These did impact their local communities,
their foods, and culinary exposure. These new
immigrants were highly literate, and they used and/or
joined Chinese and American organizations to help them
advance personally and economically. All together,
these did changes their lives and those of work places,
their work mates and did help increase consumption of
Chinese food in the US. Some Chinese food in the US
was Americanized; that also made more people eat their
food as did other Chinese cookbooks and their content. The recipes that follow are typical of both classic and
Americanized Chinese food. The first recipe is in a style
of the Brown book. The second one is word-for word
from the Chow one. Enjoy both, and the picture, one of
four, depicting a Chinese wood-cut view of the effects of
Chinese food. | Beef and Snow Peas in XO Sauce |
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Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons dried shrimp, simmered for one hour
10 dry scallops, soaked for fifteen minutes in hot water, then simmered for half an hour
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup minced peeled onion
3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and minced
1 small chili pepper, seeds discarded, then minced
2 Tablespoons minced Smithfield ham
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 pound sirloin steak, cut into small cubes
3 Tablespoons Chinese rice wine
3 Tablespoons mushroom soy sauce
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
½ pound snow peas, ends and stings discarded, each cut in half on an angle
Preparation:
1. Dice shrimp and shred the scallops, then mix them
together.
2. Heat a wok or fry pan, add both, and stir-fry the onion
and the garlic for two minutes, then add the chili pepper
and stir fry for half af minute.
3. Next, add ham, black pepper, and the steak cubes
and stir fry for two minutes, than add the rice wine, soy
sauce, cornstarch, and sugar and stir-fry an additional
minute before tossing in the snow peas. Stir-fry this for
two minutes; then serve in a pre-heated bowl.
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| Wine Smothered Meat Slices |
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Ingredients:
2 pounds pork chops, boned
½ cup sherry or 3/4 cup white wine
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ scallion, chopped
2 slices ginger “if available”
Preparation:
Cut meat into ½-inch-long and 1/16-in-thick slices. Mix in
the seasoning. Start with low fire and simmer ½ hour. If
you are careful to keep lid fairly tight, the flavor will puff
out impressively when swerved. With rice and a green,
this will serve six. The juice on the rice, yes. Soy sauce
on the rice, never!
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