Japanese cuisine
chop suey
chow mein
dim sum
egg rolls & spring rolls
fortune cookies
fried rice
Peking duck & beggar's chicken
sushi & sashimi
sweet & sour pork
tempura
teriyaki, sukiyaki & yakitori
Wok cookery
wontons
Have questions? Ask!
The history of Chinese food is a complicated buffet of regional cuisines and world influence. There are plenty of sources you can use to learn about this topic:
Web sites
Recommended reading
About Chinese take out.
On the Web
Recommended reading>
ASIAN FOOD IN AMERICA
While Chinese food was introduced to America in the mid-19th century, Vietnamese (Japanese,
Thai, etc.) cuisine was generally unknown to mainstream American diners until the 1970s.
Coincidentally, this period also marks the genesis of fusion cuisine, a convergence of fresh foods,
exotic tastes and interesting textures.
From the beginning, Asian dishes intended for American diners were adapted to suit
expectations. Emphasis on basic meat and vegetables served in standard (sweet & sour, soy)
sauces with fried rice became the norm. In many authentic Asian restaurants, there were two
menus: one for people of Asian descent and another for tourists. The difference was more than
language. Did you know? Some "classic" Chinese menu choices such as fortune cookies are not
Chinese at all! They were invented in America. Molly O'Neil's article "The
Chop Suey Syndrome: Americanizing the Exotic," New York Times, July 26, 1989 (C1)
explains the process.
"When Europe began trading with the Orient, the seaport of Canton became the gateway to the
West. The Cantonese readily absorbed these cosmopolitan influences and, being great travelers
themselves, soon emigrated to Europe and America. They were the first to establish Chinese
restaurants ouside their own country and to make Chinese cooking known to the West. As a
result, most Chinese restaurants in the United States and Europe are Cantonese."
"...in 1847, the first Chinese immigrants settled in San Francisco and were followed by thousands
who helped to build the transcontinental railways. The meals of hundreds of California families
were influenced by cooks who were Chinese and had been hired as housemen in middle-class
homes. They seldom were permitted to prepare Oriental meals, but they held to their art of
serving vegetables that do to lose their crispness or color...Other Chinese were cooks for the
work gangs...In the early California Chinese restaurants there was a willingness to cater to
customers--some proprietors served their non-Chinese clients only what they thought those
diners
wanted, that is, chop suey and fried steak. Better restaurants gained fame on San Francisco's
Grant Avenue, on or near New York's Mott Street, in Los Angeles, and every other American
city of censequence, and the developing tastes for genuine Chinese food resulted in a vogue for
home delivery of such easily portable items as egg rolls and chicken chow mein in paper buckets.
But it wasn't until after World War II that Americans began consciously to augment their Oriental
kitchen repertoires by attending classes in Chinese cooking and avidly sampling new tastes that
became available in restaurants specializing in Mandarin, Hunan, Fukien, and Szechwan dishes
in
addition to those from Canton. This influence on American eating habits came after new political
relationships encouraged interest in largely unknown regions of the People's republic, and many
more Chinese entrepreneurs arrived to join what had been dominantly a Cantonese population in
the United States..."
"The Chinese settled their own Chinatowns within major United States cities, where they opened
chow chow eateries, identified by their triangular yellow flags. At first these small, cramped
eateries catered to their own people, then expanded their menus to attract curious Americans who
dared cross into those mysterious cities-within-cities...The cookery in these new Chinatowns was
basically stir-fired, rice-based Cantonese, whcih efficiently utilized every part of the
animal...Americans not used to such economy were often dismayed by what they found in their
rice bowl...Most of these eateries were primitive in design and atmosphere...Before ling,
however,
Chinese cooks learned how to modify thier dishes to make them more palatable to a wider
American audience. In fact, most of the Chinese restaurants outside of Chinatown proclaimed in
their windows that they were Chinese-American, lest Occidental customers shy away for fear of
being served duck feet and bird's nests.By the 1920s, Chinese restaurants dotted the American
landscape, and one was as likely to find a chop suey' parlor in Kansas City as in New York or
San
Francisco, even though the typical menu in such places bore small resemblance to the foods the
Chinese themselves ate. Many dishes were cloyingly sweetened with caramel and sugar,
inundated with pineapple chunks and
maraschino cherries, and fried in thick batters, while the ubiquitious flaming appetized platter
called pu pu...was first served as a gimmick by Victor Bergeron at his Trade Vic's
Polynesian-American restaurants in Oakland and San Francisco. Won ton soup, egg rolls,
barbecued spareribs, sweet-and-sour pork, and beef with lobster sauce were all concocted to whet
Americans' appetites, and to this day, it is standard procedure for an American in an Chinese
restaurant to be handed a two-columned menu written in English, while a completely different
menu printed in Chinese will be given to a Chinese patron, who, in any case, would probably
disregard it and order from the specials written in pictographs on the walls. "Going for Chinese"
became very much an American expression, and when Americans began moving to the suburbs
in
the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese restaurants followed on their heels,particularly in suburban
shopping malls....Perhaps more important to the success of the Chinese-American restaurant was
its readiness to serve food at any and all hours and to pack it up and deliver it with dispatch, all at
prices no other ethnic group could match. Chinese take-out went hand in hand with Americans'
historic penchant for gobblingh up lots of cheap food in as little time with as little fuss as
possible."
"Much of what passes for Cantonese cooking in the Western World would sicken a traditional
Cantonese gourmet. Canned pineapple, canned cherries, and even canned fruit cocktail;
enourmous quantities of dehydrated garlic, barbecue or Worcestershire sauce; canned vegetables,
corn starch, monosodiumglutamate, cooking sherry, and heavy doses of sugar are found in many
of these bizarre creations. This fusion of pseudo-Cantonese and pseudo-Polynesian food can be
traced to a renegade Cantonese chef at Trader Vic's in California. The basic formula appears to
be: take the fattest, rankest pork you can get; cook it in a lot of oil with the sweetest mixture of
canned fruits and sugar you can make; throw on a lot of MSG and cheap soy sauce; thicken the
sauce to gluelike consistency; and serve it forth. The Cantonese regard the whole business as
proof that Westerners are bultureless barbarians, but they cook it, and now even many Taiwan
Chinese (having eaten Cantonese food only in cafes catering to American G.I.'s) are convinced
that this is typical Cantonses cooking."
---Food in China, E.N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven CT] 1988 (p. 212-3)
RECOMMENDED READING
The California roll is a classic example of "American sushi," early fusion cuisine incorporating
new ingredients into traditional Asian recipes. Food historians generally credit Ichiro Manashita,
of the Tokyo Kaikan restaurant in Los Angeles, with "inventing" the California roll. The date is
fuzzy, though most agree this item was available in the early 1970s.
"Sushi East and West. Many of the foods ordinarily associated only with Western cuisine
harmonize astonishingly well with sushi rice...You will find this hybrid "East-West" sushi can be
expanded to include many new tempting treats suited to your family's tastes. One tasty variation
is the California roll, a slender mat-rolled sushi containing crab, avocado and cucumber. It is a
great favorite in Los Angeles sushi shops, has spread to New York and is making a debut in
Tokyo too. The creamy, rich, slightly oily avocado has something in common with the taste of
fatty tuna."
Some sushi history notes.
"California roll....A form of sushi made with avocados, crabmeat, cucumbers and other
ingredients wrapped in vinegared rice. It was supposedly created at a Japanese restaurant in Los
Angeles named Tokyo Kaikan about 1973 for the American palate but has also gained popularity
in Japan, where it is called kashu-maki, a literal translation of "California roll."
