Chinese food then and now (Childhood La Choy vs Real stuff, lol)

[vintagekitchen]

So, decided I wanted some nasty trashy comfort food tonight, lol. I made some rice, tossed some frozen egg rolls in the oven, and heated up one of those La Choy canned chicken chow mein deals, (the one with the 2 seperate cans taped together, and the lil can of chow mein noodles next to it on the shelf. Anyone remember those from childhood, lol?)

I started thinking, until I was like 15, this exact meal was the only kind of chinese food I knew, except the rice was Minute rice, and the egg rolls were purchased from the Schwanns freezer truck.

Now that I have had better, I know this is nothing like real chinese, but every now and then it makes for some easy trashy comfort food, and brings up a few memories of how exotic mom thought she was, cooking "chinese food" for dinner, lol..

Did anyone else grow up thinking this was real chinese, with a mom who thought she was so progressive and exotic for making it?

 

[frigilux]

My mom was from Italy, so nothing even vaguely Chinese ever appeared on our table. We'd get the stuff in the school cafeteria---the flavorless viscous sauce is what I recall most about it. And the horrid taste of canned bean sprouts and mushy celery.

I love restaurant or home-prepared Chinese food, but as with Chef Boy-Ar-Dee pizza mix in a box I'll skip the stuff off the store shelf.

But you are so right, Kevin; this was considered almost exotic in the mid-1960's.

 

[lordkenmore]

I certainly know about the two can chow mein. I may have had it growing up, although I'm not sure. If I did, it was probably a lunch item, not dinner. My mother did make chow mein using a recipe that she got from my grandmother. It probably deviated from authentic Chinese, but, as I recall, wasn't bad taken alone.

Most of the Chinese I remember from growing up was at a restaurant that we went somewhat regularly.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Mid 1960s.

In rural Kentucky it was still considered exotix in the 80's and early to mid 90's, lol..

I find truly rural areas have always tended to be about 20 years behind the rest of the world, but the internet is making short work of that.

However, yeah, when I was a kid, Italian meant spaghetti made with Ragu and hamburger, Mexican meant tacos from a box kit, and Chinese meant canned La Choy with Schwanns frozen egg rolls. Other than that, it was all a mix of upper south and midwest type food,(seasoning consisted of salt, pepper, and butter, lol).

Mom was actually ahead of a great many of my friends moms, as she would try to do "new" things fairly often, frozen Lasagna, adding a jar of salsa to the Ragu for spaghetti, using soft taco shells instead of hard sometimes, etc. I had friends whose mom's wouldnt even make spaghetti unless it was the Kraft spaghetti dinner in the green box, and most local fathers were old fashioned meat and potatoes types, who would give one hell of a roar if they didnt see a recognizeable familiar meat and some sort of potatoes on the table.

Basically, thanks to the area I grew up in, even though I am an 80's baby, I grew up with a childhood more similar to most 60's and 70's babies.

 

[arbilab]

I can be very fussy about Chinese restaurants. Specially considering what they charge. I can also scarf La Choy. It's pretty expensive for canned food. But it's also very low fat and calories. "SOME" of us have to think about things like that, even if we didn't 5 years ago.

 

[Ultramatic]

We had La Choy and Chung King available here, along with so

<span style="font-size: medium;"> Growing up in the late '60's to the '70's, I was a really picky eater as a kid so I could pretty much get whatever I wanted at the supermarket. Since these products were heavily advertised here in NYC, I tried them a few times. Yuk. With the exception of Chung Kings' Almond cookies and La Choys' noodles, which I liked,  I never ate them again. Frozen varieties was so-so. Of course, they could never compare to our local Chinese take out restaurants. Folk's favorite was Lee's, something right out of the 1940's. All the signage was neon, even had a sign out front that proclaimed "Air Conditioned For Your Comfort". Nowadays I get Ling-Ling's frozen dumplings and assorted frozen stuff from a Korean supermarket.  </span>

[this post was last edited: 8/19/2012-22:57]

 

[vintagekitchen]

Arbilab

Next time you make La Choy, try adding a splash of oyster sauce while it is heating. (Oyster sauce can be found in the oriental food section at Wal-mart, a bottle lasts forever).

