Chinese food for Easter

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJIu0NAxJL9AvLS7raPqallbdGWa33oe0G73C-iEvUaRfi8L47Rz2HLRTTKhveTndses5RiH7ID31LQkE_uwBAVTT9rTLrVWQna3cSY8u3DmsRvk3rrfREjxhlNCFrm0XgosgdlQ0-aEfR/s1600/szech-garden5764.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599311857848514898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJIu0NAxJL9AvLS7raPqallbdGWa33oe0G73C-iEvUaRfi8L47Rz2HLRTTKhveTndses5RiH7ID31LQkE_uwBAVTT9rTLrVWQna3cSY8u3DmsRvk3rrfREjxhlNCFrm0XgosgdlQ0-aEfR/s400/szech-garden5764.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 278px;" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5zmH9kRj17RccQ5iUFMybt0AJuANxv38XqqZMMcqFcfNW_IslUpfSQqEnjHCs_PAZBNpjFLwLPnVijSgO31y6xZK-6G22EjZckLcU8-FdzjRqXLu86B0IgZb6-vLZ8qz3eLPgRDl1t6Pl/s1600/szech5770.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599311851710951970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5zmH9kRj17RccQ5iUFMybt0AJuANxv38XqqZMMcqFcfNW_IslUpfSQqEnjHCs_PAZBNpjFLwLPnVijSgO31y6xZK-6G22EjZckLcU8-FdzjRqXLu86B0IgZb6-vLZ8qz3eLPgRDl1t6Pl/s400/szech5770.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>... Szechuan Garden, West Lafayette, Indiana.

Chinese food for Easter

... Szechuan Garden, West Lafayette, Indiana.…

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"Serve the People"

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvUXJlLFegd32KPaw4c83YLe4US0GCrL64mYW2PvGT2UzHDBnVNAPLmvyjbD3xisJjBj3FOrvKvsI5VnF1JEwu5TOfXUa4644PEBNhq1xMtir-VJIvSWwr2DCS4QQn-uM836V7ygk-Cwpz/s1600/lin-liu.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592433317382850514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvUXJlLFegd32KPaw4c83YLe4US0GCrL64mYW2PvGT2UzHDBnVNAPLmvyjbD3xisJjBj3FOrvKvsI5VnF1JEwu5TOfXUa4644PEBNhq1xMtir-VJIvSWwr2DCS4QQn-uM836V7ygk-Cwpz/s400/lin-liu.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 262px; height: 400px;" /></a>Do westerners really want to try authentic Chinese food? Jen Lin-Liu's food memoir <span style="font-style: italic;">Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China</span> leaves the question open as it discusses the opinions of restauranteurs that she gets to know on her journey.<br /><br />I enjoyed reading her stories about people she met. Through these people she introduces you to a history of recent events in China and how they affected individuals in the food business, often assigned to work in food prep or service by the indifferent bureaucracy of the Communist era.<br /><br />I also liked her descriptions of food: "I blew on the noodles impatiently, then risked a first bite amid the steam and burned my tongue," she wrote. "Nevertheless I knew that I was in the presence of the best noodles I had ever eaten. They were thin and chewy: the broth was smooth and slightly spicy. I detected hints of peanut and sesame, which smoothed out the chili-and-coriander flavored soup." (p. 123)<br /><br />She tastes. Then she works in a small, working-class noodle shop learning to grate the dough. She discovers how much strength and energy a cook must exert. Through her experiences she also makes the reader see how different it is to make dumplings or noodles for home use or make them fast and in enough quantities to make a living at a small restaurant in a huge Chinese city. Recipes in the text underscore the way that ingredients are used in each situation -- I may never try one, but they contributed to my grasp of what I think she was trying to say.<br /><br />Lin-Liu differs from most westerners writing about Chinese food because she rarely makes comparisons between American mainstream Chinese restaurant cooking and that in China. Her main experiences with Chinese food in the US were with home cooked meals and family memories of holiday food celebrations, such as moon cakes. At home, moon cakes were a seasonal treat filled with lotus root which is extremely sweet and indulgent. Each cake was divided and shared by her whole family. In China she learned that moon cakes had become a status thing, given as gifts or as bribes (with money or other valuable stuff in the wrapping) -- but never eaten. Poor people bought them from the richer recipients and resold them. <br /><br />The author was raised in California; her parents had immigrated from China via Taiwan. They were amazed when she decided to spend years in China attending cooking school, apprenticing in noodle shops and upscale restaurants, and writing for restaurant guides. The result is a good read!