"California rolls, consisting of avocado, imitation crabmeat, and mayonnaise encased in rice with
sesame seeds on the outside, are an excellent example of Japanese American food. The rolls were
invented by Japanese chefs in Los Angeles during the 1970s for Americans who were squeamish
about eating raw fish. California rolls became a popular addition to Japanese restaurant menus in
the United States during the 1980s, and there were eventually exported back to Japan, although
many sushi purists eschew them, as they were not a traditional Japanese food."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxfod
Univeristy Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 728)
The earliest recipe we have on hand for California rolls was printed in a Japanese-American
cookbook published in 1986. It reads as follows:
4 crab sticks (steamed fish cake with crab flavor) or 1/4 pound cooked crab, shredded
Slice crab sticks in half. Peel avocado and slice into 3/8-inch-thick pieces. Keep refrigerated until
ready to use. Slice cucumber into julienne strips, 4 to 5 inches long. To assemble the sushi roll,
follow the instructions for Futo-maki-Zushi. You should have neat rows of crab, avocado,
cucmber, and crab roe fillings laying across the bed of rice. Don't forget to sprinkle with sesame
seeds before you rill. You can have the rice side out by ling a reverse roll. On a bamboo mat lay a
well-wrung piece of cloth apporximately the same size as the mat. Take a handfull of sushi rice
and spread it over the mat. Lay a sheet of nori seaweed on top of the rice. Then lay the fillings as
you would for regular California roll and roll it carefully, pressing with your hands to mold the
rice into a roll. Gently remove the bamboo mat, peeling off the cloth at the same time. Cut the
roll
as you would a regular sushi roll."
Sushi went main-stream in America in the early 1980s, which may account for the lack of
article/information about the California Rolls before that time. An article printed in the New
York
Times confirms:
"Zucchini slices dipped in light batter and crisply fried do not seem at all out of place on tempura
platters served in Japanese restaurants in New York, yet zucchini is virtually unkown in Japan.
Its use in this country is just one example of the adaptation that traditional Japanese cooking has
been making to the products it encoutners as it becomes established abroad, especially in
America.
Another example of marrying Japanese techniques and American ingredients is the California
roll.
Loose sushi hand rolls are popular in Japan, but the version that calls for avocado, king crab
meat,
mayonnaise and rice wrapped in a sheet of papery black seaweed appeared in southern California
sushi bars a few years ago. It has also become commonplace in New York and is apparently now
being served in Japan as well."
FROM THE CALIFORNIA SUSHI ACADEMY
Recommended reading: Encyclopedia of Sushi Rolls/Ken Kawasumi (American-style sushi art)
Most American food history sources confirm "chop suey" is an American dish. Notes here:
"The second famous "Chinese-American" dish to come out of the mining frontier is chop suey, the subject of some historical
controversy. It has been common wisdom to say that chop suey...did not exist in old China. The stir-fried hash was invented,
according to tradition, in a San Francisco restaurant during the wee hours one morning when a rowdy group of holidaying iners
would not hear of the Chinese cook's plea that he had no food. Rather than risk a drubbing, the cook concocted chop suey of the
day's scraps. Perhaps. At least one Chinese authority...insists that chop suey was intimately famliar to emigrants from Toisan, the
region south of Canton that is the ancestral home of more than half the American Chinse. It does seem hard to believe that a
people wracked by poverty had not thought to put together "miscellanious stuff" before they arrived at the "Golden
Mountain."
Mr. Conlin's alternate theory is confirmed here:
Recipes for
American chop sueys, 1914
Chow mein
Chow mein literally means "fried noodles." Food historians agree on two points:
"Chow mein is related to and takes its name from "chao mian," a Chinese dish consisting of
previously boiled noodles stirfried with meat and vegetables. There is, however, an important
difference. In chow mein the noodles are deep fried in bundles, which are crisp and brittle when
they emerge; whereas in the Chinese dish the noodles are soft."
"Chow mein.
"If chop suey was...Chinese food for the American masses, chow mein was a dish for gourmets.
Hard as it is to believe for those of us who have only eaten the horrid frozen or canned chow
mein
of the messes served under that name in doubtful greasy spoons, properly prepared chow mein
can be very good indeed...The key to good chow mein is the noodles. Those nasty deep-fried
things tasting of rancid fat that most Americans associate with chow mein are virutally unknown
in China. Instead, the Chinese...stir-fry freshly boiled noodles in hot oil until they are crisp on the
outside but still beguilingly soft in the center. The hot noodles with their contrasting crisp/soft
text
ures are then served with a stir-fried mixture of vegetables and strips of meat."
"Chow Mein, or "fried noodles," is a casual dish which calls for parboiled noodles (previously
drained dry and chilled) to be cooked with other ingredients, somewhat in the manner of fried
rice; that is, the noodles and the other ingredients are fried separately, then combined and cooked
until nearly done." Recipes for Chow
Main, 1914
La Choy is one of
the oldest and most well-known brands of American-made mass-produced Chinese food sold to
consumers and foodservice operations--you can ask them questions about their products.
Dim sum
Dim sum is a Chinese tradition originating in Canton. It made its way to America with
Chinese immigrants, many of whom were Cantonese.
"...the ultimate in "small eating" is the Cantonese institution of iam ch'a (Mandaarin he ch'a: "to
drink tea"). Drinking tea traditionally involves the consumption of snacks known as timsam
(borrowed in English as dimsum, pronounced "deem some"). This phrase (the Mandarin is tien
hsin) means "to dot the heart," a pecurliar idiom of obscure origin, meaning something like "to
hit
the spot." "Dot hearts"...are found throughout China, but in Cantonese culture they become the
sold food at huge luncheons or late breakfasts, while elsewhere in China they are definitely
"small"affairs. There are hundreds of them...Typical tim sam are ha kaau...based on minced
shrimp and other items wrapped in thin dough skin, siu maai...with meat filling and different skin
composition; taro horns, chopped meat covered with mashed taro dough, rolled into a hornlike
shape, and deep-fried; ch'a shao pao; other pao of other kinds; beef balls pungently flavored with
soy sauce, ginger and so on; faan kun, oily chopped fillings wrapped in rice-flour dough
skins...The commonest and most basic tim sam follow the pattern of some sort of starch staple
wrapped around a filling fo cholled meat, soy sauce, finger, water chestnut, or similar extender
and texturizer, oil and flavoring."
"Dim sum
RELATED FOOD? Egg rolls!
Egg rolls & spring rolls
Egg rolls (and their lighter counterpart, spring rolls) date back to
ancient China. Wontons (thin unleavened dough with fillings or as
noodles) are a traditional part of the Chinese diet. It is quite likely
that egg-roll type foods were made and consumed in the USA by the first
Chinese settlers in the mid 1800's. It is also just as likely that most
Americans never heard of them until about 50 years ago. Vietnamese spring rolls employ
different
tastes. Why are they called egg rolls? The dough is traditionally made with egg. Spring rolls are
lighter, omitting the egg. Egg roll-type foods are part of traditional dim
sum.
"Eggrolls are thin coverings of unraised dough, wrapped around various
meat, seafood and vegetable mixtures, and then usually deep
fried. Originally, these were special snacks served with tea when
relatives and friends came to visit after Chinese New Year. Since the time
was early spring, they came to be known as spring rolls...the eggroll,
said to have originated in Canton and more familiar to Westerners, is
larger...thicker. Eggrolls are served either as hors d'oevres or with
dinner at any time of the year."
"Spring roll...An Asian-American appetizer made of crispdough wrapped
around a filling of various ingredients such as vegetables, meat, shrimp,
and seasonings. Sometimes synonymous with "egg roll," it is considered
somewhat more "authentic" and delicious than the latter. The name, which
dates in English print to 1943, comes from the Chinese tradition of
serving them on the first day of the Chinese New Year, which is also the
first day of the lunar year's spring."
If you need more information on ask your librarian to help you find this article:
"Going beyond egg rolls," Newsweek, August 13, 1990 (p. 61+)
--this article and several more are available full-text from the EBSCO
ABOUT VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS
"When New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne wrote about Routhier and her
Vietnamese
spring roll, or cha gio, he
catapulted her into the culinary limelight. In the 1985 article about upcoming young chefs, he
praised her
creation as "the best cha
gio I have eaten since - in fact, I found them the equal of those in Vietnam." As they say, the rest
is history.
Between writing cookbooks and teaching classes, Houstonian Routhier continues to make her
famous
Vietnamese spring rolls
for friends and relatives.
Rolled in parchmentlike rice papers, her spring roll consists of crab meat, shrimp, pork, Chinese
mushrooms and water
chestnuts. But this is just one spring roll recipe among hundreds, perhaps thousands. Like many
good
culinary ideas, the spring roll has been imitated and embellished again and again through time.