I keep it around for a few recipes, and it actually makes a huge difference in the canned stuff. (As does a sprinkle of additional MSG if one isn't bothered by that sort of thing).

 

[vintagekitchen]

Restaurants...

Lets see..

When I was little we had Mcdonalds, Wendy's, Hardees, Sonic, Dominos, Pizza Hut, 2 country cooking type places, Lee's Famous Recipe, Druthers fish, and one of the old fashioned Dairy Queens with no indoor seating, that was only open in the summer.

When I was about 8, Dairy Queen bought the Druthers building when Druthers went out of business, and Dairy Queen became a year round place.

Around the time I was 9, we got a long John Silvers. Around that same time, Hardees went out of business, and a Taco Bell opened in the old Hardees Building.

That was it until I was about 15, when a chinese restaurant opened in town, (and to this day they have to offer catfish, chicken strips and fried potatoes on their buffet along with the regular items to keep the doors open.)

Around the time I was 17, we got a mexican restaurant.

Thats pretty much it, other than a second mexican place opening on the outskirts of town a few years back, one of the country cooking places burning down about 3 years ago, Dairy queen going out of business and becoming a Barbecue place 2 years ago, and Dominoes going out of business about 2 years ago.

Not much selection now, but better than when I was little. Back then your choices were basically pizza, burgers, chicken, or fish. (And mostly the local college students were the ones eating at the 2 pizza places back then.)

 

[arbilab]

VK, I splash it semi-liberally with Kikkoman soy sauce which I also use for beef marinade. I also make scratch fried rice. And Spanish rice.

My palate may not be too refined though. Before they stopped serving it I always loved airline food.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Can't eat that La Choy slop

I'd rather throw it out and eat the can. Just add soggy bean sprouts and MSG to last night's dishmachine water and thicken. Being a profesional chef and having eaten at REAL Chinese places I can't begin to stomach that crap. No Chinaman in his right mind would eat it.
Sorry for ranting, I won't go into Minute Rice. I am glad Kikkoman Soy Sauce was mentioned though as it is very good.
WK78

 

[mrb627]

Egg Foo Young

I don't recall which brand name it was exactly, but my mom used to fix egg foo young using eggs and a veggie mixture from a can. I used to love it! Those were the days.

Malcolm

 

[danemodsandy]

La Choy Wasn't the Worst....

....Somewhere in storage, I have a '50s "Good Housekeeping" with an ad for Dinty Moore Beef Stew that exhorts housewives to make a pseudo-Chinese dish out of it.

You were supposed to heat the stew, pour it over Chinese noodles and then douse it with soy sauce.

I think the result must have been the nadir of '50s product recipes. I honestly don't think you could go any lower.

 

[58limited]

Ewww. Dinty Moore beef stew is pretty bad to begin with, can't imagine how awful it would be with soy sauce.

 

I was fortunate growing up, my dad had a wok and liked to make wontons and a few other Chinese foods from scratch, tasted pretty good. We never ate La Choy or Chun King stuff.

 

[hunter]

all the time

I was born in 1965, and I ate La Choy stuff all the time.

I still remember the TV commercials

 

[nurdlinger]

Never ate any Chinese food at all until I was in college. (Yat Wah restaurant in East Lansing MI) That LaChoy/ChunKing stuff was never found in our house at home.

 

[jamiel]

Yat Wah....I remember it well. Went there the very first Sunday evening (September 1981) I was at Michigan State (a whole group from the floor went).

 

[whirlcool]

Good Chinese food is not that hard to make at home. We love Egg Foo Young and Kung Po chicken (Schezwan hot!) It's not really that bad to make. No more messier than making up some potato pancakes! There are a lot of internet recipes for Chinese cusine.

When I was growing up this Chinese family had a small take away restaurant near us.
My mother would occasionally order dinner from there. She always ordered the same thing, Chop Suey American style. Bland as anything you could eat. The menu from this take away place was quite extensive. I had asked my mother to try something else from this place and her reply was always the same "You wouldn't like anything else they have."

