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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1973)
«W Food i i Knoro oy James Link Stir-Fried Merger Many of those who come to Eugene by way of big cities bring with them Chinese food fixations, and they are forced to watch memories of Philadelphia Lichee Duck and San Francisco Won ton Soup, dwindle away in the dark enclaves of Leslie’s Mandarin and the soup line at the Bamboo Pavillion. It was exciting, then, to watch 25 members of the Chinese Student Association wield cleavers and wanton wrappers in the kit chens at the EMU this weekend, in preparation for the New Year dinner Sunday night. Meticulously chopping pork, feeding green onions and Chinese cabbage into the institutional-sized food grinder, they bantered about the number of people to be fed (700) and moved around those lS^allon rice steamers and quarter-acre grills like pros. Being able to witness the rapid translation of 30 pounds of cabbage into 2,200 egg rolls, while the dialogue of 25 head chefs conferring in Chinese rose over the steaming kettles, was gratifying enough for a Chinese food freak. And on top of that, there was something remarkable in itself about the combination of the EMU kitchens and 25 ethnic gourmets. Imagine, for instance, gallon containers of soy sauce slung along a counter crowded with Boyd’s instant chicken flavoring, quart con tainers of freeze-dried artificial flavorings, and barrels of instant vanilla pie filling the size of garbage cans. The first thing I wanted to know was how such an atmosphere might affect the subtleties of the stir fried vegetables. In answer to my questions, general supervisor Chung-hsiungTsai, conceded that a certain kind of meeting of east and west was taking place. “During the New Year it is traditional when you see a friend to say something nice. So now we will do things the American way-have fortune cookies.” As further evidence of tolerance ot the American way, tne man on the batter detail for the deep fried pork, crouching over a 20-gallon cake mixer, quietly introduced a quart of 7-up right into the beaters. “Afraid I’m giving away a secret,” said Chung-hsiung Tsai, shaking his head as I took notes. Well, as a matter of fact, 7-up hasn’t cropped up in the volumes of do-it-yourself Chinese cookbooks which have flooded the market recently, at least as far as I know. “It’s the carbonation, Chung ex plains. Discreet utilization of American soda pop doesn’t curb what I’m beginning to recognize as Chinese chauvinism, however. “What is American food?” David Muh, who took care of the rice, wanted to know. “There is no American food.” “Right,” added Chung, “Americans spend all the time eating. Chinese spend all the time cooking. And then when we eat it’s all gone very quickly.” Chinese food has long been recognized as one of the most nutritious, flavorful, sensible-and time-consuming- schools of cooking, and I had no answer for the argument that Americans would rather rush through the preparation and get down to the business of consumption as quickly as possible. “What do American men know how to cook?” David demanded. I shrugged, remembering the last time I had happened to see a male acquaintance stand in front of the stove. “Ah, fried eggs?” , I don’t know if there is such a thing as stir-fried bacon and eggs, but Americans can learn a good deal from Chinese cooking theory. And the sharing process goes both ways, even among chauvinists. One impressive instance of this sort of thing occured when the cooking crew took a half-hour break for dinner Saturday night. Resigned to the burgers at the front counter, one cook philsophicaUy loaded up his with some of the stuffing for the egg rolls, simmering in an Olympic-sized halting dish on the back burner. Maybe I got confused by the ham burgers, but egg rolls in general began to take on a less intimidating air after that. And after all, there is small conceptual difference between batter-fried pork and Colonel Sanders. Small, but with subtle diffences in style. Hie subtleties belong to the fanatics, who make up for the inadequacies of birthright by absorbing methodology and style from cookbooks and good memories. The rest of us, though, can learn some relatively authentic dishes with a minimum of cultural wear and tear. And I’d swear there was some ketchup in those ess rolls Sunday night. SIMPLIFIED EGG ROLLS First of all, buy the wrappers. They’re almost impossible to make and if you buy more than you can use immediately, you can wrap the leftovers tightly and freeze. Mince a head of Chinese cabbage or an equivalent amount of bok choy and bean sprouts and celery. Chop up about % cup of mushrooms. Stir-fry greens and mushrooms in a small amount of oil, % t. sugar, 11. salt, and 11. soy sauce. Add enough water or soup stock to simmer. You can also add chopped shrimp, coated with 1 t. sherry and Vfe t. corn starch and quickly stir-fried and added to the cabbage after it is cooked. Drain all of this thoroughly. Ketchup is entirely optional. If you buy won ton wrappers, separate them and spoon a small amoung of the filling into the middle, simply moisten the edges with a few drops of ctdd water, and fold once, and seal. If you buy the larger, triangular-shaped egg roll wrappers, spoon the filling along the base of the triangle, fold the bottom corners so that the points meet in the center, roll once, so that the third corner of the triangle can be secured to the roll with a bit of cold water. Heat two inches of oil to 375 degrees and deep fry for 5 minutes. Won ton wrappers make smaller egg rolls and don’t have to be cooked as long. There are many ways to make sweet and sour sauce, which is delicious on almost anything, in cluding egg rolls. Mince a large clove of garlic and about Vfe inch peeled ginger root. Stir-fry in T. oil over high beat. Add the juice from a small can of pineapple chunks, and about half that amount of juice drained off bottle pickles.. Add 2 T. soy sauce. If the sauce is too pungent, adulterate with water or chicken boullion or tomato juice. Bring to a boil, adding the chunks of pineapple and a few chopped pickles. If pickles aren’t available, adding vinegar or lemon juice to taste is fine. Chicken with 3 t. cornstarch dissolved in a bit of cold water, added as the sauce readies a boil. Take the sauce off the stove when it clears, adnadd a quartered tomato. With precision and a distinct absence of last-minute frenzy, the cooks finished assembling four dishes for 700 people at 6:20 p.m. on Sunday. After two days of almost continual cooking and preparation, they were finally ready to sit down and eat some real food.