There are
fried spring rolls and uncooked ones. Some are filled with finely minced seafood; others brim
with
crispy
vegetables and barbecued meats. With so many variations, no wonder the spring
roll is one of the most misunderstood foods...The spring roll is a tradition that dates back many
centuries in China. Because of its rich golden
color, the
spring roll is believed
to symbolize a gold nugget or prosperity, and it plays a central role at Chinese banquets. You'll
typically find
spring rolls served
on Chinese New Year's Day, which takes place at the start of spring. Chefs in other Asian
countries such as
Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand have adapted the Chinese spring roll and created their own
versions. In
Vietnam and Thailand, rice-paper wrappers made from cooked rice starch are preferred over
lumpia
wrappers. Brittle rice-paper wrappers are first soaked in water to make them pliable, then filled
with either
raw or cooked ingredients. They are then fried or eaten uncooked. Hence the confusion of getting
a "fresh"
spring roll at a Vietnamese restaurant when what you wanted was a "fried" spring roll.
Often, though, the menu will provide a clue. Uncooked versions are often referred to as summer
rolls.
They're often stuffed with
boiled shrimp, steamed pork, vermicelli noodles, lettuce and herbs. These light, fresh-tasting
summer rolls
are uniquely
Vietnamese and Thai, Routhier says. The Chinese, Malaysians and Singaporeans also have
"fresh"
spring
rolls. These, however, are made with lumpia wrappers and are prepared at the table by the guests,
who fill
the wrappers with a combination of fresh and cooked ingredients, such as grated carrots,
shredded
cabbage and leeks....
The Chinese believe in the merit and charm of eating the spring roll undressed. The Vietnamese,
on the
other hand, love to wrap
theirs with soft lettuce, basil and mint. "Like many Vietnamese dishes, eating it this way
resonates
with
layers of flavors and textures - the crispy vegetables with the crunchy spring roll," Routhier says.
In the last few years, spring rolls have moved from the menus of inexpensive Chinese and
Vietnamese eateries to more expensive contemporary establishments. Spring-roll wrappers have
become a popular food format for chefs and consumers seeking stylish
snacks and appetizers..."
Both Chinese and American food historians agree the "fortune cookie" is an American invention.
"Fortune Cookie: A Chinese-American cookie into which has been folded a printed message
predicting one's fortune.
Fortune Cookies are not known in Chinese food culture, but they have long been part of the
hospitality of Chinese-American restaurants, which traditionally serve them free of charge with
tea
after the meal...An article by food historian Meryle Evans in Diversion magazine (Oct.
1987) provides several stories as to the possible origins of the fortune cookie. One story concerns
Japanese landscape architect Makoto Hagiwara, who emigrated to San Francisco at the turn
of the 20th century and designed a teahouse where, sometime before World War I, he and his
daughter Sada Yamamoto began serving fortune cookies to the patrons. Another suggests that
just after World War I a Los Angles baker named David Jung handed out such cookies
containing
words of encouragement to the poor and homeless people on the streets.
He later started the Hong Kong Noodle Company and did produce cookies with fortunes inside.
By the 1930s there were fortune-cookie factories one of the first being William T. Leong's Key
Fortune Cookie Company in New York City.
Until the late 1960s fortune cookies were always folded by hand. Then, Edward Louie, owner
of the Lotus Fortune Cookie Company in San Francisco, invented a machine to do the job....
In 1992 Donald H. Lau of the Wonton Food Company in Long Island City, New York,
planned to produce fortune cookies in Guangzhou, China."
"Fortune cookies...are a true California Cantonese invention, created by a noodle company in Los
Angeles (loyal Angelenos insist it was San Francisco). They were unkown in Asia until
American
tourists began to demand them in the past decade or two."
The New York Times recently published an article tracing the origins of these treats to
Japan.
"At the beginning of this century, San Francisco's Chinatown was a ghetto, rife with the problems
that plague any poor neighborhood. But by the 1930s, the neighborhood's exotic image was being
used to attract tourists. During that marketing effort, a restaurant created the fortune cookie for
visitors who expected a dessert course that Chinese cuisine largely lacks."
On the Web you will find similar stories, most of which attribute the origin of the Fortune
Cookie
to Mr. Jung:
As with many Chinese foods popular in America today, fried rice has a long and interesting
history. Rice is an ancient food that plays an fundamental role in many cultures and cuisines.
About rice from RiceWeb & Cambridge World History of Food.
Fried rice and noodle dishes with vegetables are likewise ancient. They were typically composed
of leftover ingriedents and cooked in woks. If meat was available (chicken,
pork, etc.) it was
added. According to Chinese food experts, fried rice is a specialty of Yangzhou. They do not
attempt to put an exact date on the origin of this recipe.
"Fried rice, which originated in Yanchow province, is a versatile dish which combines cooked
rice, onions, soy sauce, sometimes eggs, and just about any other ingredient--leftover or
fresh--that may be on hand. The ingredient that predominates gives the dish its name: chicken
fried rice,
roast pork fried rice, shrimp fried rice, etc. When any ingredients are included, the dish is called
subgum--or "many varieties"--fried rice...The [American] restaurant convention of ordering a
dish
of fried rice with numerous other main courses, or ordering it place of white rice, is Western and
not Chinese at all."
"Fried rice...is a standard method of cooking leftovers, involving frying cold boiled rice with
chopped-up meat and vegetables. In really superior restaurants, rice weill be specially boiled and
dried for this, but usually old, unused rice is served. The common (and favorite) recipe, however
is not Cantonese, but eastern, deriving from Yonchou in the lower Yangtze country; it involved
mixing chopped ham, beaten egg, green peas, green onions, and other ingredients to taste, and
then rather slowly sauteing the rice. The rice is neither deep-fried nor stir-fried, but chin-left to
cook slowly in a little oil, producing a fluffy product with a slight crust."
"Fried rice with Choice of Flavors.
About fried rice in America
Fried rice
recipes, Chinese-Japanese Cook Book, Bosse, Sara. [1914].
While sushi and sashimi may sit side by side in contemporary upscale western-based Japanese restaurants, that was not the original intent.
Sushi and sashimi evolved for two distinct culinary purposes. Amerian sushi, including California rolls descended
from these traditions.
SUSHI
"Sushi marries the flavor of vinegared rice to the clean flavor of fresh raw fish and shellfish. The rice is deftly shaped into bite-sized 'fingers'. seasoned with a dab of zesty
wasabi horseradish, and covered by a strip of choice seafood...Sushi originated as a way of preserving tuna, or curcian, a kind of carp. The fish was salted and allowed to
mature on a bed of vinegared rice, after which the rice was discarded. Long before vinegared rice came to be eaten together with the fish and many different combination
and ways of serving them evolved."
"The original of modern sushi is known as narezushi, a way of preserving fish by salting and fermenting between layers of rice...First the fermentation, then the salting
were done away and and the rice (which once was thrown away) was converted to the sublime vinegared rice of today. Something approaching nigiri-zushi was avaialble in
a multitude of Edo (Tokyo) restaurants by the middle of the 19th century. The modern forms were not fixed...until the advent of refrigeration."
