Chow Chop Suey: Food and the Chinese American Journey

Anne Mendelson

Published by Columbia University Press 2016

Chow Chop Suey

Food and the Chinese American Journey

Anne Mendelson

In the series Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History

https://doi.org/10.7312/mend15860

Overview
Contents

About this book

A food history that illuminates a community’s struggle for survival.

Author / Editor information

Anne Mendelson is a culinary historian and freelance writer specializing in food-related subjects. She has worked as editorial consultant and collaborator on several cookbooks and has contributed entries to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2005). She is the author of Milk (2008) and Stand Facing the Stove (1996).

Reviews

A solid choice for readers interested in Chinese immigration and U.S.-China history, as well as those curious about American foodways and culinary culture.

Anne Mendelson writes like the engaged scholar she is, with dry wit and easy, uncompromising erudition.... [Chow Chop Suey] is full of wonder.

Peter Ho Davies:
A timely and nuanced reminder that Chinese-American identity has long been conflated with Chinese food.

A deeply researched look at the history of Chinese food in the U.S. I'll be dipping into it for years.

Rachel Laudan, author of Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History:
Anne Mendelson brings together political and culinary history, showing that it was by inventing quasi-Chinese dishes that titillated American palates that Cantonese immigrants found a way to survive anti-Asia persecution. Gripping, authoritative, and timely.

Eugene N. Anderson, author of, Food and Environment in Early and Medieval China:
Chow Chop Suey is a well-written and insightful guide to the Chinese food scene in America. In a field full of myths, Anne Mendelson's book is accurate and detailed. A delightful read!

Paul Freedman, author of Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination:
There are other accounts of the American enthusiasm for Chinese food and the simultaneous persecution of Chinese immigrants. What makes Anne Mendelson's Chow Chop Suey unique is how it integrates cooking styles with American and Chinese cultural contrasts. Mendelson never loses sight of the food and how Chinese restaurants and American "experts" of various sorts shaped a cuisine that was both exotic and irresistible. No one has discussed in such a fascinating and authoritative way the American misunderstanding of basic Chinese culinary principles, the importance of a few key cookbooks and restaurants, and the gradual awakening of American palates to something resembling actual Chinese food in the postwar decades. Fun to read, judicious, and above all authoritative.

Carolyn Phillips, author of All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China and The Dim Sum Field Guide:
Well-written and impeccably researched, Chow Chop Suey is a beautiful ode both to the history of Chinese Americans and the intriguing ways in which China's rich food culture continues to take root here and flourish. Anne Mendelson's section on Chinese American cookbook writers is nothing less than a classic, for she brings sense and order to a long overlooked field with her customary clear perspective and dry wit. Mendelson is one of my favorite food writers and I'd expect nothing less, but this time she's outdone herself.

Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University and author of Soda Politics:
Chow Chop Suey is an eye-opener, a book that will give everyone a deep appreciation of the exquisite skill required to produce authentic Chinese food and the sweep of history that brought Chinese cooking to America. Anne Mendelson's prodigious research has given us a highly respectful, insightful, refreshing, wonderfully written, and utterly compelling account of the role and plight of Chinese restaurant workers in this country. I learned something new on every page.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
A Note on Romanization and Terminology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Prologue: A Stroke of the Pen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I
One. Origins: The Toisan–California Pipeline Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Two. The Culinary “Language” Barrier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
Three. “Celestials” on Gold Mountain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Four. The Road to Chinatown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Part II
Five. The Birth of Chinese American Cuisine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
Six. Change, Interchange, and the First Successful “Translators” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
Seven. White America Rediscovers Chinese Cuisine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Eight. An Advancement of Learning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Nine. The First Age of Race-Blind Immigration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Postscript: What Might Have Been Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Glossary of Chinese Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 352

eBook

Published: November 29, 2016
ISBN: 9780231541299