The Day Chinese Cuisine Came to Point Cadet

My mother, Toni, was an excellent cook who took an experimental approach to flavors and always pushed the boundaries of her recipe repertoire. Thanks to her, I have a fairly broad palate.

Her view of a kitchen as a test lab started while still in her teens. When Nona went away to visit relatives in Bellingham, Washington, Toni and her sisters all took turns cooking the family back home dinner. For the most part, they stuck to the tried and true -- roasts, soups, beans. But Toni decided to shake things up.

Modern supermarkets were just showing up in Biloxi around that time, as were exotic convenience foods.

Back then, canned food was pretty lousy –mushy, tasteless vegetables packed in water and salt. Bleh. Somehow, somewhere my mother came across a can of Chinese chow mein vegetables. Mind you, at that point in her life, she had never actually eaten chow mein – or any Chinese food. But she saw that can and her imagination soared – at least as far as her limited life experience would let it.

She heated the vegetables, seasoned them with salt and pepper and a dab of butter. And dumped the whole unappetizing mess over sticky instant rice. No meat. No soy, oyster, hoison, fish or hot chili sauce. No granulated ginger or rice vinegar. Not even crispy chow mein noodles. Not that she knew any of those Asian condiments even existed.

There were some very glum faces around the dinner table that night.

Aunt Frances just happened to stop by. She took one look at the plat du jour, crossed herself and ran back home. She told Uncle Frank, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph those kids are gonna starve.”

She hastily threw some spaghetti from her own stovetop into a bowl and delivered it to her cheering brother in law, nieces and nephew.

Five out of the six plates of that pallid chow mein were thrown to the dogs. But proud, hard-headed Toni insisted on polishing off her plate down to the last limp bean sprout. She would later recall that as the worst meal of her life.

This doomed experiment aside, my mother became a fan of Chinese food. Saturday night dinner at the Chinese place on Highway 90 became a highly anticipated family outing at our house (even though my sister Kim only ate their hamburgers). For these occasions, Kim and I wore matching silk lounging pajamas from the Buena Vista hotel’s Oriental gift shop (And what a cool place that was. Loved the little dolls that came with their own wig collection.)

Toni even took out a wok again, thanks to Earl Peyroux, the host of “Gourmet Cooking” on New Orleans’ local PBS station. Mr. Peyroux was a Cordon Bleu trained chef and my favorite TV chef ever. We loved his Chinese fried rice recipe.

Mama and Mr. Earl are both stir frying with the angels now. And if this is on the menu, Heaven is a happy place to be tonight. Fried rice was a good “clean out the refrigerator” meal at our house. For some reason, we always ate it with buttered toasted French bread– hardly authentic, but a tasty local touch.

Three decades after the chow mein debacle, and a decade after our Saturday night sweet and sour chicken runs, genuine Asian cuisine came to Point Cadet along with its newest wave of immigrants from Vietnam. This delectable cuisine from Southeast Asia bore no resemblance to my mother’s attempts nor to what we ate on our Saturday night chopstick fests.

But it did add another layer of richness and depth to Point cuisine and culture. And its one of the healthiest cuisines going. Lately, I’ve gotten into experimenting to Vietnamese recipes like this one for “Pho” Rice Noodle Soup with beef from Epicurious.


Earl Peyroux’s Chinese Fried Rice

2 eggs, beaten
2 t peanut oil
2T, additional peanut oil
6 green onions (sliced)
1 lb sliced mushrooms
1 small green or red pepper (diced)
1 cup celery (chopped)
¾ cup water chestnuts sliced
1 cup bean sprouts
2 cups small boiled shrimp (cut in half). Diced ham, cooked pork or chicken can be substituted.
3 T soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups cooked rice

In a 9-inch skillet cook the eggs in peanut oil to make a large egg crepe. Remove to paper towels. Fold crepe over on itself several times. Cut the rolled egg into thin shreds. Set aside.
Pour additional oil into a hot wok and allow to heat very hot. Add and stir-fry, one at a time the green onions, mushrooms, green pepper, celery, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, shrimp (or other meat) and reserved shredded eggs. Toss ingredients 30 seconds. Add soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked rice and blend well until hot. Transfer to a serving dish. Serves 8.

Photo: My sister Kim (right) and I are ready for Chinese night, 1967.