"The beginning of all suchi making was a method of pickling fish practiced first in Southeast Asia. Long ago the mountain people of that region preserved fish by packing it
wth rice. As it fermented the rice produced lactic acid, which pickled the fish and kept it from spoiling. It seems probable that it was during prehistoric times when this
method of preservation was introduced to Japan along with rice cultivation. One of the for it eventually took was nare-zushi, a sushi made with carp in the vicinity of Lake
Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. As had been th custom from the beginning, only the fish was eaten; the rice was discarded. The history of Biwa carp sushi, also called
funa-suzhhi, is said to extend back 1300 years...Preparing nare-zushi takes from 2 months to more than a year. People in 15th and 16th century Japan came to think not
ony that this was too time consuming but that it was a waste of rice...One thing the people of Edo were not noted for was their patience. In the middle of the 17th century,
a doctor named Matsumoto Yoshiichi...hit upon the idea of adding vinegar to sushi rice. The resulting tartness was pleasing, and the time it was necessary to wait before
eating the sushi was substantially reduced. Still, it was not eaten right away. In keeping with the culinary practices of the time, the rice and other ingredients were boxed
or rolled up before consumption...By the early 19th century...nigiri-zushi came into being. It is often referred to as Edomae-zushi, possibly...becuase the fish and shellfish
used in it were taken from the waters of the large bay on which the city is situated...By 1824 a man named Hanaya Yohei conceived the idea of sliced, raw seafood at its
freshest, served on small fingers of vinegared rice...The stall he opened in the bustling Ryoguku district of Edo caught on at once...In old pictures the sushi shops of the
Edo period (1603-1868) look very little like ones of today. For one thing, the cook worked seated behind a lattice. Still there is something familiar. A raised tatami-floored
section for a small number of guests is shown in some pictures, and this might be considered the predecessor fo the tatami areas in some modern sushi shops. And then
as now sushi could be delivered, after a fashion. Men walked around selling it from large boxes carried on their backs. In the middle of the 19th century, sushi stalls began
emerging all over Edo. They were well patronized and endured until shortly after World War II. Many a proprietor of a splendid modern sushi shop got his start as a sushi
stall operator. There were many ordinary sushi shops in the city, too...The stall had wheels and were hauled into place in the evening. Then the operator hung out his
noren curtain to signify he was ready for business...He kept his wares in a box filed with ice, lifting the bamboo mat covereing it to display what he had to offer. On the
stall's small counter, he set out one bowl of soy rice and another of sliced pickeld ginger. His sushi rice he cooked at home and brought with him in a wooden container.
In winter the container was wrapped with straw wo the rice would not get too cold and unappetizing...The transition from sushi stall to the often elegant shop of today was
gradual and began after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. For a while after shops began to be built, the stall remained, parked in front of the shop. Customers who were
so inclined purchased and consumed theri food out of doors. The chairs inside the shop were mostly for the convenience of people waiting to have sushi packed in boxes
to take out...Sushi stalls vanished form Tokyo streets forever after World War II...At first the stall was simply moved indoors to become the sushi chef's work space and
counter."
"...sushi has existed in Japan for more than a thousand years in the form of narezushi, which is also found throughout Southeast Asia and in rice-growing regions of
China...From the fifteenth century, Japanese sushi developed in a direction different from the other Asia areas, beginning with the appearance of namanare-zushi.
'Namanare' means 'raw mature' and describes an intermediate phase between those states. Namanare-zushi is ready to eat between several days and a month after the
mixture of fish and rice is enclosed under a weighted lid...The rice i seaten with the fish rather than discarded. Whereas narezushi is fish eaten as a side dish, the
emergence of namanare-zushi was the point where sushi took on the character of a complete snack, combining staple and side dish. Narezushi developed originally as a
method for preserving a large amount of fish caught at one time so it would be edible later in the year. In contrast, namanare-zushi was made in small quantities for use at
festivals or feasts, and so was a luxury food rather than a preserved food. That meant that the types of fish were no longer limited to those caught seasonally in large
quantities, and sushi diversified to include various sea fish, and even vegetables which were processed into vegetarian shushi. In place of the big cask used for large
amounts of sushi, a small amount was made in a shallow wooden box, by topping a bed of rice with a layer of sliced fish, and applying an inner lid weighted with a stone.
The finished product was sliced into long pieces. This is the forerunner of today's hakosushi ('box sushi'), and Osaka specialty...The next new direction in sushi making,
devised in the late seventeenth century, was to produce a rice-and-fish combination with a tasty acidic flavour, not through fermentation but by simply adding vinegar to
the rice. Thus lactic acid was replaced by acetic acid. This new 'quick sushi' was given a name that means exactly that, hayazushi. later, in the early nineteenth century,
it became popular on the streets of Edo as nigiri-zushi, a convenient form that involves neither the vinegar dressing used for namasu nor the stprage technology of
preserved sushi. This was the final stage in the transformation of sushi from preserved food into a fast food. The fact thet vinegar is still always added to sushi rice to give
it a slightly tart taste means that a culinary tradition survives unbroken, if only barely, in the form of contemporary sushi."
Sashimi
"For Westerners, shashimi is perhaps the archetypal Japanese dish; thinly sliced raw fish served typically with grated horseradish or with a ginger and soy sauce. The
preparation of the fish, with a villainously sharp knife, is a skill perfected with long practice."
"Sashimi, a Japanese term for a dish of sliced raw fish. The word is derived from sashi (to pierce) and mi (flesh), with no element specifying fish or seafood; and similar
techniques can be used to produce dishes called sashimi chicken or beef, but these are rarities by comparison with the ubiquitous fish sashimi. Tsuji...has declared
sahimi to be 'the crowning glory of the formal meal' in Japan...and emphasizes that its preparation is not just a matter of choosing supremely fresh fish but also of taking
into account the seasonings at which the various species are at their best. Sashimi is presented wtih great elegance in an arrangement."
"Sashimi is served searly in the meal so its subtle flavor may be enjoyed while one is still hungry and before one's palate is sates with cooked foods. Home meals a
usually served all at once, but the sashimi should be eaten first, for the same reason...Sashimi is usually served on individual shallow dishes (or plates) in slices...Five or
six rectangular slices rest like fallen dominoes against a high bed of crisp, shred-cut giant white radish..."
"In Japan the word sashimi frist appears in literature of the mid-fifteenth cnetury. Before that time raw fish dishes were always called namasu, a term which appears in
literature from as early as the eighth century. Namasu is thinly sliced raw fish that is eaten with a vinegar-based dressing poured over it. The dressing may contain
spices, such as a salted paste of grated ginger and the sharp-tasting tade...or miso...The there was a time when the words namasu and sashimi were synonymous,
sashimi took on a different meaning when the current style was established in the Edo period. Namasu is cut into long cord-like pieces and dressed, whereas sashimi
appears to have originated with city dwellers. Wasabi was a wild plant until sashimi became popular in the Edo period and the supply could no longer meet the demand,
after which it became domesticated...Before modern refrigeration and transport technologies were developed, people in inland areas have very few chances to eat sea-fish
sashimi, which made it the symbol of a great feast. From the 1960s sashimi has been a regular item on the Japanese dinner table..."
Food historians tell us duck cookery may have originated
in
China thousands of years ago. Peking duck is considered one of the most famous examples.
Notes
here:
"Peking duck,...a term most used for a special way of cooking duck which produces what is
probably the most famous dish of Beijing (formerly Peking); and also the name for the variety of
duck used in this dish, and now commonly bred in many parts of the world. Chinese authorities
do
not attribute a very long history to the dish. Roast duck had been recorded from the distant past,
but his originally meant a Nanjing duck, of small size and black feathers, not artificially fattened.
The story goes that the transfer of the capital for Nanjing to Peiking brought unexpected results
for the duck which lived along side the canal used for grain supplies. These ducks, which like the
Nanjing ducks were mallard ducks, were now able to geast on grains which fell overboard from
barges, and they gradually became larger. In the course of time there evolved a new variety of
duck, not only larger but plumper, and with white plumage. The plumpness was increased by the
practice of force-feeding, mentioned in texts from the Five Dynasties in the 10th century AD.
This
new duck was appreciated outside of China...However, it was only in China, and indeed for a
long time only in Beijing, that the special dish known as Beijing kaoya (in China), Peking Duck
(in
English), and canard laque (in French) was prepared." (description of dish follows)
""Peking Duck"...is so famous that Chinese chefs my specialize in the dish, and restaurants serve
only dinners of Peking Duck...Peking Ducks are raised in a special way, sometimes even with a
particular oven in mind, and the dish is demanding to make and unusual in preparation and in the
way it is eaten. Though there are different ways of preparation, varying in elaborateness, one
described by Kenneth Lo...involved loosening of the skin of the carcass from the flesh by
inflating
with air; then hanging the bird up to dry; and, finally coating its skin with a sugary liquid before
roasting. The roast duck has crisp, brpwn skin and tender flesh, and both are consumed,
commonly rolled in a pancake with raw vegetables, such as spring onion and cucumber, and
piquant sauces and flavorings, and then eaten with the fingers."
