The Latest: A culinary journey; a spiritual quest

Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America

Yong Chen

Columbia University Press; 187 pages

When we cue up Beck on the car radio, it’s easy to forget that rock music was once a working-class art form that endured years of ridicule while breaking down social and racial barriers in an unprecedented way.

The same, evidently, is true of Chinese food. Late in Yong Chen’s “Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America,” the author cites a food writer who opined about the social status of takeout, “Pizza does not seem to go with candlelight, nor Chinese food with Puccini.” Forget Puccini — Elvis will suffice as a soundtrack for Kung Pao.

If “Chop Suey, USA” is any indication, the immigrants who brought Chinese food to the American masses deserve the same veneration as the bluesmen of old. That’s not simply because their story is one of bravery and perseverance, but also because the achievement of those striving entrepreneurs changed American living from the ground up. The next time you bite into a Big Mac or pass through the assembly counter at Chipotle, you’re enjoying an experience that chop suey helped make possible.

Chen, a UC Irvine professor, calls the blossoming of Chinese cuisine in America “one of the greatest epic stories of cultural exchange in world history.” That exchange, as we learn throughout his entertaining and meticulously researched book, involved far more than two cultures. Chinese food, in Chen’s telling, was the original fast food in America — a cheap, filling option for a sizable part of the population that previously had lacked the opportunity to eat out.

As a result, the Chinese cooks who ventured to New York, San Francisco and other metropolises became “empire stewards,” helping an increasing number of Americans find comfort and prosperity as the country sought to expand its influence. Convenience was a key part of that equation, but culinary sophistication was not. Chen, who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution, notes that his country’s choicest dishes seldom made it to American menus, and the success of chop suey outlets grew as much from low prices and late hours as it did from customers’ love of the food.

For that matter, was the food even entirely Chinese? During the formative years of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese-American cuisine was dominated by the book’s title dish, a melange of chopped meat and assorted vegetables. Chen spends much of one chapter describing the debate over whether chop suey is indeed a Chinese dish or simply a concoction for American taste buds. The truest answer, apparently, is that it represents a twist on the real thing — somewhat akin to the relationship between Pizza Hut and a fancy Roman restaurant.

“Chop Suey, USA” ends by pointing out that America, which adopted Chinese food as a precursor to brands such as Pizza Hut, has now repaid the favor by spreading its fast food to China and other countries. Is that, in fact, a favor? Chen has mixed feelings; describing a trip home in 1997, he movingly writes that he “could not even smell the once homey aroma of food” amid all the corporate restaurant signs. Citing author Thomas Wolfe’s oft-quoted statement that “you can’t go home again,” Chen opines that home, in the age of globalization, has become an increasingly elastic concept.

Still, if Chinese-American food represents a cultural compromise, it’s one that appears to draw few complaints. Throughout “Chop Suey, USA,” Chen intersperses the text with recipes: gumbo, fried rice, moon cakes, Kung Pao chicken. A reader, after finishing this book, might be inspired to visit the grocery store and fire up the wok. And if there’s a P.F. Chang’s down the street, consider it a gift from the empire.

—Michael Miller

*

Never Too Late

Vanessa Jourdan

Independent release; 11-track LP

It is only natural for musicians to pull inspiration from their influences. Many write songs about love, partying, politics, current events and life experiences.

Huntington Beach singer-songwriter Vanessa Jourdan decided to write about her faith on her fourth album, “Never Too Late.”

The Kickstarter-funded, 11-track LP is overtly spiritual. There is a fine line, however, between a pop song with religious undertones and a church hymn.

It boils down to how songs are packaged, both lyrically and musically. Many bands and musicians have done this with beauty and finesse. The Beatles’ “Let It Be” is a gentle song about Paul McCartney’s mother, but it also can be interpreted as being about the Virgin Mary. James Ingram and Michael McDonald teamed up to write “Yah Mo B There,” a song about Yahweh.

There’s also the U2 hit “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which has the lyrics “You broke the bonds / And you loosed the chains / Carried the cross of my shame / Oh, my shame, you know I believe it.”

“Never Too Late,” however, does not quite have the carefully crafted lyrics of these examples.

The opening track, “Amazing Race,” can pass as a church hymn, but it sounds flat and can use more energy, of which Jourdan is perfectly capable. It’s a bit of a tease when each verse builds up to a mediocre chorus.

“Beauty for Ashes” falls short of being decent. The verses are punchy, accented by Jourdan’s commanding voice, but again, the choruses lack energy. Jourdan tries to carry the entire song with her vocals but needs more instrumental backup.

“The End of Myself,” is the most well-rounded track, and I’m surprised that there are not more songs like it on the LP. It incorporates well-written lyrics, lush instrumentation and great vocal layering. It has hymn-like qualities, but easily presents as a pop song.

There is a track on that leaves me questioning its placement on the album. “Trigger Finger” is about a person who takes action against anyone who disagrees. It has a late-1990s girl-pop group sound with a Latin flair, and it’s quite catchy. I don’t know if there’s religious meaning behind it, but it doesn’t fit with any of the other songs.

Jourdan is a talented artist who has the tools to write beautiful songs, no matter the context, but after four albums, I was expecting more. Tracks like “The End of Myself” and “Disappointment” are proof that she can create amazing songs, so let’s hope future material from her is just as strong.

—Anthony Clark Carpio