Depression Era Chinese-American Shrimp Fried Rice Recipe

It's no secret that I love historical cookbooks and Asian food. I was ecstatic to find The Chinese Cook Book printed in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1936.

Historical Cookbook? Asian Food? Local Food History? Take my money! 

This book was in print from 1934 all the way until the 1970s. Man Sing Au was a Chinese-American born in 1910. She married Kam Chow Tom in 1928. In 1940s she was living in Honolulu, Hawaii with her brother in law Major, Man Sing Au. Not much is known about her life but she was widowed by 1940.

Depression Era Chinese-American Shrimp Fried Rice

Ingredients:

- 5 Cups leftover White Rice
- 1 Pound Shrimp, washed and peeled
- 1 medium sized Onion, diced
- 1 stalk of Celery, chopped
- 1/2 cup White Mushrooms
- 3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
- 5 Eggs
- 3 Tablespoons Peanut or Cooking Oil
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- Pepper to taste.

Instructions:

Clean and wash your shrimp.  Heat your cooking oil in a large frying pan on wok on high heat. Fry your protein until half done. Add the onions and celery until and fry about 5 minutes. Add the rice, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Stir with a wooden turner until well mixed. Crack 5 eggs over the rice and stir until firm. Serve warm.

Breaking eggs directly over rice has been a point of contention in my family for years. My dad did this when he made Kao Pad (Thai fried rice) a recipe he became accustomed to during the Vietnam War. He insisted he cooked it perfectly, 15 year old me was sure he was doing it wrong. It definitely couldn't be the "authentic" way. It coated the rice and made it all sticky and didn't taste anything like any fried rice I got from restaurants.


I preferred to wait until the rice was cooked, make a divot in the center of the rice in the frying pan, add a little oil and scramble the egg in the divot in the pan until it was done, then quickly incorporating it into the rice. I've asked around to see which way is "most authentic" and, as you'd imagine, people do both.  But I was so sure as a kid that a separate egg must be the more authentic way. I cooked this while my family was away and have seemed to have forgotten to mention this discovery to my dad. :) 

 For this recipe, I ended up using some fake crab that I had on hand instead of the shrimp. The book mentions you can use bacon, ham, "Chicken, beef, pork, lobster or crab.. Also, any left-over meats, cut up in small pieces, can be utilized in the same manner and will make a very appetizing dish." It's a great way to use up leftover onion, celery, mushrooms and proteins that would otherwise go to waste. I will probably be cooking and sharing a few more recipes from this book. I've been eyeing up the Chop Suey and some of the tofu recipes.   

Day Trip: Philadelphia Chinatown

My Chinese History class went on a trip to Chinatown. I was very excited to hear that we would be doing something other than lectures (In college! How scandalous!) Our teacher gave us a tour and shared some of the history of Chinatown. It was very fun, Andy and I had never been there before.

The first thing you see in Chinatown is the Friendship Gate, built in 1984 to celebrate an agreement with Tianjin, a city in China, which is considered to be Chinatown's sister city.

There are a lot of street vendors and shops that sell traditional Chinese goods. We visited a fish market, where the fish were very fresh as well as a Chinese grocery store. Something that intrigued us was "Tea Eggs" sold on the street by a vendor. We were told that tea eggs are very popular in China and that they are sold by vendors as well as fast food chains there. They smelled very delicious and the marbling color of the eggs would make a very pretty party dish. A recipe can be found here: Asian-Fusion Recipes. I have yet to try one but they look great.

We saw lots of produce stands, many which included exotic fruits and vegetables including Durian, a spiky fruit that supposedly tastes delicious but smells really bad. It is also said to be the worlds most dangerous fruit. We also saw starfruit, which when you cut it open makes perfect star shaped fruit. This seems like it could have endless uses by a competent cook.    

 There were a lot of traditional Chinese restaurants, we ate Dim Sum, small portions of a lot of different kinds of food which you share with others, at a restaurant called Joy Tsin Lau ( Mansion of the Drunken Immortal.) Everything was very flavorful and the experience of everyone splitting all of the food and trying new things was fantastic. We even went to visit a Fortune Cookie Factory. (Those are boxes of fortunes in the picture.)


This plaque commemorates the beginning of Chinatown in 1845! It is still going strong after 165 years.

The trip was a very fun experience. I would recommend it. We took the train as it is chaotic and expensive to park in Philadelphia. If you do decide to go, be sure to take a map. It is very easy to get turned around and many of the interesting shops are down back alleys. It was a very fun trip.