Feb. 09--"Have You Eaten Yet?" is the apt title of a new community cookbook published by the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago.
"Food is very essential in the culture," says Anita Luk, the museum's executive director. "When we gather together we eat. When we see each other, one of the regular greetings is, 'Have you eaten yet?' It is a way of saying hello."
The idea of a cookbook was born about two years ago, Luk says, as the museum staff began looking at festivals for a museum exhibit. Food is an important element at festivals, she noted, with every family having their own recipes. The museum decided to gather recipes from the community into a cookbook, recipes that, according to the book's foreword, "often represent family celebrations, festivals, and memories, but especially the love of eating and cooking Chinese food."
The 108-page book costs $15 and is currently sold only at the museum, 238 W. 23rd St. The format is rooted in the community cookbook tradition. It's spiral-bound; recipes are credited to the contributors, whose photos can be found on the back pages. Chapters range from appetizers to poultry to rice and noodles to desserts. The book contains a list of ingredients in Chinese characters too, so readers can take it to a grocery store and find what they need. Two full-color photographs of various fresh, dried and jarred ingredients are also included to help with identification.
Recipes run the gamut from dishes most everyone is familiar with to more esoteric fare. There's sweet and sour pork, dried cooked string beans, moon cakes, Chinese beef jerky and even a chicken soup "to reduce swelling and strengthen legs."
Soo Lon Moy of Lake Forest, president of the Chinatown Museum Foundation and a cookbook committee member, said contributors were asked "if they had ... a traditional family recipe to share with us and the story behind it." Most didn't have stories but did share the secret to making the dish in their recipe, she said.
Those who did share a story tended to focus on family.
Han Huie of Chicago recalled her grandmother making joong, glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves.
"I remember when my grandmother would invite other ladies to our house for a joong wrapping session where they would socialize while they were wrapping," she wrote. "Although I'm sure we grandkids got underfoot, as a kid I didn't realize I was visually taking in the tradition of joong making. Now I try to recreate these recipes and experiences to share with my siblings. We all love joong and have shared in a few wrapping parties."
Margaret Larson of Evanston contributed a recipe for steamed pork patty that evokes memories of wartime China in the late 1930s. She was a child attending school a three-hour walk away from her home. She missed her family very much.
"My grandmother was worried about the food I was given in boarding school, so she would make the meat patty for me whenever a relative or villager was going from Samkong to Linhsien. There was no refrigeration in those days, so it had to be timed just right for my meals," Larson wrote.
Not all contributors to the cookbook are local.
Grace Young, the New York-based author of "Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge" and other cookbooks, shares her scallion pancake recipe and a drink accompaniment suggestion: "In China, scallion pancakes are a favorite street food but in America, I think they're a terrific cocktail snack with a glass of wine or a margarita."
Immigration Judge George Chew, also from New York, contributed three recipes, including his "Prize Losing Ribs," which got its title because the dish lost a cooking contest in Chicago to a zucchini casserole. "Now, honestly, wouldn't you prefer a nice, juicy rib over a zucchini casserole, but who is a sore loser?" the judge playfully writes.
Certainly Moy's son, Nicholas, would vote for the rib.
"He's made the recipe four times now, and all his friends love it," Moy says with a laugh.
Even though "Have You Eaten Yet?" has been published, Luk says the museum is still looking for recipes in case there's a second edition.
"The bigger idea is not only to have the recipes," she says, "but the stories behind the recipes."
wdaley@tribpub.com
Twitter @billdaley
Agoong's hot pepper dish
Prep: 40 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Makes: 6 servings
Adapted from a recipe submitted by Joy Jen Kin Vostatek of Austin, Texas, to the cookbook "Have You Eaten Yet?" "Agoong" is what her children call their grandfather, Henry Jen Kin, who was a restaurateur in Chicago. According to the book, he owned Bamboo Gardens Restaurant, at 202 E. Cermak, and Golden Dragon, 2127 Wentworth Ave., and also had a Chinese restaurant in the 1934 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. Look for Chinese fermented black beans in Asian markets and some supermarkets; rinse or soak the beans in cold water for roughly 5 minutes before using. The recipe did not call for soy sauce or salt, but fermented black beans are quite salty. Taste before adding salt.
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 pound ground pork or turkey
3 to 4 tablespoons Chinese fermented black beans, soaked, drained
3 to 4 tablespoons minced garlic
3 mild green bell peppers, finely chopped
3 mild red bell peppers, finely chopped
10 green jalapeno peppers, the more the merrier, seeded, finely chopped
3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch
3 to 4 tablespoons cold water
Soy sauce or salt, optional
1 Heat oil in a wok; add pork or turkey. Stir-fry until cooked through.
2 Mash black beans and garlic together; add to meat. Add peppers; heat to a boil. Blend cornstarch and water together in a small bowl; drizzle into wok to make gravy. Taste for seasoning, adding soy sauce or salt if you like. Serve over rice.
Nutrition information per serving: 321 calories, 19 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 71 mg cholesterol, 14 g carbohydrates, 23 g protein, 491 mg sodium, 4 g fiber