"Serve the People"

Do westerners really want to try authentic Chinese food? Jen Lin-Liu's food memoir Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China leaves the question open as it discusses the opinions of restauranteurs that she gets to know on her journey.I enjoyed reading her stories about people she met. Thr…

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Good Chinese Food

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_E5MLxpKSQrsL6V_g4Y5Xdg25dfNSK3UihDQO4O8AQFByZPscl7npmbHtokAEirI386G2Whgrv_ZN-yJZbrSocnqJhUJF0IICjuzdWyx_0xrw4JpTBlugZeAi2cvWubPBHVD1nouHBxQ/s1600/gourmetgarden1847.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5459056667360088146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_E5MLxpKSQrsL6V_g4Y5Xdg25dfNSK3UihDQO4O8AQFByZPscl7npmbHtokAEirI386G2Whgrv_ZN-yJZbrSocnqJhUJF0IICjuzdWyx_0xrw4JpTBlugZeAi2cvWubPBHVD1nouHBxQ/s400/gourmetgarden1847.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 303px;" /></a>After all my reading & talking about Chinese food, we went with our friends Alice, Byron, Abby, and Peter to enjoy some of it. We all wanted hot-sour soup, which the restaurant no longer serves in large quantities, just individual servings -- so we ordered six bowls of hot-sour soup. We then had six different dishes including ma-la lamb (quite hot), eggplant dumplings (slices of eggplant stuffed with a shrimp), mango beef, a couple of seafood dishes, and house-special duck with black mushrooms. Each dish is garnished with a vegetable "flower."<br /><br />No chop suey. It's not on the menu. But chow mein and lo-mein are on the menu -- just in case anyone wants them, I guess. The menu has been revised quite a bit -- there's also no multi-course fixed-price menu, just a la carte items. No more "one from column A, one from column B."<br /><br />We were talking about the fact that years ago there were no passable Chinese restaurants in Ann Arbor, not even close. So we had all cooked Chinese dishes with ingredients from Chinese grocery stores in Detroit or Windsor -- including our own hot-sour soup. Abby knew someone who had even made her own Peking Duck. Eventually, a restaurant called Old China opened in Ypsilanti that served good Szechuan food.

Good Chinese Food

After all my reading & talking about Chinese food, we went with our friends Alice, Byron, Abby, and Peter to enjoy some of it. We all wanted hot-sour soup, which the restaurant no longer serves in large quantities, just individual servings -- so we ordered six bowls of hot-sour soup. We then had six…

