![]() ![]() Nowadays, customers travel from far and wide for chow mein sandwiches at Mee Sum. One day, they ran out of bread and substituted hamburger buns instead - and the practice stuck. Mark said the restaurant’s crispy chow mein used to be served with a side of bread so that customers could soak up excess gravy. The mountainous sandwich covered the plate, steam pouring out from beneath its plump hamburger bun “hat.” As I ate (with a fork!), co-owner Regina Mark told the origin story of Mee Sum’s chow mein sandwich. ![]() Flipping to the back of the menu, I scanned for a moment, and then my eyes locked on it: chow mein sandwich, $4.25. The blustery November weather seemed distant as I sipped tea in a gray cushioned booth at Mee Sum Restaurant on a recent afternoon. Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan Visiting Mee Sum Restaurant in Fall River, Massachusetts For a mere five cents (the original cost), you would be waited on and served in a booth!” Despite its name, the chow mein sandwich is not a handheld meal. This was during a time before there were McDonald’s, Burger King, and every other kind of fast-food establishment. The chow mein sandwich peaked in the mid-20th century, according to Lim, who says that “portability and inexpensive price were factors in its popularity. So a sandwich becomes something accessible to them as a way to ease in that notion of Chinese cuisine.” ![]() As Imogene Lim, a food historian and anthropology professor who researched the chow mein sandwich as part of her dissertation, tells Mizes-Tan: “If you’re thinking, immigrant groups, what do they know about Chinese food? But they know something called a sandwich. Many of these Fall River newcomers opened restaurants, and since the town was largely made up of European immigrant factory workers at that time, the Chinese restaurateurs had to adapt their menus, explains WCAI reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan in her recent public radio piece. Why is the bun even there? The Invention of the Chow Mein Sandwichīeginning in the 19th century and continuing into the early 20th, Fall River, Massachusetts, was a cornerstone of the country’s textile industry. During this era, Chinese immigrants began arriving in town, driven out of the West Coast by the hostility surrounding the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It’s called a sandwich but it really can’t be eaten like one, at least not in any sophisticated way. Those who don’t want vegetables - or, alternatively, meat - can order a “strained” chow mein sandwich (not to be confused with the chop suey sandwich, a Salem, Massachusetts, specialty consisting of a pile of meat and vegetables, with extra emphasis on bean sprouts, on a hamburger bun). The pork may be swapped out for chicken, beef, or shrimp. Anatomically, the chow mein sandwich incorporates all the typical elements of American-Chinese chow mein: brown sauce, chunks of meat, diced celery, onions, and bean sprouts poured over crunchy, deep-fried noodles. ![]()
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