Once I asked the people who run the place why the food is so tasteless. They replied "In China we do not have Chop Suey. Suey for Americans only." Once I became an adult I was able to venture out and try a variety of Chinese food. And once I got to go to Asia I liked it even more. But when in Asia you have to be careful about what actually goes into the recipe of the food you are going to eat.

When it came to Italian food at our house, my mother used to torture us with Kraft Spaghetti from a box. If I remember the tomato sauce was a dehydrated powder you mixed in water. She'd dump everything in a saucepan and cook all at once. Then she stirred it up so much each piece of the spaghetti was no more than 1/3" long! Once I left home I never had anything like that again.

Whoops, this morning I spoke with my sister and she said the reason the Kraft Spaghetti was like that because my mother would break & crush the dried spaghetti before putting it in the water to cook. Yuk. [this post was last edited: 8/20/2012-15:47]

 

[tomturbomatic]

I remember "Quick cooked in dragon fire" from some commercial. Hope it was for Asian cuisine and not a clothes dryer.

 

[twintubdexter]

another one of my stories...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

My mom never fixed Chinese food although she was a first-class cook. I don't remember any La Choy or Chungking food either. What I do remember was a wonderful take-out Chinese food place called "Chopstick Kitchen." I don't recall their San Jose "Burbank" location from when I was a little kid but I do remember when they moved to Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen very well. They had wonderful food and the place was very cool. A wood screen door made that familiar slamming sound when you entered and there were glass windows with old Asian frames along one side where you could watch them preparing food in giant gas-fired woks. Before I was born my dad had his own one-man major appliance repair business on West San Carlos Street...downtown Burbank as it was then called. Dad repaired the Chopstick Kitchen's old 40's Frigidaire Meter-Miser fridge a couple of times and charged them nothing. This was typical of my dad, he was always doing repair work for free for friends and people who needed refrigeration work but had a difficult time paying. This was not one of my mom's favorite things. Anyway, the nice people that owned Chopstick Kitchen were always greatful and gave my parents "special deals." Years later when my partner and I lived in Cupertino I would hop on Freeway 280 and drive to a few miles to Lincoln Avenue to pick up food even though there were many great Chinese resturants in our area. You could still see the old Frigidaire in the back of the kitchen, a nice feeling. I was told the family actually lived some distance from San Jose and had been commuting which became a strain as they aged. The Chopstick Kitchen closed years ago and I have no idea what's in that small space now. I miss San Jose and in particular the Burbank area.

ps...as a kid, we called the little Dixie Cup-like containers of soy sauce "bug juice"

 

[lordkenmore]

"I remember 'Quick cooked in dragon fire' from some commercial. Hope it was for Asian cuisine and not a clothes dryer."

Unfortunately, I think I've encountered dryers like this!

 

[revvinkevin]

Egg Foo Young - Chinese? Not really.

 

 

The majority of the "Chinese food" you can order in many "Chinese" restaurants has been re-worked and watered down so much to please the American palete that there very little "Chinese" actually remains.   This is especially true when the nearest large community (population) of Chinese people is several hours away.

 

Egg foo young, Chop suey, Orange/lemon/pineapple chicken/pork/beef, Cashew chicken, and others for the most part, were all dishes created or highly modified for the American palate.

 

My ex is Chinese and being in the Los Angeles area, there are a large number if "real Chinese" restanrants within a 30 minute drive.   As we have been to them many times over the years, I much prefer them to any place not in a Chinese community.

 

 = = = = = = =

 

Yes I do remember the La Choy chow mein / chop suey in the can.  I assume we figured it was "Chinese" when growing up, but then we didn't know any better.

 

Kevin

 

[lordkenmore]

has been re-worked and watered down

I've heard people who visit China come back and comment that they found the cuisine there quite a bit different than their friendly neighborhood Chinese place.

I suppose I'm in the same position. I know which Chinese restaurants seemed the best, but beyond that...no idea.

