Haversack
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,194
- Location
- Clipperton Island
While engaged in some research, I recently came across online the menu from 1922 for a Chinese-American restaurant in downtown Sacramento. It can be seen at:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/flipomatic/cic/chs1228
There are several things about it which I think might be of interest to some of us here. First, although Prohibition, (Ack. Ptui!), had been in effect for a couple of years, wine, beer, and cocktails were openly listed. (Including even Guinness and Mumm’s).
Second, the relative prices between dishes give us look at how things were different between then/there and here/now. That poultry is much more expensive is pretty well known. What surprised me however is the Chinese dishes are equivalent in price if not more than American dishes. For instance, beefsteak plain, (which comes with bread, butter, and one cup of coffee), costs 25 cents. Beef Chop Suey without anything else costs 30 cents. Growing up out here in the West, I’m aware that Chinese cooking and American palates adapted to each other pretty early on. I find it interesting though that it had parity in price. It wasn’t necessarily ‘cheap ethnic food’. (Nowadays the once ubiquitous Chinese American restaurants are getting scarce as more authentic and regional Chinese dishes has become the norm. Used to be, just about every town that had a bit of mining or railroading in its past had a Chinese American eatery. (Well, except for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. But that’s a story best left for later.)
Haversack.
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/flipomatic/cic/chs1228
There are several things about it which I think might be of interest to some of us here. First, although Prohibition, (Ack. Ptui!), had been in effect for a couple of years, wine, beer, and cocktails were openly listed. (Including even Guinness and Mumm’s).
Second, the relative prices between dishes give us look at how things were different between then/there and here/now. That poultry is much more expensive is pretty well known. What surprised me however is the Chinese dishes are equivalent in price if not more than American dishes. For instance, beefsteak plain, (which comes with bread, butter, and one cup of coffee), costs 25 cents. Beef Chop Suey without anything else costs 30 cents. Growing up out here in the West, I’m aware that Chinese cooking and American palates adapted to each other pretty early on. I find it interesting though that it had parity in price. It wasn’t necessarily ‘cheap ethnic food’. (Nowadays the once ubiquitous Chinese American restaurants are getting scarce as more authentic and regional Chinese dishes has become the norm. Used to be, just about every town that had a bit of mining or railroading in its past had a Chinese American eatery. (Well, except for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. But that’s a story best left for later.)
Haversack.