"One of the world's great delicacies is a dish called "Peking Duck." It is, however, more shadow
than substance: the diner never sees the duck itself. This dish, eaten by wealthy Chinese, consists
of just the crisp skin, roasted to a beautiful glossy brown in a long process which takes a whole
day's labor. The meat of the duck is of such secondary importance that t used to be given to the
servants for their meal in the kitchen. This intriguing phenomenon of waste of food and effort
took place in a country ruled by the very rich, with a population that was very poor. Such excess
was not limited to China: pursue the histories of all such cultures and similar examples can be
found..."
BEGGAR'S CHICKEN
Mud and clay (natural earthenware) have been use for centuries as a cooking medium. They are
natural insulators and are excellent for slow cooking. Foods are cooked by steaming in their
natural juices. Indeed, the first casseroles may have been made from mud. About casseroles.
We find references to stories about Chinese "Beggars Chicken" (and "Beggar's Duck") being
cooked mud. Some of these web sites also mention Peking Duck. They are NOT the same thing.
True Peking (Beijing) Duck is always slowly open roasted, never steamed.
Take these notes for what they are...no references/authority cited:
"During the Song Dynasty, Peking duck was roasted inside a layer of mud from a lotus
pond."
"Legend has it that a Hangzhou thief invented "Beggars Chicken". As the thief had no stove, he
wrapped the stolen bird in clay and baked it in a hole in the ground."
Sweet and sour pork (chicken, beef, shrimp, etc,), as most Americans know it today, is a far cry
from the traditional Chinese cuisine. It does, however, derive from classical combinations of the
"five flavors." In China, sweet and sour sauce is not traditionally paired with pork. It is a seafood
dip. Other pungent sauces, such as hoisen and bean paste, are more commonly used in pork
cookery. It is also important to note that tomatoes (tomato paste/ketchup are typically used in
American sweet and sour recipes) are not native to China. They are "New World" foods.
"In China, vinegar is an important flavoring in dips, sauces (including sweet-and-sour sauce),
dressings, and in cooking of all sorts. Sweet-and-sour sauce is common in a range of dishes,
whereas other vinegar sauces and dips seem to be used especially with fish and other seafoods...
"Since sweet, along with sour, salty, pungent, and bitter, is one of the "five flavors" of
classical
Chinese cooking, its use in cooking is commonplace but always with the intent of retaining a
balance among the flavors. As a result, the amounts of sugar used are ordinarily quite small.
Even
sweet-and-sour dishes are apt to be a bit on the tart side, with sweet-and-sour sauce commonly
served separately so that the discriminating diner may use it in appropriate amounts. There are,
nevertheless, regional differences in use of sugar in cooking, as to counter the salty taste of soy
sauce in red-cooked dishes."
"Some say that the sweet-and-sour flavor principle originated in Honan, though others see its
origin elsewhere in China. Wherever the principle first developed, the sweet-and-sour sauce of
Honan and the north, made simply by mixing vinegar and sugar without tomato sauce or fruit, is,
in the eyes of the Cantonese, lacking in refinement...Traditionally the Cantonese did not like
sweet-and-sour dishes very much, the main exception being fish. They, like other Chinese, are
amused at the popularity among Westerners of pork and chicken prepared this way; in fact, some
Cantonese are now rejecting sweet-and-sour pork "because it is so thoroughly linked with the
barbarians'."
"Sweet-sour sauce in most of China is also canonically associated with fish, and Chinese never
cease to be amused at Westerners' fondness for this sauce on chicken and pork."
"About sweet-and-sour pork, the following may be said. Traditionally, this was a rare dish, and
not well liked. Cantonese more often cook sweet-sour fish, especially yellow croaker. The recipe
is northern and eastern in origin, though long borrowed into the south. It is best with freshwater
fish in Honan. Real sweet-sour fish or pork is at least as sour as sweet and includes no fruit. Real
Cantonese sweet-sour pork is a real dish, although not as good as the yellow croaker, but many
Cantonese avoid it now becasue it is so thoroughly linkedwith the "barbarians."
"The French habit of serving everything drowned in causes would repel a Chinese gourmet; he
prefers to dip the food in sauce at will, thus keeping it crisp and controlling the amount of sauce
per bite. Sweet-sour dishes are often served with the sweet-sour sauce on the side, and among
sophistcated Cantonese this is especially typical; the method of drowning the meat in the sauce,
but Chinese restaurants outside the country, is a concession to undiscriminating tastes. Many
dishes have their "official" dip sauce; in Cantonese food, examples would be chili-and-soy sauce
for boiled prawns and vinegar for fresh crab; in Teochiu food, vinegar and freshly crushed garlic
for steamed goose, and a strange, fascinating sauce with a malt syrup base for certain types of
fish
balls."
About pork in Chinese cuisine
Sweet and sour dishes are not unique to China. They are enjoyed by many cultures and cuisines:
"People everywhere enjoy the naturally occuring sweet-acid balance of ripe fruit, but deliberate
production of sweet and sour by combining specific ingredients is more limited. A well-known
modern use of sweet and sour is the meat and fish dishes from the Guangdong region of China.
SE Asian dishes and Indian food have some sweet-sour items but generally tend towards the sour
and salty. Further west, however, the use of sweet-sour combination reappears in subtle forms in
W. Asia, the Middle East, and N. Africa. Here the sharp-sweet qualities of fruits such as apricots,
pomegranates, and quinces are exploited in meat dishes. Across the Mediterranean, in Sicily,
agrodolce dishes employ vinegar and raisins with vegetables...while in mainland Italy sauces
based
on similar principles are used with game. These may be of very ancient origin: a honey and
vinegar sauce, with pine nuts, sultanas, herbs, and spices was described by Apicius. Sugar,
redcurrant jelly, and sometimes chocolate are now used as sweetening agents in agrodolce sauces
for meat. In Scandinavia and C. Europe, sweet-sour combinations are basic to the cookery...In the
field of preserves, sweet...and acid...appear in the chutneys and brown sauces popular in Britain.
These are descendants of 17th- and 18th-century attempts to copy Indian sweet-sour preserves of
ripe mangues and other fruit. An earlier British taste for sweet-sour combinations can be
glimpsed
in sugar, fruit, and verjuice mixtures used in meat dishes in medieval times, a use which was then
widespread in Europe."
Sweet-and-sour meat dishes featuring pineapple became popular in the United States in the
1950s
and 1960s. These were typically called "Hawaiian dishes" and were served in Polynesian-style
restaurants. Think Trader Vics and Tiki lounges. About Chinese food
in America.
Food historians tell us teryaki (and sukiyaki, yakitori) were probably first made by Japanese
cooks
in the
17th century. These foods are intertwined ( yaki' means grilled) and the recipes include some of
the same
ingredients. What separates teriyaki from the other recipes is the sauce. Teriyaki dishes became
popular in
the United States in the 1960s, when Japanese restaurants began to proliferate (think Benihana's).
Today,
teriyaki (chicken, beef, pork, fish) remains a popular Japanese dish in Western cultures.
Traditional teriyaki
glaze is made with sake and mirin. Today, a wide variety of concoctions, both home-made and
manufactured, are passed as teriyaki sauce.
ABOUT TERIYAKI
"...such popular and internationally known dishes suchs as...teriyaki, which...developed during
the
Edo
period, are...meant to be eaten with soy sauce." (P. 116)
"In Japanese cooking, skillets are not summarily put aside in favor of charcoal fires and
skewers...Since the
use of a pan or griddle also is defined by the verb 'yaku', such cooking is a part of the wide
'yakimono'
("grilled things") category. Cooking skewered foods over charcoal is the orthodox Japanese
method; the
use of a pan is something of a stepchild or secondary technique, though often employed. Though
many
meats may be cooked both ways, some things are strictly skillet food...The various kinds of
teriyaki are
good examples. But a digression is in order to define teriyaki. In American-Japanese (and some
Western)
restaurants one often hears a menu-reader's voice wafting from some table, "What does
'teriyaki-style'
mean?" As it has come to be known and adapted in the United States,the word teriyaki is applied
to meat of
shellfish, grilled on skewers or pan-broiled, which has been flavored either by marination or by
application
of a "teriyaki sauce." In Japanese cooking, teriyaki refers to a sweet sour-sauce-based glaze that
is
applied
in the last stages of grilling or pan-frying to fish, chicken, beef, and pork. Teri literally translated
as "gloss"
or "luster" and describes the sheen of the sauce that goes over the broiled (yaki) foods."