 

[joe_in_philly]

I remember picking out the La Choy double can when I was a kid! I was so excited to try it, but I wasn't crazy about the taste. I was more intrigued by the double can concept. I agree with Kevin about the difference between American Chinese food and real Chinese food. In each county, the Chinese adapted their food to appeal to local tastes. I have enjoyed authentic Chinese food, but quickly learned to eat it first, and only ask what was in it after I finished. I end up eating Korean, Thai, Japanese, and even Korean Chinese food more often than American Chinese. I usually make Korean food once or twice a week since one of my best friends, who is Korean, has taught me how to make many different dishes. Other than often being high in sodium, Korean food has lots of vegetables and is pretty healthy.

My partner is Filipino, but grew up with servants, so he didn't learn to cook and doesn't know enough to teach me anything. I must admit that I am not very motivated to learn either. Filipino food is one of my least favorite Asian cuisines.

www.maangchi.com has a lot of good Korean recipes, and the no nonsense videos are easy to follow.

http://www.maangchi.com

 

[frigilux]

Allen-- Oh, man! That Kraft Spaghetti Dinner from a box sounds...awful. I'm sorry you were subjected to it. I, on the other hand, grew up with really wonderful Italian food. My mom (Italian) and dad (British) came over from Italy in 1946. While the Italian food was to die for, her initial attempts at things like beef stew were...let's be kind and call them very unsuccessful. She thought gravy was disgusting, so we rarely had that, either.

Kevin-- You had all those restaurants near you in rural Kentucky?! I grew up in a Minnesota town of 1,800 with a single greasy-spoon, mediocre cafe and a family-owned drive-in whose specialty was Broasted chicken, LOL! The nearest fast food/chain restaurant was 35 miles away.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Rural Kentucky

The "town" I live in was the county seat, and a college town, the only reason for the restaurants. Don't be too impressed, we didnt get a walmart until 1984, and it was a small one until 2 years ago, lol.

 

[xraytech]

I was practically a teenager before I had Chinese food. ComIng from a very small town with 2 eateries, one being a pizza shop with no delivery and a restaurant that is all about Broasted Chicken( not a bad thing as I love Broasted food).prior to my first Chinese buffet I thought that ramen noodles with beef flavoring packet was exotic. Still today there are very few things I'll eat, I like garlic chicken, chicken and broccoli, London, and egg rolls. I will not try anything that isn't chicken or anything without broccoli in it.
At home dad did t like stuff like that so it was meat and potatoes or pasta, we always had homemade spaghetti sauce, and lots of stew, meatloaf, and roasts, as well as Hungarian and other eastern European foods.

 

[arbilab]

Meat potatoes and pasta are my staples too. Brit heritage, couple centuries ago.

I've been to LA Chinatown with a Chinese guy, and 9 years in Hawaii at a lot of Chinese restaurants where 1/3 the population is Chinese and more than half the customers were. The preparation was better than most mainland C'ese 'urants but the menu items were largely the same. In Oklahoma City, only one CR I knew of did it right. Only half the staff spoke English. But OKC has the best chickenfry in the world, Ann's.

According to some there is a substantial difference between Cal-Mex and Tex-Mex styles but having lived/eaten in both places I couldn't tell you what it is.

 

[jerrod6]

Growing up we had a Chinese take out place, so often had their food on a Friday night.  Was not familiar with the prepared Chinese foods in supermarkets.   Later on I found them but where I live we have Asian supermarkets so prefer to make the stuff from scratch as most of it doesn't take much to do.  I've been making homemade Miso soup and having it for lunch.

 

Now I prefer Vietnamese food over Chinese.  I have made spring rolls with fish sauce, stir fried rice noodles with tofu and ginger, and a few other dishes but usually choose to go a Vietnamese restaurant and get it done right. 

 

[joe_in_philly]

I agree, Jerrod. Recently I made beef Pho at home. I spent $30 on the ingredients and hours buying and preparing everything. In the end, it wasn't as flavorful as the place a 10 minute walk from my house, which costs about $8 a bowl. I won't be doing that again.

 

[whirlcool]

I think Cal-Mex is lighter than Tex-Mex. Tex-Mex is your more normal everyday kind of food(Fajitas, Flour Tortillas, refried beans)where Cali-Mex is more of a fresh fish, more avocado, etc. kind of food. Foods which are more freshly prepared rather than maybe canned.