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Friday's dinner at "House of Wong"


petitepedal

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The House of Wong was opened in 1958 and it is typical of Chinese restaurants of the time (I say that based on conversation and not actual restaurant experience...even though the restaurant and I are the same age)...I have picked up fried rice there..and this may have been my second time there. dessert is either a dish of ice cream or a choice of pie..the crust on the banana cream pie that I had (it came with the Friday Special) was a lot like plaster..and rock hard :whistle: The shopping center they are located in did a huge remodel and this is a "new" location and refurbished place....Doesn't seem as crowded as the old...but I think most of their clientele are folks in their 80's  Menu:  https://www.allmenus.com/mn/saint-paul/407355-house-of-wong/menu/

Like those long ago Chinese restaurants..they also serve American dishes...and a little Italian ..Things I noticed ... salad was a "Honeymoon Salad"... Lettuce Alone...a dish of good ol Iceberg and a container of salad dressing...  I think Ice Cream was still served in the little metal dishes...

It was more like a trip down memory lane than a dining experience...My original plan was dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant called the Vina in St. Paul..but that dining companion was not able to go...

Vine Menu: http://places.singleplatform.com/vina/menu?ref=google

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3 hours ago, petitepedal said:

The House of Wong was opened in 1958 and it is typical of Chinese restaurants of the time (I say that based on conversation and not actual restaurant experience...even though the restaurant and I are the same age)...I have picked up fried rice there..and this may have been my second time there. dessert is either a dish of ice cream or a choice of pie..the crust on the banana cream pie that I had (it came with the Friday Special) was a lot like plaster..and rock hard :whistle: The shopping center they are located in did a huge remodel and this is a "new" location and refurbished place....Doesn't seem as crowded as the old...but I think most of their clientele are folks in their 80's  Menu:  https://www.allmenus.com/mn/saint-paul/407355-house-of-wong/menu/

Like those long ago Chinese restaurants..they also serve American dishes...and a little Italian ..Things I noticed ... salad was a "Honeymoon Salad"... Lettuce Alone...a dish of good ol Iceberg and a container of salad dressing...  I think Ice Cream was still served in the little metal dishes...

It was more like a trip down memory lane than a dining experience...My original plan was dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant called the Vina in St. Paul..but that dining companion was not able to go...

Vine Menu: http://places.singleplatform.com/vina/menu?ref=google

The end

My father did work in a Chinese diner as a cook in a similar type of restaurant likethe above..in downtown Waterloo for about 8 years or something like that.  It was called the Grand Grill.  This would have been in the 1960's.  What one finds in those restaurants in small cities (at that time) and towns, is the owner/owner's family, often are well connected in the local community. 

I have noticed over the years, the owners of such restaurants tend to be quite outgoing outside of their immediate family ….'cause at that time there were hardly any Chinese-Canadian living in those areas.  So reaching out and developing a regular local customer base, was important.

My great-uncle had such restaurant in Caledonia, which was pop. under 1,000 people.  He and my great-aunt (now around 91 yrs. in Toronto) were very outgoing people.  It floored us, for me and sibs, having more introverted parents, to see great uncle and his wife,  speechmaking before large groups of people.

When I travel in Canada, I do notice such establishments. It is part of CAnada's history.. My family is part of that history...because my great-uncle sponsored my father to immigrate to Canada in early 1950's. He worked as a waiter (which I'm not sure how, 'cause father wouldn't have known much English then), then as a cook.

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Our first Chinese restaurant arrived in the late 70s. I worked there in the early 80s as a waiter for a few months. The menu was somewhere between old school American Chinese and contemporary American Chinese. It was quite good and my first exposure to quality Asian flavors as opposed to Chun King. 
At the time, they were helping bring their family over from Taiwan. After the lunch or dinner crowd left, we would close and eat together. The kitchen crew would make large pans of favorites from back home for us to share. My favorites were the steamed pork dumplings and the spicy red shrimp. The shrimp were served shell-on in a spicy red sauce. Delicious but messy. We would use an entire tablecloth as our napkin!  After their family had moved on to restaurants in bigger cities, they started hiring Latinos for the kitchen. They don’t have the cultural bond to the food so it’s just not the same. 

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Growing up..closest Chinese restaurant was 60 miles south in Duluth...I think I was in my late teens when we got an Asian restaurant in our area.  MN took in a lot of Vietnamese an even more Hmong people..in the 70's and 80's..Lots of culturally diverse people and restaurants in the metro area..fewer when you get out state

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59 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...never eat at a Chinese restaurant in Naples, Italy.  Just don't do it.

Yea, I wouldn't either.  I would only be curious to look at the menu.  Honest.....I feel sorry for those of Chinese descent living in some of the major continental European cities where they are literally 1-5% of the local resident population.  And more difficult, those societies don't exactly promote in their national policy and their social services, multiculturalism.

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17 minutes ago, petitepedal said:

Growing up..closest Chinese restaurant was 60 miles south in Duluth...I think I was in my late teens when we got an Asian restaurant in our area.  MN took in a lot of Vietnamese an even more Hmong people..in the 70's and 80's..Lots of culturally diverse people and restaurants in the metro area..fewer when you get out state

petite I did read long ago of MN's effort to take in the Vietnamese refugees..shortly after the effort by Canada to sponsor/take in some Vietnamese refugees in the late 1970's etc.  

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8 hours ago, Page Turner said:

...never eat at a Chinese restaurant in Naples, Italy.  Just don't do it.

A comedian said a lesson of being on the road is if the place has a special, you eat the special. If they have a sign that says “Try our steaks!”, don’t order the stir fry!

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We rarely ate Chinese growing up as we liked my moms  food better and Indonesian food was kinda similar.    It never occurred to us maybe she didn’t want to cook every night.  As I got into my teens my mom had a favorite Chinese place and we became regulars there as she didn’t feel like cooking for just the two of us.   It’s closed now but the food quality was top notch. I haven’t found a place yet I have liked better.

We are big fans of Vietnamese food and have a strong Viet community in SoCal.  The French & Asian fusion is really something else. 

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One of my nephews was playing a lacrosse game at the Annapolis High Stadium and we, about 10 of us, wondered if there was a good cheap place to eat. We did some cell phone googling and found a Chinese Restaurant not too far away near the Naval Academy Stadium with great prices. It was an old but clean ma-pa place with pictures of the original owner serving in WW2, etc.  Great food and a lot of variety!

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