"Chicken teriyaki is one of the most popular dishes on the menus of Japanese restaurants outside
of
Japan."
About Chicken in Japanese cuisine
ABOUT SAKE (rice wine) & MIRIN (a sweet version of sake)
ABOUT SOY SAUCE
ABOUT YAKITORI
"Yakitori. Bite-sized pices of chicken grilled on a skewer. Many parts of the chicken, including
the skin and the gizzard,
are used. Other birds are also used, especially sparrow, the head being crunched whole. Yakitori
is a very popular
tsumamimono and many simple drinking places specialize in it."
"Yakitori is a sort of Japanese chicken kebab. Chunks of chicken are threaded on to skewers and
grilled by being basted
with a sauce made from soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar. They are a popular Japanese snack,
being
served from yakitori
stands and in yakitori bars. The word is a compound formed from yaki, grill, cook' and tori,
bird'."
ABOUT SUKIYAKI
Woks are inventions of necessity: in lands where fuel is scarce, foods must be
cooked quickly. The semipsherical curve of the wok permits maximum cooking surface based on
minimal fuel contact. This explains (in part) why foods destined for the wok are routinely
chopped
into small, thin slices. They cook faster that way. The wok is also the ultimate tool of kitchen
convenience, as it can be used to boil, sautee, stir-fry, deep-fry and steam. As one pot cooks all,
clean-up is likewise minimal. According to the food historians, woks have been around for about
two thousand years.
"Wok is a Cantonese word; the Mandarin is kuo. The wok appears to be a rather recent
acquisition as Chinese kitchen furniture goes; it has been around for only two thousandyears. The
first woks I know of are little pottery models on the pottery stove modes in Han Dynasty tombs.
Since the same sort of pan is universal in India and Southeast Asia, were it is known as a kuali in
several languages, I strongly suspect borrowing (probably from India via Central Asia)--kuo must
have evolved from some word close to kuali, The wok is virtually indespensible for stir-frying,
and this I infer that this cooking technique was a Han invention, perhaps also borrowed or
adapted from a borrowed technique. The great virtue of a wok, and its main special function in
south Asia, is that when food is stewed in a a wok the liquid evaporates very fast, because the
surface-to-liquid ratio is high and the smooth curve of the wok sides allows flame or heated air to
rise rapidly, smoothly, and evenly along all the vessel.The wok may well have evolved as a tool
for making curry, in which a reduction of liquid to a thick gravy or even a crust is generally
desired. The fact that the wok is also perfect for stir-frying must have been appreciated for a long
time as well. The smooth, even distribution of high heat is the wok's second vital, distinctive
feature. This allows, among other things, a tremendous saving of fuel--few pans are more
economical. A Wok should be thick and made of a rather slow-heating substance; otherwise it is
hard to prevent the food's burning to the bottom of the pan. The original woks were almost
certainly of pottery; pottery pans of similar shape with wide, shallow covers are used in
Southeast Asia for slow liquid-reducing stewing. Today, good woks are made of cast iron...The
old soft-iron wok, like its Western counterpart, the cast iron skillet, also added a good deal of
iron to the diet, since some iron dissolved into the food."
" Chinese cooking is the cooking of scarcity. Whatever the emperors and warlords may have had,
the vast majority of Chinese spent their lives short of fuel, cooking oil, utensils, and even water',
comments anthropologist E.N. Anderson. This points to the use of braziers. Originally made of
pottery, these are now often galvanized buckets. While foods are frequently boiled and steamed,
the brazier also offers the most famous Chinese method, stir-frying or ch'ao.
The division in Chinese cooking between fan and ts'ai--the rice (or other cereal) and its
accompaniment--is reflected in the modern kitchen with the rice cooker and the wok (Cantonese)
or kuo (Mandarin). The wok is the standard curved pan ideal for stir-frying, as well as for
deep-frying, boiling and, with racks in it, steaming. Its main function in south Asia (where it is
known as a kuali in several languages) is quick stewing and evaporation. Stir-frying is likely to
have been
a Han invention, which makes it about 2000 years old. Although it is not directly mentioned in
the
texts, Anderson infers this from the great stress on slicing foods thinkly and evenly and the
presence of a pottery model woks in the archaeolgical record. He also mentions models of large
kitchen ranges with apertures for the curved bottoms of woks."
"Characteristic of cooking in the home is the chopping of ingredients into uniform small pieces,
followed by their rapid cooking, usually sauteeing in a semispherical iron skillet or wok. The
cooking is done with little fat but with a gamut of seasonings dominated by soy sauce, fresh
ginger, scallions, sesame oil, Chinese vinegar, fagara, and chili peppers. Such preparation of food
makes for a remarkable economy of equipment. In addition to a rice cookery, all that is needed to
prepare any dish is a chopping board--a simple tree "slice" 5 to 10 centimeters in thickness--a
cleaver, the wok, and a cooking spatula. In the city most people cook on a gass ring; in the
countryside they have a brick stove with several holes on the top so that the wok can be placed
directly over the flame. Since fuel is scarce and expensive, it is always used sparingly, which has
given rise to the widespread practice of quick stir-frying over high heat."
If you need more information on the origin of the Wok we suggest you ask your librarian how to
find books on ancient China and chinese pottery.
The history of won tons is intertwined with the history of stuffed dumplings and pasta foods
enjoyed in by many
cultures and
cuisines. About dumplings, pasta &
ravioli
(stuffed pasta products)
"Wonton (or won ton), the Anglicized form of two Chinese words meaning a small dumpling' or
roll
consisting of a wonton wrapper (made form the same dough as egg noodle) with a savoury
filling,
especially of minced pork with seasonings. Sweet wontons, e.g. with a date and walnut filling,
also exist.
Wontons may be steamed or pan fried or deep-fried; and are often served in soups, or as items in
dim sum.
One variation is to have open-faced steamed wontons, shaped to have a flat bottom so that they
will stand
upright; these are shao mai..."
"THE stuffed dumpling, humble as it may seem, is a dish with a fascinating history, going back
many centuries and
interwoven into the cuisines of a number of countries. The story has often been told of Marco
Polo arriving in China
during the 13th century and discovering with delight that the Chinese were producing a variety of
stuffed noodles that
included won ton. So impressed was he that he brought the secrets back to Italy. That tale is
considered apocryphal by
both the Chinese and Italians, but wouldn't it be fascinating to know how the two cuisines are
related?
"Similarly, what about the pelmeni of Russia? These are delectable Siberian dumplings filled
with
meat or mushrooms
or potatoes or cabbage. What cook traveled the roads from Canton, or wherever, to the Irtysh
River in the cold plateaus
of Siberia, bringing with him the goodness of filled pasta? Or consider the kreplach, the filled
dumpling held in such
high esteem in the Jewish kitchen. The migrations of the Jews, carrying with them a culinary
heritage from various parts
of the world, are well known, as is the fact that many Jewish specialties are borrowings from the
Russian. At what point
did the pelmeni turn into kreplach, with its economical use of ground cooked beef as the filling?
"That use of cooked meat, probably from a soup or stew, is also characteristic of dumplings. The
lack of kosher meat in
medieval ghettos dictated that there be ways to stretch a meager supply from one meal to another.
The uses to which
dumplings are put are intriguing as well. They are probably most often used in soups, and yet a
wide array of sauces may
also be served with them. Won tons, for example, go deliciously with a blend of soy sauce,
garlic,
vinegar, grated ginger,
hot chilies and the like, a combination that would seem odd to an Italian chef thinking of ravioli.
For ravioli there is
nothing like a tomato sauce with freshly grated cheese or alla panna - a reduction of heavy cream
and cheese. Or (as they
do in Rapallo when they serve pansotti, a form of ravioli) a salsa di noce made with walnuts and
a
form of ricotta cheese.
