Cashew Chicken

220px-Revolver‘Twas a tale of two rooms. The first an elegant dining hall. Murals of the restauranteur’s homeland graced the walls.  White cotton linens with red napkins folded to look like peacock tails covered the tables. Vases with a single red carnation completed the look. Food was served on china. Traditional Chinese instrumental music filled the air. “My dad wanted the tea house to be authentic Cantonese cuisine,” Wing Yee Leong says. “There were white tablecloths, bus boys… The service was impeccable.”

On the other side of the swinging doors was the kitchen. Yin Wing (a.k.a. David) Leong, his wife and children were busy preparing meals for the patrons using traditional Cantonese recipes.

Demand for authentic Cantonese fare was limited in Springfield in the 1960s, and David needed a way to draw more customers into the restaurant. He looked for ways to blend Ozark flavors and traditions with those of his Cantonese heritage. The result was Springfield cashew chicken (chicken pieces lightly breaded and deep fried covered with a special sauce, green onions and cashews).

“When he started working on the dish, it was an unbreaded stir-fry,” Wing Yee says. “But he knew the style people here liked – lots of country-fried steak.” With his sleeves rolled up, David got to work deboning the meat, breading it and developing the signature sauce. It was an instant hit.

This recipe would spawn a cult following leading to a culinary revolution in Springfield and beyond. Locally, Chinese food carryout restaurants featuring “Springfield Cashew Chicken” are now perhaps as numerous as Starbucks. This dish can also be found on the menus of restaurants all around the world including New York, Seattle and Hong Kong.

My first job was a bus boy at Leong’s Tea House. The job paid $1.40 / hr plus all the cashew chicken you could eat.

Here, There and Everywhere”  is a ballad written by McCartney and inspired by the Beach Boys’ song “God Only Knows”. The song’s opening lines are sung over shifts in time signature from 9/8 to 7/8 to 4/4;  according to Everett, “nowhere else does a Beatles introduction so well prepare a listener for the most striking and expressive tonal events that lie ahead.” Womack characterises the song as a romantic ballad “about living in the here and now” and “fully experiencing the conscious moment”. Riley describes “Here, There and Everywhere” as “the most perfect song” that McCartney has ever written.

Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 5 August 1966 in the United Kingdom and three days later in the United States. The record spent 34 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, for seven of which it held the number one spot.[1] Reduced to eleven songs for the North American market, Revolver was the last Beatles album to be subjected to Capitol Records’ policy of altering the band’s intended running order and content. In America, the album topped the Billboard Top LPs listings for six weeks.

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7 Responses to Cashew Chicken

  1. Brenda says:

    I don’t believe this poignant ballad had very much play time, in my town. It’s lovely. Paul McCartney was a true artist, brave enough to take his medium in a new direction, and confident enough in his vision to stay the course. Like Jeremiah, the ancient prophet who found the word of God to be fire in his bones if he did not proclaim it, Paul has music in him, that must be expressed.

  2. Mike Tinnon says:

    I like the song and your story about your first job as a busboy at Leong’s Tea House in Springfield, MO for $1.40 hour.

    My first job paid $1.36 per hour in the summer of 1969, after I turned 16 on July 22, 1069. I worked as a stock boy in the shoe department of a local clothing / department store in downtown Rochester, Michigan, called Mitzelfeld’s. I was such a good, hard worker, I soon got a raise to $1.60 per hour. I probably topped out at about $2.00 per hour when I started college at Michigan State (East Lansing, Michigan – NOT Ann Arbor) University in September 1971. I also covered the floor, as a salesperson in the shoe department, when it got busy. I remember trying to assist a few female clients try to fit into patent leather go-go boots that were possibly a tad too tight for their physique. 😉

    Is there a connection between the Beatle’s song and your story about your first job, Brad?

  3. Jean says:

    It was a big treat to get to go to Leong’s, and of course I always ordered Springfield Cashew (and a to-go box)! Love your posts, Brad!

  4. Steve says:

    Great memories of cashew chicken on Sunday nights in Springfield during college. I don’t think it was from Leong’s, but a carryout place on Glenstone maybe? There were always rumors that it wasn’t always chicken.

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