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Cultural Chop Suey

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2c3TFSqS_FlsTcMbaS5FO9JHaWMGP6g5GUPVjlXdb8kY5kuCxJoBItb7aB_vag4Pz0Ugz8FF_OnZuUKYQZYPoVL2d7eOCrE2tBbpka9FzD_5_b1qRt5ZpMuCywZHSxS1QENtVMH_nEgM/s1600/hopper-chop-suey-1929.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458163699573252738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2c3TFSqS_FlsTcMbaS5FO9JHaWMGP6g5GUPVjlXdb8kY5kuCxJoBItb7aB_vag4Pz0Ugz8FF_OnZuUKYQZYPoVL2d7eOCrE2tBbpka9FzD_5_b1qRt5ZpMuCywZHSxS1QENtVMH_nEgM/s400/hopper-chop-suey-1929.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 340px;" /></a>In writing my recent lecture titled "Who won the war between gefilte fish and chop suey?" I learned just how much of an icon chop suey once was in America.<br /><br />For over a century, "chop suey" was synonymous with Chinese food. A Chop Suey House meant a Chinese restaurant. Other dishes were there for the adventurous diners, but most Americans ate chop suey or chow mein. And maybe soup or an egg roll.<br /><br />This was the case by the 1890s when Chinese food and all things Chinese became very popular. It continued through the 1920s as chop suey restaurants opened from coast to coast. In the 1940s with China an ally, chop suey was so mainstream that it appeared in the US Army Cookbook. And it didn't end until the 1970s when regional Chinese food such as Hunan and Szechuan cuisine became more dominant.<br /><br />The details of this history are complex -- the claim that chop suey was invented in 1896 by a Chinese diplomat is an urban legend, as is the claim that it's a joke that Chinese cooks played on Americans. The dish is really a descendant of Cantonese home cooking as documented in the book <span style="font-style: italic;">Chop Suey</span> by Andrew Coe. More on that in a future post.<br /><br />Chop suey was so culturally embedded that it appeared in all kinds of popular culture. Hopper's picture "Chop Suey" (right/above) is an expression of the amazing popularity of Chop Suey restaurants.<br /><br />A number of popular songs of several eras from the jazz age to the present mention it as well. Here's a list of the chop suey songs I'm aware of:<br /><ul><li>"Cornet Chop Suey" by Louis Armstrong (1925) </li><li>"Who'll Chop Your Suey (When I'm Gone)" by Sidney Bechet, performed by Margaret Johnson (1923-1927)</li><li>"Chop Suey, Chow Mein" by Louis Prima (1953) </li><li>"Chop Suey" from Flower Drum Song (1959)</li><li>"Chop Suey" by The Ramones (original version, 1981)</li><li>"Chop Suey" on the album "Toxicity" by System Of A Down (2001, about drug addiction or suicide. It has been banned at various times. I haven't actually heard it.)</li><li>... and incidentally, on the theme of Jews and Chinese restaurants is "Chinese Food On Christmas" by Brandon Walker (2007)<br /></li></ul>

Cultural Chop Suey

In writing my recent lecture titled "Who won the war between gefilte fish and chop suey?" I learned just how much of an icon chop suey once was in America.For over a century, "chop suey" was synonymous with Chinese food. A Chop Suey House meant a Chinese restaurant. Other dishes were there for the …

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What did Mao Eat?

"Chairman Mao adored red-braised pork," Fuchsia Dunlop learned from the dictator's distant relative -- also named Mao. She found Chairman Mao's native village of Shaoshan to be full of such relatives. They still profit, she observed, from a lively tourist industry of Chinese visitors who revere the one-time leader.<br /><br />Mao's family home was carefully preserved: "no opportunity for communist propaganda is missed." Throughout Shaoshan's province of Hunan and the rest of China, Dunlop found a surprising view of Mao as "the last great leader of China.. ..They smile a little sadly when they reflect on his 'mistake,' the Cultural Revolution, but they forgive him: after all, doesn't everybody make mistakes?"<br /><br />Dunlop's book <span style="font-style: italic;">Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China</span> combines her experiences traveling, learning Chinese, discovering a wide range of Chinese regional cooking, and exploring villages and cities where Westerners rarely travel. In visiting Mao's home in Shaoshan, she focused on the kitchen with meat-smoking racks over an old wood-burning range and an open fire with a blackened kettle suspended above it. Dunlop talked to a local official about Maoist cookery and collected the red-braised pork recipe with its seasoning of star anise, ginger, and chili. Another tourist might have had a different focus. Hers is always on food.<br /><br />To the end of his life, she found, Mao's eating habits were those of a Hunanese peasant. He told a Soviet envoy "that you couldn't be a revolutionary if you didn't eat chillies." He disliked Chinese haute cuisine, and preferred rustic dishes such as steamed bacon, smoked fish with chilli, bean curd, cabbage, wild vegetables, and "the coarse grains that were normally the last resort of the rural poor."<br /><br />Above all, Mao despised those who ate well and wasted food to show off their wealth or power while others went hungry. Throughout the book, Dunlop documents the destruction of Chinese traditional court and restaurant cooking during the Cultural Revolution. She also frequently mentions the mass starvation caused in 1958 by the Great Leap Forward. Peasants were forced into collectives and their cooking pots were melted down to make steel. A mass wave of self-deception and bad faith resulted in a famine during which at least thirty million people died. She often remarked on the lasting impact of these events on the food preferences and habits of people she met.<br /><br />Dunlop's ability to create a vivid image of history through her own experiences is amazing. Her tour of Mao's home town is only one of many chapters. As she apprenticed in restaurant kitchens, ate at home or in restaurants with many common and not-so-common people, and learned several regional languages, she learned food and culinary customs of China. The combination of food history, political and social history, and personal experience makes her book extremely readable.<br /><br />(Quotes about Mao: p. 175-179)

What did Mao Eat?

"Chairman Mao adored red-braised pork," Fuchsia Dunlop learned from the dictator's distant relative -- also named Mao. She found Chairman Mao's native village of Shaoshan to be full of such relatives. They still profit, she observed, from a lively tourist industry of Chinese visitors who revere the …

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"True Flavors"

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLo7Kz8I4alzkja2-2gKXDV3TlI7fBL8wyblmqIG8JvXjhnbawNcc2LfmGrq55fYZx_dOypCjziieihvuUSOpCgV6hOcV0FNU-YnPsPyMYuG18eLqLda2cKnq2h93xuj5fhJmk8bTvLc71/s1600/chang1800.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453801065780057970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLo7Kz8I4alzkja2-2gKXDV3TlI7fBL8wyblmqIG8JvXjhnbawNcc2LfmGrq55fYZx_dOypCjziieihvuUSOpCgV6hOcV0FNU-YnPsPyMYuG18eLqLda2cKnq2h93xuj5fhJmk8bTvLc71/s400/chang1800.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;" /></a>This sketch of vegetables titled "True Flavors" is painted on a piece of scrap styrofoam -- I wonder if it was part of a cheap picnic ice box. We saw this painting in a beautiful exhibit of the author's work at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.<div><br /></div><div>The artist, Chang Ku-nien (1906-1987), had a delightful way of placing modern objects in classical Chinese paintings. One very long scroll depicted a typhoon that hit Taiwan in 1959, showing a train the artist was riding that almost derailed when the bridge was blown out. A winter scene shows a classical landscape, but two tiny figures at close inspection turn out to be skiiers. Paintings of autumn and winter in Michigan and of the Yellowstone Falls show how the artist's vision could turn American scenes into what appear to be Chinese landscapes.<div><br /></div>"True Flavors" does the opposite: places a Chinese painting on a modern object!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaClN7VbtSlIEwLZI9xF0hz0c0FGTMBYrx0_zibczcbzPTbu0tgRqsurO1XMicVZgNZc0WircZLAKnesuLCzgjvz3ktYvLfEhDd9xmkqg8E8CY4YVPxwcqZr4kxioF4vhfI1QWsxMfZ84J/s1600/chang1807.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453822823386773650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaClN7VbtSlIEwLZI9xF0hz0c0FGTMBYrx0_zibczcbzPTbu0tgRqsurO1XMicVZgNZc0WircZLAKnesuLCzgjvz3ktYvLfEhDd9xmkqg8E8CY4YVPxwcqZr4kxioF4vhfI1QWsxMfZ84J/s400/chang1807.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a></div>

"True Flavors"

This sketch of vegetables titled "True Flavors" is painted on a piece of scrap styrofoam -- I wonder if it was part of a cheap picnic ice box. We saw this painting in a beautiful exhibit of the author's work at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.The artist, Chang Ku-nien (1906-1987), had a del…

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Gardiner Museum, Toronto

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu-AHqZfSTrbR8iZ6qCMXt9AOHnL8PXFGHvZHzVz24MZLtLRXqcvbiitK9-0hqQPz_BDTGH_03IRUzCAuA-32s5yGXRDhpfwIU3JiH1MPZ7OKWvlnta_MSZHMMSxpXnGsWp-zimXsF_fcM/s1600-h/gardiner1699.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450071968858651362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu-AHqZfSTrbR8iZ6qCMXt9AOHnL8PXFGHvZHzVz24MZLtLRXqcvbiitK9-0hqQPz_BDTGH_03IRUzCAuA-32s5yGXRDhpfwIU3JiH1MPZ7OKWvlnta_MSZHMMSxpXnGsWp-zimXsF_fcM/s400/gardiner1699.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>First, the <a href="http://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/abtmain.aspx?TopNavImage=0">Gardiner Museum</a> has a special exhibit: "<span class="style6">From the Melting Pot into the Fire: Contemporary Ceramics in Israel." This sculpture by Mirvat Issa is titled "Our Daily Bread." Obviously, it consists of ceramic pita breads freshly puffed in the oven. The exhibit is very tuned to life in Israel in a very positive way; depictions of buildings, dancers making ceramics while dancing, and reflections on ancient and Biblical history.<br /><br />Of course most of the ceramic works on display were intended as vessels for serving, cooking, or dining -- intensely food related. But some of the works also made direct reference to food.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbIONYqFSvF5Et1FOikQp-SQyO0YVdjL9V_1H1fO5TPrtnWJRBHpJMdzzJ7IsO-LB4yaCHNC2fFcQsyywug5-h2IT8nK1ztNeUA6JfXJXuNSm0V450lFGcLiJU4XghDTgf0oBoZIXE0X7/s1600-h/gardiner1700.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450071958788064914" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbIONYqFSvF5Et1FOikQp-SQyO0YVdjL9V_1H1fO5TPrtnWJRBHpJMdzzJ7IsO-LB4yaCHNC2fFcQsyywug5-h2IT8nK1ztNeUA6JfXJXuNSm0V450lFGcLiJU4XghDTgf0oBoZIXE0X7/s400/gardiner1700.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 348px;" /></a>From the Chinese collection: a plate from the era 1625-1645 depicting the manufacture of salt. In my experience, this is a very special piece because it represents essentially a peasant activity.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrQR2i11ZrnbVMiZ7VoTzKCQOybq415KZvzHd_cXP9ztzbBHlfWrJQA4SINf5D_RIkLq1Cb1e34dC1TDGiIXz01wa0Clk5r37jEBE5xoAhNSo4RlR4gD6IVIQk5pnk-gWpzPDi0nVais1S/s1600-h/gardiner1717.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450071950426738306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrQR2i11ZrnbVMiZ7VoTzKCQOybq415KZvzHd_cXP9ztzbBHlfWrJQA4SINf5D_RIkLq1Cb1e34dC1TDGiIXz01wa0Clk5r37jEBE5xoAhNSo4RlR4gD6IVIQk5pnk-gWpzPDi0nVais1S/s400/gardiner1717.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 329px;" /></a>From the modern collection: "Garden Armchair"<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO_jJY-CsKg83Cv2yjZNlMeGOo8XUwzM0rmF9Z4RCdzTUtHimoQ9flIEpyBnyBNwLWHFfqDi0iJf84RHxuIWcy_Y8fUZJqf7Q-V4C9LMEsuafQo64zra0Qc8mjuELLLOs2zo2mEMhGndfK/s1600-h/gardiner1718.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450071948923753810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO_jJY-CsKg83Cv2yjZNlMeGOo8XUwzM0rmF9Z4RCdzTUtHimoQ9flIEpyBnyBNwLWHFfqDi0iJf84RHxuIWcy_Y8fUZJqf7Q-V4C9LMEsuafQo64zra0Qc8mjuELLLOs2zo2mEMhGndfK/s400/gardiner1718.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 220px;" /></a>"Cabbages and Kings"<br /></div>

Gardiner Museum, Toronto

First, the Gardiner Museum has a special exhibit: "From the Melting Pot into the Fire: Contemporary Ceramics in Israel." This sculpture by Mirvat Issa is titled "Our Daily Bread." Obviously, it consists of ceramic pita breads freshly puffed in the oven. The exhibit is very tuned to life in Israel in…

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Farmer's Chop Suey

<blockquote style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">"Jewish Chop Suey... is our own name for a mixture of diced scallions, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and whatever else you like mixed with heavy sour cream." -- from <span style="font-style: italic;">Modern Kosher Meals</span> by Mildred Bellin, 1934, p. 27.<br /><br />"Farmer's Chop Suey: No one knows how this simple dairy salad came to be, but it has been a hot-weather favorite in Jewish-American kitchens for at least a century. Served with good pumpernickel or rye bread, it is a light, satisfying summer lunch." -- <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Plate Specials</span> by Jane and Michael Stern, 2001, p. 137</blockquote><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hx8IAvq880Ze4eniXMka5jJsroGQWFaUzXCNTAidGLH6A63nrsjvIr0ASkUuVwdyXvYVnzZD5tk9DdPHUPhPh-SC96hqTUAh0uZvlyVmXGvYHkrl7lAV8uy2XnZwZqQgCfiZcZ-3ZWkX/s1600-h/farmerschpsuey1678.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448685024594092546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hx8IAvq880Ze4eniXMka5jJsroGQWFaUzXCNTAidGLH6A63nrsjvIr0ASkUuVwdyXvYVnzZD5tk9DdPHUPhPh-SC96hqTUAh0uZvlyVmXGvYHkrl7lAV8uy2XnZwZqQgCfiZcZ-3ZWkX/s400/farmerschpsuey1678.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br />Similar recipes for the same salad, under the name Farmer's Chop Suey, appeared in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Jewish Sentinel Cook Book</span> in 1936, and in <span style="font-style: italic;">Love and Knishes</span> in 1956. "Our family made it with cottage cheese," said my cousin Merilyn. "I remember my mother making it," said my brother-in-law Jack. Both were thinking of the 1930s. My parents ate chopped vegetables with cottage cheese and sour cream too, but I never heard that name for it.<br /><br />Why would this obviously Eastern-European dish acquire a name like "Farmer's Chop Suey"? Its only resemblance to standard Chop Suey is that there are chopped vegetables.<br /><br />I heard of Farmer's Chop Suey while working on a talk I'm going to give next month titled "Who won the war between gefilte fish and chop suey?" It's about the popular topic of Jews and Chinese food, subject of various jokes, wisecracks, Yiddish puns, recipes, cookbooks, and annual articles about eating Christmas Dinner in a Chinese restaurant. My interest is in the interaction of two immigrant groups in America: the Jews and the Chinese, and in general in the history of Chinese food in America.<br /><br />Surprisingly, I learned that the Jewish love of Chinese food goes back almost to the beginning of American Chinese restaurants in the 19th century and early 20th century. At this time, Chop Suey was virtually a synonym for Chinese food; as late as the 1950s, Chinese restaurants were often called Chop Suey Houses.<br /><br />The book <span style="font-style: italic;">Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States</span> by Andrew Coe describes the origins of his title food -- contrary to popular impressions, the dish wasn't a joke played by the Chinese on Americans, but an honest reinterpretation of Cantonese home cooking. It was native to many of the early immigrants, and eventually adapted to the taste of American restaurant goers. Its popularity came and went for around 100 years. In the 1890s eating Chinese food was a sign of modern adventurousness. During prohibition, Chop Suey Houses offered live music and dancing -- alcohol had never been integral to Chinese food so it wasn't missed.<br /><br />As a side effect of this popularity, all kinds of dishes became "so-and-so's Chop Suey." There was "Polish Chop Suey," "Italian Chop Suey," "American Chop Suey," etc. These were ethnic dishes that hardly resemble the Chinese dish. No one claims to remember exactly when or how a traditional Jewish chopped salad acquired the name "Jewish Chop Suey" or the maybe politer name "Farmer's Chop Suey," but it doesn't seem hard to imagine. But the existence of this dish speaks to the early adoption of Chinese food into Jewish life.<br /><br />The 1934 book <span style="font-style: italic;">Modern Kosher Meals</span> by Mildred Bellin included a wide variety of non-Jewish ethnic foods, as well as traditional ones. I mentioned the recipe for "Jewish Chop Suey." She also gave a recipe for standard Chinese Chop Suey, including soy sauce and water chestnuts; and one for "Chinese Soup," which is egg-drop soup. She wanted her readers to keep kosher without being old-fashioned; Chinese food was familiar enough for kosher cooks to want to make some at home. Adaptations of non-Jewish foods appear in many kosher cookbooks -- there are even a few exclusively kosher Chinese cookbooks, just as there are surprisingly many kosher Chinese restaurants. It's an interesting subject.<br /><br />Maybe one of the strangest references to Farmer's Chop Suey is in the narrative of an elderly woman about a subject that fascinates some people: the death of the world-famous Houdini. The author was the widow of Dr. Daniel Cohn, who treated Houdini in a Detroit hospital during his last illness. Years after the event (which occurred in 1926) she wrote:<br /><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">"Houdini told Daniel he was born in Hungary and was brought to the U.S. by his mother whom he adored all his life and his father, a rabbi. They settled in Appleton, Wisconsin where he and his siblings were raised.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">"One evening while talking about his favorite foods, he said, 'I have a yen for Farmer's Chop Suey.' Farmer's Chop Suey, a dish familiar to most Jewish families, is made of chopped raw vegetables combined with sour cream. Daniel walked to a nearby delicatessen, returned with two portions and while they were eating, Houdini reminisced about his life. 'If I die, ' he said, 'don't be surprised if phony spiritualists declare a national holiday!' His disagreements with spiritualists had taken the form of many public battles." -- From "</span><a style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" href="http://www.seniorwomen.com/articles/articlesSchatzHoudini.html">Houdini and My Husband</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">"</span><br /></blockquote><br />In short, 75 to 100 years ago the identification of a Jewish dish as "Chop Suey" probably was one of many indications of widespread Jewish interest in Chinese food. The increasing frequency of Jews eating in Chinese restaurants reflected Jewish assimilation into American life and American foodways. While some Jewish leaders found the trend away from Jewish and kosher food alarming, by 1928 when a Yiddish journalist wrote an article titled "The War Between Chop Suey and Gefilte Fish" it was probably too late to do anything about it.