"Curiously, however, the Siberians and those who prepare pelmeni are not averse to serving them
with a sauce somew
hat akin to the Chinese soy sauce, vinegar and herb combination. Pelmeni are often served with a
mustard sauce, sour
cream and chopped dill. Kreplach, like the Chinese dumplings, are often fried in fat (butter or
chicken fat, for example)
rather than served in soup.What follow are our versions of these stuffed dumplings. It is difficult
to pinpoint the exact
yield of filled dumplings because it depends on the thickness to which the noodle dough is rolled
out, the amount of
filling allotted to each dumpling and the caution exercised by the cook in cutting out the dough to
be filled."
About krelpach (Jewish wonton)
RELATED FOODS?
About culinary research & about copyright.
Asian food was introduced to the United States in the mid-1800's when Chinese immigrants from
Canton began settling in California. At that time the food was consumed primarily by the
Chinese
community. Chinese food became popular with young cosmopolitans in the 1920s because it was
considered exotic. It wasn't until after World War II that Asian cuisines (notably Chinese,
Japanese and Polynesian) piqued the interest of mainstream America. Sylvia Lovegren's
Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads [MacMillan:New York] 1995 describes
America's 20th century Asian food fads. In the 1960s Polynesian theme restaurants and tiki bars
were all the rage.
---The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, Gloria Bley Miller [Grosset & Dunlap:New
York] (p. 15)
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones, 2nd edition [Vintage Books:New
York] 1981 (p. 166-7)
---America Eats Out, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 76-80)
[NOTE: This book has far more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask your librarian to
help you find a copy]
Chinese-American Cook Books:
California rolls
---The Book of Sushi, Kinjiro Omae and Yuzuru Tachibana [Kodansha
International:Tokyo] 1981 (p. 76)
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 53)
"California roll (4 servings)
The Tokyo Kaikan restaurant is still in business, though they do not seem to
have e-mail. If you would like to speak directly to them:
Born in California, popularized by sushi chefs throughout the U.S., this sushi has also reached
the
shores of Japan, becoming a favorite with all sushi lovers. Its special filling of avocado, crab roe,
sesame seeds, and cucumber make this roll beautiful and tasty.
1 small ripe avocado
1/2 European cucumber
2 sheets nori seaweed, toasted
4 cups Basic Sushi Rice
1 tablspoon wasabi paste
2 tablespoons crab roe
---The Poetical Pursuit of Food: Japanese Recipes for American Cooks, Sonoko Kondo
[Clarkson
Potter: New York] 1986 (p. 147)
Tokyo Kaikan
225 S. San Pedro St.
Los Angeles, California USA
(213) 489-1333
---Adapting American Foods to Japanese Cuisine, Florence Fabricant, New York Times,
October
6, 1982 (p. C1)
"I was informed that the ingredients in the "California Roll" have not
changed [since the 1970s]. The California Roll remains pretty much use the same ingredient.
However, Ingredient
in the California Rolls "Crab meat" may be substitute from the real crab meat to an imitation crab
meat. It has an advantage and disadvantages. If, you enjoy the rich taste of a real crab meat and
your body can tolerate its content, it is certainly a delightful and enjoyable roll.
If, you prefer less cholesterol, the imitation crab may be suitable and the taste as
the same as the real crab meat, almost..."
Chop suey
Chop suey was
invented, fact or fiction?, Library of Congress.
---Bacon, Beans and Galantines: Food and Foodways on the Western Mining Frontier, Joseph R. Conlin [University of Nevada Press:
Reno] 1986 (p. 192-3)
"Last of all, chop suey is not--as many would-be connoisseurs belive--an American invention. As
Li Shu-fan points out in his delightful autobiography, Hong Kong Surgeon (1964), it is a
local Toisanese dish. Toisan is an rural district south of Canton, the home for most of the early
immigrants from Kwangtung to California. The name is Cantonese tsap seui (Mandarin tsa sui),
"Miscellaneous scraps." Basically , it is leftover of odd-lot vegetables stir-fried together. Noodles
are often included. Bean sprouts are almost invariably present, but the rest of the dish varies
according to whatever is around. The origin myth of chop suey is that it was invented in San
Francisco, when someone demanded food late at night at a small Chinese restaurant. Out of food,
the restaurant cooked up the day's slops, and chop suey was born. (The "someone" can be a
Chinese dignitary, a band of drunken miners, a San Francisco political boss, and so on.)"
---Food of China, E. N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven] 1988 (p. 212-3)
Historians also agree chow mein most likely migrated to America with Chinese immigrants in
the
mid-19th century. Yes, this food (and many others) has endured several changes over the
years...from indigenious cooks to Americanized restaurant selections to canned versions and
frozen entrees.
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999
(p.
183)
A Chinese-American dish made of stewed vegetables and meat with fried noodles. The term
comes from Mandarin Chinese ch'ao mien', "fried noodles," and probably was brought to the
United States by Chinese cooks serving the workers on the western railroads in the 1850s. The
word first appears in print in 1900. Although most chow mein bears scant resemblance to true
Mandarin cooking, it has become a staple in Chinese-American restaurants...Owing to its
inexpensive ingredients, chow mein has long been a lunch dish in American school
cafeterias."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 83)
---Fashionable Food, Sylvia Lovegren (p. 91)
[NOTE: This book as plenty of information on the introduction of Chinese food to
America...ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]
---Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, Gloria Bley Miller [Grosset & Dunlap:New
York] (p. 630-1)
---Food of China, E. N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven Ct] 1988 (p. 215)
an important institution of Cantonese cuisine which has become increasingly visible in
'Chinatowns' outside China has been China, has been described by Yan-Kit So...Literally
translated as 'so close to the heart', they are, in reality a large range of hors d'oeuvres Cantonese
people traditionally enjoy in restaurants (previously teahouses) for breakfast and for lunch, but
never for dinner, washed down with tea. 'Let's go yumcha (to drink tea)' is understood among the
Cantonese to mean going to a restaurant for dimsum; such is the twin linkage between the food
and the beverage...The range of dimsum in a restaurant easily numbers several dozen and they
come under these main varieties: the steamed, the fried and the deep-fried..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999
(p.
250)
[NOTE: This book has much more information & desciption than can be paraphrased here. Ask
your local public librarian to help you find a copy of this book.]
---The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, Gloria Bley Miller [Grosset & Dunlap:New
York] (p. 698)
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 308)
---"For fresh, contemporary flavor with ancient Asian flair, nothing beats; SPRING ROLLS,"
The Houston Chronicle, July 26, 2000, (Food P. 1)
Fortune Cookies
--- Encyclopedia of American
Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (page 132).
---Food of China, E. N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven] 1988 (p. 213)
"Fortune cookies: No ancient chinese secret,"Crain's Chicago Business, 03/22/99, Vol. 22
Issue 12, p2, 2/7p
[NOTE: this article has information about the fortunes contained in the cookies. You will find
several other articles on the history and business aspects of fortune cookies using the EBSCO
databases. Ask your librarian how you can access theses databses.]
Fried rice
---The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cook Book, Gloria Bley Miller [Grosset &
Dunlap:New
York] 1975 (p. 632-3)
---Food of China, E.N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven CT] 1988 (p. 212)
Chow Faan. There are more ways to make fried rice than I would care to count. Which is more
authentically Chinese?...Fried rice, Chinese style, can be varied infinately by following a basic
recipe and just changing the main ingredients used in conjunction with the rice. Roast pork, ham,
chicken, or any type of seafood or preserved meats may be used."
---Jim Lee's Chinese Cook Book, Jim Lee [Harper Row:New York] 1968 (p. 272-3)
"The [American] restaurant convention of ordering a dish of fried rice with numerous other
main' courses, or ordering it place of white rice, is Western and not Chinese at all."
