Meats & Hot Dishes- Chow Mein Hot Dish

Global cultural exchange is a wonderful thing.  Growing up in Fargo and St. Paul, you might think that there wasn't much opportunity for learning about people that weren't Scandinavian or German.  For the average person growing up in those cities in the mid 80s, that may have been true, but I was lucky.  My step-father was in pre-vet school in Fargo and in vet school in St. Paul.  While he was in school, we lived in married student housing; University Village at NDSU, and the Commonwealth Terrace Co-op.  Instead of being surrounded by people who looked mostly like me and my family, I had friends from all over the world very close at hand.  Let's see how big a list of friends' countries I can put together from 25 years ago:  India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan, Iran, Malaysia, China, Madagascar, Nigeria, Lesotho, Egypt, Peru.  There are probably a few more, but that's a pretty good list.  While we lived among this patchwork quilt of international families, we got to know a bit about them, their heritage, and their food.  Living these places was one of the most formative experiences in my life and has given me a curiosity and appreciation of different cultures.

Now Thief River Falls may not have had the commercial and cultural draws that St. Paul and Fargo did, but there was at the very least awareness of the wider world (how could there not be?).  It may have been a limited knowledge (it seems to me that I recall my father saying that living in Perham, he did not see anybody who wasn't white until he went to college in Fargo/Moorhead), but it was there.  There are six recipes in the Meats & Hot Dishes section that have some clear ethnic connection, if only tenuous.  Chinamen's Hot Dish, has a quarter cup of soy sauce (beware!  flavor!) in it.  Considering that according to the U.S. census there were only just over 33,000 "Asian and Pacific islanders" in the upper Midwest in 1950, it probably shouldn't be surprising that the general knowledge about people from the other side of the world was limited at best, and racist at worst.  But let's give the Ladies the benefit of the doubt, and not ascribe attitudes of the latter sort to them.  At least in the cook book, we're not seeing things like this, which still persisted until not that long ago.

Yipe.  Can you believe it?!

Considering the large population of Chinese immigrants to the west coast in the latter half of the 19th century, it shouldn't be surprising that some aspects of their culture spread across the country.  The food industry did their part, and our Ladies gave it a try.  I can't find any examples of the vintage "Chinese" foods that they may have purchased down at Froseth Food Market and Dairy Bar (phone 115), but I do know that some of the processed and accessible "Chinese" food that I ate growing up is still around.

I used to love this stuff.  That's frightening.

That canned chow mein, the Chow Mein Hot Dish I made, and most Chinese food we see out and about isn't remotely authentic, but if nothing else, it provides a change from the regular meat and potatoes (or does it?).

Preparation

I was pleased to discover that Wikipedia (I still love Wikipedia) has a page on Hot Dish, and it even talks about the annual congressional Hot Dish competition.  Hot dish is a big deal in Minnesota.  I approached this section with a mix of excitement and anxiety.  Hot dish always seems to be good, but cooking with canned soup.  *shudder*  But cook, I would do.

Another poem in this section

This was the first time I had to refer to the How to Follow the Recipes page in the cook book as I don't remember what the can sizes are.

Time to look for some No. 2 cans.

It looks to be pretty straight forward.  There is again the added bonus in the directions that I can add seasoning to taste.  But considering how un-Chinese this looks, I decided to just stick with salt and pepper.

Ah, the flavors of China all on my counter

Start with browning the onions and ground beef.

I'd be willing to bet that the ground beef back in 1951 was quite a bit better than what I got at the grocery store. But I'll leave a discussion of industrial meat for another time... or never.

Mmmmm... canned corn, egg, and tomato soup

Mix it all up!

I debated whether to put the chow mein noodles on top or to mix them right in, but since the recipe says to mix I mixed.  Maybe the ones on top would stay crunchy.

The finished dish

I almost feel like I'm in Beijing!

Appetizing, no?

Tasting and Reaction

James is skeptical and would rather eat his peas

Sarah and Thomas are rarin' to go!

It was apparent very quickly that instead of a "Chinese" hot dish that it was a hot dish with a "Chinese" ingredient.  Here's our discussion as we were eating:

Sarah – that looks even more unappetizing than I thought.  That’s a lot of green pepper.

James – What is this?  *frown*

Sarah – This is hot dish.  You need to have some bites before you tell us you don’t like it. [Oh, 4 year-olds...]

Sarah – Better than the cabbage rolls.

Me – There is nothing that remotely makes me think of China.

Sarah – I guess I thought the chow mein would be crunchy.

Me – I guess… it’s fine.  It kind of tastes like brown.  If brown had a flavor, this is what it would taste like.

Sarah – It is definitely better than the cabbage rolls [is this an endorsement?].  There is more flavor, maybe because there is salt.

Me – I’m tasting the creamed corn a lot.

Sarah – I think that’s what’s giving this dish flavor.  James, can you have a bite now?  There’s hamburger in there.  You like hamburger.  Look, Thomas is eating it… or at least, the spoon that was in it is now in his mouth.

James – I don’t like it very well.

Sarah – what don’t you like about it?

James – I don’t like the noodles.

Sarah – Yeah?  What about the hamburger and the corn?

James – I like the hamburger.  Where is the hamburger?

Me – what this needs is some Sriracha.

Sarah – or some soy sauce?

Me – James, there is cheese in there too.  You like cheese.

James – I can feel the cheese. 

Sarah and I look at each other.

Sarah – If you didn’t tell me there was cheese in here, I’d never have guessed. 

A few minutes pass as we eat, then Sarah gets up.

Sarah – Well, I’m having seconds.  That must say something. 

Me – the sriracha helps a lot.  It gives it a little something extra.  I think the vinegar helps, and a little heat doesn’t hurt.  I woudn’t say that it quite makes it good though.

The name of the dish is pretty misleading.  It has you expecting something that tastes Chinese (whatever that may mean).  We were expecting the noodles to stay crunchy, but they really softened up, but didn't completely turn to mush.  They were, well, noodley.  It wasn't bad.  It wasn't good either, but as Sarah said, we did go back for seconds.  The sriracha I put on my dish was a definite help though.  It added some brightness to the brown taste and helped balance the overwhelming creamed corn flavor.  Overall, I would give this dish a marginal "exceeds expectations", but that was really only because my expectations were pretty low to begin with.  We'll probably not make this one again.

Up next:  the dreaded Salads section.  Send help!