Farmer's Chop Suey

"Jewish Chop Suey... is our own name for a mixture of diced scallions, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and whatever else you like mixed with heavy sour cream." -- from Modern Kosher Meals by Mildred Bellin, 1934, p. 27."Farmer's Chop Suey: No one knows how this simple dairy salad ca…

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The Norton Museum

<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRWiKmIi6zk2T0TlSuF8D8eq4O2KoG385Vwx-47thVIk8unKpdPlM197ANfwesflanNUIRvVrVtdjuS8fLLT9ryNAofoMzJztA_Yyu66sHQVb0LGrhHnCGYVuJKPaOcj7_9zGKRa03YV8g/s1600-h/norton1491.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444586076831796898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRWiKmIi6zk2T0TlSuF8D8eq4O2KoG385Vwx-47thVIk8unKpdPlM197ANfwesflanNUIRvVrVtdjuS8fLLT9ryNAofoMzJztA_Yyu66sHQVb0LGrhHnCGYVuJKPaOcj7_9zGKRa03YV8g/s320/norton1491.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 194px;" /></a>Mervin Jules: "Dog Wagon" (1940)<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAMZobJPnJKVmSguWOm58Jdknop3ByRCG-VdQfp0yW0YCtpY7HM_sqw2uIJ3qcSTwOJ3Bzr-CXB4VYJ8k8WO1Aa66XWjW0ki2B9Pns_KsrLAMWnRsv75pouTCL3cv8oScuhCocMPb5YmO/s1600-h/norton1489.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444583470544420082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAMZobJPnJKVmSguWOm58Jdknop3ByRCG-VdQfp0yW0YCtpY7HM_sqw2uIJ3qcSTwOJ3Bzr-CXB4VYJ8k8WO1Aa66XWjW0ki2B9Pns_KsrLAMWnRsv75pouTCL3cv8oScuhCocMPb5YmO/s400/norton1489.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 313px;" /></a>Wayne Thiebaud, "Neapolitan Pie"<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK87NSrIiicrxzXkrvFPjBJgi5_sMjL6vmSTs5yG0zHByydq8z-U-CIcT8PdmdG6NuPZt_p2ygsTn8aDn4-owHQ1xIilqIMfNXEAqZLJye6QtkAGs0DdXy6qhLV5u0gdbtxtOVAj0JfQgF/s1600-h/norton1508.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444583462978549330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK87NSrIiicrxzXkrvFPjBJgi5_sMjL6vmSTs5yG0zHByydq8z-U-CIcT8PdmdG6NuPZt_p2ygsTn8aDn4-owHQ1xIilqIMfNXEAqZLJye6QtkAGs0DdXy6qhLV5u0gdbtxtOVAj0JfQgF/s400/norton1508.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 351px;" /></a>Ming Dynasty: Tomb furnishings for the dead to eat<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58VdVi9p1LqrdAy9YFwUiQFqUOrLSczev_GVLIk4U7lG_kDwwtVxmYKAO8qdJqw_jSyQYjvmpcWn5JVT4yp_appDjqB28DkZgk1aE3pjdl1i8vkSnxoy7jv7AugT56lIzuwcseVXX8Ci2/s1600-h/norton1523.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444583454538212562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58VdVi9p1LqrdAy9YFwUiQFqUOrLSczev_GVLIk4U7lG_kDwwtVxmYKAO8qdJqw_jSyQYjvmpcWn5JVT4yp_appDjqB28DkZgk1aE3pjdl1i8vkSnxoy7jv7AugT56lIzuwcseVXX8Ci2/s400/norton1523.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>Quing Dynasty: Bit of a carved lacquer screen<br />Note teapot!<br /><br /></div>We spent a couple of hours yesterday at the excellent Norton museum in Palm Beach. The Chinese collection included many beautiful jade, lapis, and quartz vessels, ancient bronzes, Han Dynasty and other horses, and porcelain representing all the colors. The Impressionist collection was small but remarkably representative of most of the painters. The 19th and 20th century American collections were delightful. What a wonderful surprise! I selected the above works because of the food themes. Needless to say, most of the works were not food-themed!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoZj1eqgA1VhKpKBWyvCSTIr2Xk_EH-K5El4uQE8LwkKbbMV-yQIYxW3cIv8Hypw4FAJ8j9fSMxx-HdesTTuZCqGvabWXluJTzTz58Q2fhoTlXkB3KamQuD2IVKzD1V1Q_cofLQlDHAxo4/s1600-h/grkveal1524.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444584951736429218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoZj1eqgA1VhKpKBWyvCSTIr2Xk_EH-K5El4uQE8LwkKbbMV-yQIYxW3cIv8Hypw4FAJ8j9fSMxx-HdesTTuZCqGvabWXluJTzTz58Q2fhoTlXkB3KamQuD2IVKzD1V1Q_cofLQlDHAxo4/s200/grkveal1524.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" /></a>AND of course, dinner, which we ate at a Greek restaurant with Jean, Jack, and their friends Barbara and Jerry.