---The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cook Book, Gloria Bley Miller [Grosset &
Dunlap:New
York] 1975 (p. 633)
---page through to read the entire chapter
Sushi & sashimi
---Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, Shizou Tsuji [Kodansha International:New York] 1980 (p. 285-288)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2007 (p. 772)
---The Book of Sushi, Kinjiro Omae and Yuzuru Tachibana [Kodansha International:New York] 1981 (p. 104-108)
---The History and Culture of Japanese Food, Naomichi Ishige [Kegan Paul:London] 2001 (p. 227-231)
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 301)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2007 (p. 695)
---Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, Shizou Tsuji [Kodansha International:New York] 1980 (p. 159)
---The History and Culture of Japanese Food, Naomichi Ishige [Kegan Paul:London] 2001 (p. 224-227)
Peking duck & beggar's chicken
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999
(p. 593)
---Food in China: A Cultural and Historical Inquiry, Frederick J. Simoons [CRC
Press:Boca Raton FL] 1991 (p. 301)
---Jim Lee's Chinese Cook Book, Jim Lee [Harper & Row:New York] 1968 (p. 181)
http://www.kowloontraders.com/june98.html
http://www.chinaadviser.com/chinese_food.html
Sweet & sour pork
---Food in China: A Cultural and Historical Inquiry, Frederick J. Simoons [CRC
Press:Boca Raton] 1991 (p. 374, 381)
[NOTE: This book is an important reference tool for anyone studying the history of Chinese
cuisine and its ingredients. If you need more information ask your school's librarian to help you
find a copy.]
---Food in China (P. 58)
---Food of China, E. N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven] 1988 (p. 192)
---ibid (p. 212)
---"Modern China: South," Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical
Perspectives, edited by K.C. Chang [Yale University Press:New Haven] 1977 (p. 362)
"The prolific little pig was an ideal food animal in the context of China's developing social
system.
When large populations are involved in intensive crop cultivation, their animal husbandry usually
extends only to keeping a few draught animals, certainly not to rearing grazing stock food. The
Chinese pig, however, was small enough to be kept in the house, could be fed on scraps at no
cost
to the owner, matured at the age of a year, and produced bountiful litters annually from tehn on,
each consisting of up to a dozen piglets. It was hardly suprising that, for the Chinese, the words
meat' and pork' became, and remain, synonymous."
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers Press:New York] 1988 (p. 41-0)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999
(p.
772-3)
Teriyaki, sukiyaki & yakitori
"Teriyaki, a term which refers to a special glaze applied to fish, meat, or fowl in the final stages
of
grilling or
pan-frying. This glaze is sweet and is based on a trio of favorite Japanese ingredients: soy sauce,
Sake, and
Mirin. Teri means gloss and yaki...refers to griling or pan-frying."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999
(p.
416)
---The History and Culture of Japanese Food, Naomichi Ishige [Keegan Paul:London]
2001
[NOTE: the Edo period began in the 1600s]
---Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, Shizuo Tsuji [Kodansha International:Tokyo] 1980
(p. 198-9)
---The Japanese Kitchen, Hiroko Shimbo [Harvard Common Press:Boston] 2000 (p. 413)
:
"Chicken was long held taboo [in Japan] as a foodstuff, but it appeared in seventeenth-century
cookbooks. Eating the
flesh of mammals for medicinal purposes was permissable, and sometimes healthy people ate it
as
tonic. The ususal
medicine eating' fare was deer or wild boar...The meat of choice in the latter part of the
nineteenth century was beef."
---The History and Culture of Japanese Food, Naomichi Ishige [Keegan Paul:London]
2001 (p. 146-7)
"Rice wine or sake, which was homemade by farmers, is a result of the alcoholic fermentation of
a
simple mixture of
steamed rice, koji and water. Professional brewers would prepare sake by adding low-alcohol
sake to newly mixed
steamed rice and koji without previous filtering. This process causes saccharification and
alcoholic fermentation at the
same time and increases the alcoholic strength of the mixture. In contemporary commercial
production, such a process is
repeated three times to increase the amount of alcohol to nearly 20 percent. The mixture is then
placed in a cloth bag and
squeezed with a press. The pasteurization of the clear liquid from the press is the last part of the
process. The latter
technique was first mentioned in A.D. 1568, in the Tamonin-nikki, the diary of a Buddhist monk,
indicating its practice
in Japan some 300 years before Louis Pasteur. In China, the first country in East Asia to develop
the technique, the
earliest record of the process dates from A.D.1117."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas
[Cambridge University
Press:Cambridge] 2001, Volume Two (p. 1180)
[NOTE: This book notes "Indeed, most traditional dishes served in homes and restaurants today
had their origins in the
Edo period. (P. 1181). ]
"Soy sauce. The universal condiment of China and Japan, is also widely used throughout SE
Asia.
It is the main
condiment of Indonesia, where soya beans are grown extensively...Altough soya beans have been
grown in China for at
least 3.500 years, the sauce is a slighlty more recent invention. It was develolped during the Zhou
dynasty (1134-246
BC) , and probably evolved in conjunction with the fermented fish sauces, many of which
involved both fish and rice.
The moulds Aspergillus oryzae and A, soyae are the principal agents in producing soy sauce, and
the enzymes which
they provide are similar to those which ferment fish sauce. These organisms are common and
could accidentally have got
to work on soya beans, with results which would have been recognized as a fishless fish sauce'.
Early soy sauce was a
solid paste known as sho or mesho. This developed into two products, liquid shoyu and solid
miso. In China the liquid
sauce is used more than the paste, while in Japan both are of equal importance. The European
name soy' (similar in all
languages) originates with the 17th-century Dutch traders who brought the sauce back to Europe,
where it became
popualr despite its high price."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999
(p.
740)
Food historians tell us although the ingredients (chicken/soy sauce) and cooking methods are
ancient, this particular
recipe is relatively new. Yakitori is popular Japanese dish is composed of bite-sized chunks of
marinaded chicken grilled
on a skewers. According to John Mariani's Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink
[Lebhar-Freidman:New
York 1999] yakitori entered the American scene in the early 1960s. This coincides neatly with
the
emergence of
Japanese steak houses (Benihana's). Trader Vic's cookbook [1968] has a recipe for Yakitori,
probably one of the first in
an American cookbook.
---A Dictionary of Japanese Food, Richard Hosking [Charles Tuttle:Rutland Vermont]
1997 (p. 172)
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 372)
"The word sukiyaki seems to have originated as a compound of the words for plough (suki) and
grilled (yaki). Several
cookbooks from the Edo period describe a sukiyaki which consisted of fish or fowl grilled on an
iron ploughshare over a
charcoal fire. (The blade of the traditional Japanese plough is flatter than the Western counterpart
an d hence more
suitable for grilling)...Sukiyaki ingredients and recipes still differ from region to region, and from
home to home as
well...Sukiyaki is cooked at the dining table. Formerly a portable charcoal stove was used, and
today the sukiyaki pan is
placed over a gas fire...Sukiyaki...[is a] nabemo (one pot dish), a category that also includes fish,
chicken and tofu
stews. The nabemono ingredients are boiled over a heat source set on or in the table, and the
diner
plucks them with
chopsticks. Eaten directly form the boiling pot, nabe cuisine is very warming, and is hence a
winter food. Preparing the
ingredients is quick andeasy, and everyone sitting around the pot shares the pleasure of playing
chef...The current style
of cooking and eating one-pot stews, exemplified by sukiyaki, dates from the Meiki period but
nabe cuisine has a much
older history. The main difference is that instead of sitting around a single large pot, people in
former times used
personal cooking pots."
---The History and Culture of Japanese Food, Naomichi Ishige [Keegan Paul:London]
2001 (p. 232-235)
Wok cookery
---The Food of China, E. N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven] 1988 (p.
184-5)
---A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons [University of Illinois:Urbana]
2000
(p. 78)
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas
[Cambrdige University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1169)
[NOTE: This book has a long list of citation for further study.]
Wontons
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999
(p.
850)
---STUFFED DUMPLINGS: THEY GET AROUND, CRAIG CLAIBORNE, The New York
Times, February
10, 1982, Section C; Page 1, Column 5; Living Desk
"The traditional kreplach is similar to a wonton and was brought either by the Khazars to Polish
lands or by Jews trading in China, who learned to make them there."
---Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1998 (p. 113)
dumplings, dim sum & eggrolls.
About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are not meant
to be a
comprehensive treatment of the subject, but a summary of salient points supported with culinary
evidence. If you
need more information we suggest you start by asking your librarian to help you find the books
and articles cited in these notes. Article databases are good for locating current recipes, consumer
trends, and new products.
Have questions? Ask!
Research conducted by Lynne
Olver, editor The Food
Timeline. About this site.