It's not every day that "Springfield, MO" is the dateline in a New York Times story. There are only a few topics that could compel the newspaper's editors to send a writer to the Queen City.
Considering the number of restaurants in Springfield, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Times sent a foodie here in February to write an article published in March on nothing other than cashew chicken. But it's not just any old cashew chicken.
I quickly learned the Springfield-style cashew chicken difference while in college and dating a girl from Springfield. That girl, now my wife, ordered cashew chicken at a traditional Chinese restaurant in Chicago near our school.
She was severely disappointed when it arrived at the table: steamed chicken and rice with a thin white sauce.
"This isn't cashew chicken," I remember her saying about her dish that was more stir-fried than deep-fried.
Outside of the cashew pieces and chopped green onions, she was right. No fried chicken chunks, no soy-and-oyster-based dark gravy; there was no Springfield-style to it whatsoever.
And that's the phenomenon of cashew chicken in the Ozarks. It's a culture all its own, as Times writer John T. Edge discovered when he spent some time with David Leong, who along with his brother, Gee, is credited with creating the signature Springfield dish in the mid-1950s.
Edge visited Mr. Yen's, Heritage Cafeteria and Ziggie's diner to show the diversity of establishments serving cashew chicken. He quoted local freelance editor and longtime Springfieldian Kelly Knauer, who called the dish "our daily bread." And he counted more than 70 Chinese restaurants in our city, largely attributable to the Leong's movement and the influx of Asian immigrants that followed through the 1970s.
In a New York minute, the article created some buzz. It was one of the most e-mailed articles of the day on the Times' site and generated a Letter to the Editor, published a week later. Newtown, Penn., resident J. Thomas Tressel wrote about his experience with cashew chicken in the 1980s in Springfield.
"I was surprised to see so many restaurants advertising cashew chicken," Tressel told the newspaper. "There were converted gasoline stations, strip mall holes-in-the wall, diners ... . Every time I met someone from Springfield, all I'd have to say was 'cashew chicken' and we'd both crack up."
Isn't it funny how food - intended to simply sustain us each day - gets etched into our minds and connects us to certain times and places?
The New York Times piece, "Missouri Chinese: Two Cultures Claim This Chicken," was the first in a series of stories exploring the evolution of American cuisine.
Springfield Business Journal's food critics Kay and Paul Logsdon are researching the city's best cashew chicken for a series to run in May on our After 5 page. If you have a favorite spot that you'd like them to consider, please e-mail me at eolson@sbj.net.
More food press
Springfield was mentioned twice last month in the New York Times. Another food story cited Askinosie Chocolate for the way the high-end chocolatier gives credit to the international farmers from whom it purchases cocoa beans.
The March 27 story, "Forging a Hot Link to the Farmer Who Grows the Food," considers how food companies are connecting their distributors and consumers to the farmers who grow and supply product. Called traceability, the concept allows customers to see and even contact the farmers who sell wheat to a flour company (www.findthefarmer.com) or cocoa beans to a chocolate maker, as is the case in Springfield.
On the Askinosie Chocolate Web site, www.askinosie.com, customers can enter codes from product packaging to virtually visit the South American or Asian bean farms with which owner Shawn Askinosie contracts.
By typing in the "Choc-O-Lot #" on the 77 percent Davao dark chocolate bar's package, consumers can learn how these cocoa beans became the first exported from the Philippines in more than 20 years - or as the Web site says, "know the story behind the story and not just marketing hype about the origin of the bean." Videos and photos show Askinosie in the fields, building relationships with these farmers, who also share in the chocolate profits.
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.