The Norton Museum

Mervin Jules: "Dog Wagon" (1940)Wayne Thiebaud, "Neapolitan Pie"Ming Dynasty: Tomb furnishings for the dead to eatQuing Dynasty: Bit of a carved lacquer screenNote teapot!We spent a couple of hours yesterday at the excellent Norton museum in Palm Beach. The Chinese collection included many beautiful…

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Ginger

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZaSE6MUH0Aac2UN7oe5BoaezZy6csIOr5lw_aXgRr0t_eEEodJFW4DOJDpr0SoGDFAMDFf0ugKA2rWKzxEfM_wO3LdVlYkXpMzb_KNqkM7W83mOYBdbcXxMT3Uokdtbw-sCIL4f3UfjDQ/s1600-h/ginger1271.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440388825671944514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZaSE6MUH0Aac2UN7oe5BoaezZy6csIOr5lw_aXgRr0t_eEEodJFW4DOJDpr0SoGDFAMDFf0ugKA2rWKzxEfM_wO3LdVlYkXpMzb_KNqkM7W83mOYBdbcXxMT3Uokdtbw-sCIL4f3UfjDQ/s400/ginger1271.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>So many ways to eat ginger! I didn't realize I was so crazy about it, and then began to count. In the pantry and refrigerator I found raw ginger root, Chinese candied ginger, crystalized ginger, Lebkuchen from the German Christmas box, English ginger cookies, English ginger preserves, and an ancient (and often refilled) tin of powdered ginger. One small piece of my friend Elaine's gingerbread cake in the freezer didn't get into the photo. More great ginger items are Japanese pickled ginger to eat with sushi, ginger ale, ginger ice cream, chocolate-covered ginger, and good old-fashioned American ginger snaps. In Australia I once ate a ginger candy bar: jellied ginger covered with chocolate.<br /><br />Its origins are in east Asia, but ginger has definitely traveled widely.

Ginger

So many ways to eat ginger! I didn't realize I was so crazy about it, and then began to count. In the pantry and refrigerator I found raw ginger root, Chinese candied ginger, crystalized ginger, Lebkuchen from the German Christmas box, English ginger cookies, English ginger preserves, and an ancient…

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