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TOPICS: Asian American Restaurant Association; Mellie's Dumplings; More on Mangosteen; India's First Chinese Community
Newman's News and NotesSummer Volume: 2008 Issue: 15(2) page(s): 29 and 30
With lofty goals, the mission was briefly verbalized by the co-presidents to: promote, develop, innovate, succeed...(and) advance generations of Asian American cooking and traditions. Henceforth known as AARA, the group has well thought-out bylaws and is a non-profit non-political professional advocate organization intending to support researchers and practitioners of the culinary arts, nutritionists, and others nationwide who promote Chinese food culture in America.
Those in attendance left satiated with fantastic food, beer and beverages. We enjoyed our first Chivas with green tea (a sponsor); it won't be our last. Everyone left with bottles of soy sauce from the above-mentioned sponsor, calendars, key rings, packets of tea (from Good Tea & Water at 332 Grand Street in Manhattan) and many other goodies. In addition, they left with warm wishes from this great group of organizers. We promised and will work with them to see their lofty goals fulfilled; suggest you do, too. You can e-mail them at info@aara-us.com and check their website which is: www.aara-us.com or you can call them at (212) 965-8882 for more information. Feel free to ask about the gorgeous event book, a page with Chef How's recipe is illustrated with this article. Some bought it or a crystal memento and other things featured there and available at their headquarters.
The book begins with "Mommy, who's that tall lady holding the torch over there?" Meiling is pointing towards the water from the bedroom window of her new home in New York City. It ends with "Just then, Meiling didn't feel so different any more. She was just like the other children, but with her own special ingredients. Between these pages are commentary about Meiling's dumpling lunch. She wants them and not a turkey or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Her mother reluctantly agrees and Meiling gets to watch and help her make them. Before leaving for school, she also gets a last look at Lady Liberty. At her new school, she eats lunch alone without a sandwich that all other children have. It is Meiling's ability to show and tell that her dumplings are like the sandwiches they are eating, but with special ingredients, that wins her respect and friends. As she shares her culinary heritage, she tells a tale of how and why her food really is the same, dough on the outside and meat within. What a wonderful culinary roadmap to friendship. Congratulations to Jenny Shieh for showing a culinary bridge closing a cultural divide. Kudos to Lisa J. Michaels whose illustrations enhance this winning book whose cover we share above.
Readers wrote to ask how to open this fruit. Do so with the stem up using a sharp knife. Cut all around, an eighth of an inch deep through the husk-like shell. Using gentle pressure, twist the top one way, the bottom the other, and discard the top half of the husk-like shell. Gently remove the segments from the bottom half being careful not to squeeze or distort their shape. One can remove the segments or leave them there for consumers to remove their own. Enjoy mangosteens raw and use their segments in cooking, but be aware that up to three of them can have a pit within their five, seven, or sometimes nine white sections Mangosteen, called yang luo han in Chinese, can now be imported into the United States. We have not seen any of its wild relatives such as shan ji zi, or the South-China mangosteen called huang ya. There is a rare variety called 'egg tree' native to Southeast Asia; it is cultivated in Taiwan. But we have not seen that one either; it is called dan shu. Years ago, some eighty percent of Chinese and other Asian fruits were gathered in the wild. This is no longer true; China now has many fruit orchards that they call 'gardens', including some for mangosteens. The African Mangosteen, botanically known as Garcinia livingstonei, bears orange not white fruit. It and all mangosteens have seeds that are dried and chewed as a stimulant. This slow-growing tree-bearing fruit is commonly found canned; we have never seen it frozen. Traditional medical practitioners say to eat mangosteen to maintain intestinal health and strengthen the immune system. They also say it is known as 'Imported Buddha Disciple Fruit, Phoenix Fruit, and Yellow Teeth Fruit,' but that these relatives are technically berries and not mangosteens. INDIA'S FIRST CHINESE COMMUNITY should be credited to Yang Tai Chow who first landed on the banks of the Hooghly River in 1778. He started a sugar mill with other Chinese who jumped ship. There are no traces of that mill. One can find records of more modern Chinese migrations to India such as one in 1820 when a small Chinese population came to Calcutta from Fujian and Giangzhou (then called Fukien and Canton, respectively). They erected a temple dedicated to Guab Yu, a historical figure of the Three Kingdoms Period circa the mid-900's CE. Many Chinese immigrants became tanners. They worked at the six hundred and fifty tanneries near where they landed before these businesses were moved from the area. They produced custom-made shoes, including ones for most of the world's polo teams. There is virtually no information about early Chinese restaurants there, perhaps due to attrition. Many Chinese who worked in them or at the tanneries left for America and Canada, traveling via Taiwan. They took their distinctive Indian-Chinese food to these countries, and more recently to others. There are many rebuilt Chinese restaurants in these areas of India now and thousands of others elsewhere in that country. Americans call a noodle dish chao main, and have since about 1903. This dish has been a staple in Chinese-Indian homes lots longer as has a chili chicken dish. While not authentically as Chinese as is America's Chop suey, Professor E.N. Anderson points out in Food if China, that this dish is native to Toisan (and there called tsap suei and called tsa sui in Mandarin). The miscellaneous scraps in this dish are leftover vegetables stir-fried with noodles, bean sprouts added later in the cooking. There may be other Chinese-Indian influences in this dish, but we have never referenced any. |
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