Chandavkl's Menuism Blog

In the annals of Chinese-American food there is no dish more unique than Springfield cashew chicken. Now you're probably shaking your head, side to side, because cashew chicken has been a staple for decades in Cantonese restaurants all over the United States. But Springfield cashew chicken is different on two counts. First of all, the manner of preparation, which produces a deep fried, breaded chicken nugget served in brown gravy with sliced cashews, is far different from the typical cashew chicken that is unbreaded and stir-fried with vegetables. But more importantly, Springfield cashew chicken has been adopted as a signature dish by the entire community, yet is seldom seem outside of Springfield. I first heard about Springfield cashew chicken in the 1980s and was immediately intrigued, but when would I ever visit Springfield, MO?  But in 2012, when I went viral in Clarissa Wei's article on how I had eaten at over 6,000 different Chinese restaurants, in the article she asked m...

In the late 1970s I assembled some of my historic postcards of American Chinatowns, including cards showing Chinese restaurants, into a presentation called A Postcard View of Chinatown.  I gave this presentation a few times, including at the 1980 national Chinese American studies conference sponsored by the Chinese Historical Society of America and held at the Chinese Cultural Center in what was then the Holiday Inn in San Francisco Chinatown.  In 1984, the papers presented at the conference were published in a book put out by the society, The Chinese American Experience.  This is the text of the article in that book   A Postcard View of Chinatown  The picture postcard is the sort of everyday item that we normally don't give a second thought.  Most people consider the picture postcard merely a convenient way to write the folks back home or a nice souvenir from a trip.  But there is more to the picture postcard than meets the eye.  As a pictori...

Referring to a restaurant as a hole-in-the-wall may bring a mixed message.  While it often is associated with surprisingly good food, it also often carries a connotation of the premises being dingy and less than high class.  And indeed, the latter is likely the case when used in the description of a Chinese restaurant, particularly since so many Chinese restaurants have been family operated, historically operated on a shoestring, with no available budget for ambiance.   But indeed, the times one again seem to be changing, as there is a growing parade of good hole-in-the-wall restaurants that are bright and cheery, and which ups the enjoyment. The catalyst appears to be the muralization of restaurant walls in Mainland China, which has particularly spread to in the past couple of years led to newly opened and refurbished small Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley and other parts of Los Angeles, and which presumably is also occurring in the rest of the United S...

Nowadays we take it for granted that May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month in the United States.  Netflix and all the television streaming services have their special selection of Asian American programming, and reminders of the celebratory nature of the month are everywhere.  But in the beginning, there was only an Asian Pacific American Heritage WEEK, and since this was a new event that nobody had ever heard of, I was grabbed to give the keynote speech at the very first commemoration of the occasion in Los Angeles Chinatown at the Golden Dragon Restaurant on August 9, 1979.   Recently, I found my hand drafted copy of my speech (this before home computers were invented and years before anybody would hear of the Internet (which used to be capitalized)).  So I thought this would be a good time to add that presentation to today's internet.     It’s a pleasure being part of this gathering commemorating Asian Pacific American Heritage Week.   I though...