“We learned to wrap the wontons and make the crab rangoons and pick snow peas.” David’s children grew up watching their father run a tight ship where hard work was rewarded. “If you screwed up the rice, you heard about it all day,” he says. The first thing Wing Yee learned to make was rice. “Little did we know what our dad was preparing us for.” “I joke that other kids had square blocks and toys, and we had chicken and flour,” he says. Wing Yee was just 7 years old when he started cooking in his father’s kitchen. Wing Yee is one of seven children, and each of his siblings play a different role in the kitchen. Or rather, he’ll tell his son, Wing Yee Leong, who is now executive chef at the family’s successful restaurant, Leong’s Asian Diner, in Springfield. Sharp and quick with a joke, he’s a focused cook – if something is wrong with a dish, he knows immediately and doesn’t hesitate to tell you. After nearly seven decades working in kitchens around the world, he has no interest in slowing down. Its origin is in Springfield, though, when David whipped up the first batch in 1963.Įven at 94, David is a force to be reckoned with. You’ll find versions of Springfield-style cashew chicken on menus across the city and in Chinese and pan-Asian restaurants across the country – often simply called cashew chicken. Topped with a sprinkling of chopped green onions and crushed cashews, David’s cashew chicken has become one of Springfield’s most well-known dishes. But the real standout is that sauce – the salty, savory brown gravy that coats each bite. The breading is crispy, and the meat inside is tender. Ladled onto plates, Springfield-style cashew chicken almost looks like chicken-fried steak – except instead of a thick slab of breaded beef that’s been doused with peppery white gravy, bite-sized morsels of juicy chicken are fried and smothered in a rich brown sauce. Back then, he had no way of knowing the dish would one day make its way onto restaurant menus across the world. Father and son lingered in front of the sign for a minute, taking in the significance it carried for their family and their home back in Missouri.Īlmost 50 years before, David created Springfield-style cashew chicken. But when one of his sons asked if he wanted to try it, David said no. Scribbled on a small sign near the entrance to one of the many bustling restaurants in Hong Kong, David Leong spotted the words: Springfield-style cashew chicken. By Ettie Berneking I Photos By Jessica Spencer
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |