{"id":2348,"date":"2010-07-07T16:50:59","date_gmt":"2010-07-07T20:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/apanews.si.edu\/?p=2348"},"modified":"2014-12-30T21:59:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T21:59:50","slug":"sweet-and-sour-venture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/sweet-and-sour-venture\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet and Sour venture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our digging for the Sweet and Sour exhibit continues.\u00a0This time, we thought we’d spread our wings to Hawai‘i. <\/p>\n

Why Hawai‘i?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the Chinese immigrants to Hawai‘i arrived in the mid-to-late 19th century; many came as laborers to work on sugar plantations.\u00a0After their contract expired, many Chinese immigrants opened businesses in an area which later became Honolulu’s Chinatown. Hawai‘i has one of the largest and oldest Chinese\u00a0diaspora.<\/p>\n

\"Lau<\/p>\n

After\u00a0researching restaurants in Hawai‘i, two places stood out.\u00a0Wo Fat and Lau Yee Chai.\u00a0Wo Fat is one of the oldest restaurants dating back to 1882, and, in spite of its closing in 2005, the building and its neon signage “Wo Fat Chop Sui,” still remains as a historical landmark in\u00a0Chinatown. It has been a challenge tracking down artifacts from this restaurant.\u00a0However, we have some leads with plates and documents.<\/p>\n

Lau Yee Chai was built in 1929 by Chong Pang Yat, and its elaborate, classical Chinese architecture stood out in the Waikiki landscape, effectively attracting mainland tourists to its door.\u00a0The original landmark restaurant featured a moon gate entryway, fishpond filled with carp, waterfalls, and a rock garden.\u00a0Some of the art work remains at the current restaurant in Waikiki.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lau Yee Chai was a place for locals to dine at on special occasions.\u00a0P. Y. Chong, the original owner and chef, was quite a businessman and marketed the restaurant widely by promoting himself with Creole pidgin slogans such as \u201cMe, P.Y. Chong!\u201d on radio and newspapers.\u00a0I located some of his photos at the Bishop Museum archive.\u00a0During my visit, John,\u00a0the manager of Lau Yee Chai was kind enough to meet with me as I stated our museum\u2019s mission and upcoming exhibition on Chinese foodways.\u00a0He talked to the Mau family, the owner, and prepared\u00a0original plates and menus to look at. The Mau family generously donated dishes with logos to the museum.<\/p>\n

\"Lau<\/p>\n

Another local Chinese restaurant I visited, which has been in existence for over half a century, is Tasty Chop Suey.\u00a0I met with Mrs. Liu, the current owner, who took over the business in 1985.\u00a0I explained to her why I was there and what I was interested in and about our upcoming Chinese foodways show.\u00a0Miraculously, she had kept a few samples of the original dishware with the logo on them. She generously donated them to the museum along with the current menu.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tasty<\/p>\n

Tasty opened in 1956 by the Wong family, Mr. Wong Served in the U.S. Army as a cook during World War II. After the war, he worked at several Chinese restaurants as a cook, including Lau Yee Chai, before opening Tasty. During the 1960s, due to a freeway construction, the restaurant moved to its current location.\u00a0Fortunately, it kept the original neon sign and logo.\u00a0Thanks to the original owner\u2019s son, Dennis, not only was the original menu of Tasty preserved, but also chopsticks and a few other items with Tasty Chop Suey\u2019s logo on them.\u00a0Their slogan was \u201cHungry for God\u2019s word \u2013 Go to church! Hungry for Chinese food \u2013 Come to Tasty Chop Suey!\u201d<\/p>\n

We procured wonderful items representing Chinese restaurant establishments in Hawai‘i. Now, we will be looking at other cities in mainland USA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our digging for the Sweet and Sour exhibit continues.\u00a0This time, we thought we’d spread our wings to Hawai‘i. Why Hawai‘i?\u00a0 Most of the Chinese immigrants to Hawai‘i arrived in the mid-to-late 19th century; many came as laborers to work on sugar plantations.\u00a0After their contract expired,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8074,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions\/8074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}