by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, December 17, 2021.
In the spring of 2010, students from Exeter High School partnered with the Exeter Historical Society to create a presentation called, “Exeter Eats: The Intriguing History of Exeter Cuisine.” Capably guided by their teacher, Molly Stevenson, who also served on the Society’s Board of Trustees, the kids were interested in how foodways changed from the colonial period to modern times. Part of the project looked at how people ate when they were not at home – those times when taverns and restaurants had to pick up the slack for Mom’s home cooking. The students tasked with the rise of takeaway and fast food were quite surprised to find that one of their favorites – Chinese Food – was a relatively recent addition to Exeter’s restaurant scene.
Chinese cooking arrived in California at the time of the gold rush in the late 1840s. At first cooking for themselves, Chinese immigrants found that there was a ready market for prepared food in the miners. American fare was filling, if a bit boring, leaning heavily on sourdough bread, fried pork, potatoes and stew. It didn’t take long for Anglo palates to appreciate the flavors arriving from across the Pacific. Chinese chefs prepared foods quickly, able to rapidly pan, stir, or deep fry all using one pan - a wok. Legend tells us that a group of slightly belligerent miners arrived late one evening demanding food and the restaurant proprietor tossed all the day’s ends and pieces into a wok creating a new dish called ‘chop suey.’ Basically leftovers, the dish still tasted better than any alternatives and chop suey caught on. The origins may have been murky, but it did begin a process of adapting Chinese cooking methods with the more European palate dominating American food.
The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, nearly eliminated immigration from Asia and prevented generations of people from becoming United States citizens. A court battle in 1915 created a small crack that allowed restaurant owners to be classified as merchants eligible for special immigration preferences. This allowed them to recruit and sponsor restaurant workers from China, opening a way for more Chinese applicants to arrive in America. Oddly, the anti-Chinese legislation created a proliferation of Chinese owned and operated restaurants. Heather Lee, of New York University, wrote in 2015, “By 1920, New York restaurants generated $77.9 million in annual sales, rising to $154.2 million in 1930. Chinese laundries had once been the largest employers of Chinese workers, but by 1930 restaurants became more likely employers of Chinese workers – and retained that distinction thereafter.”
In New York, it became popular for the jazz-age crowd to haunt late-night Chinese restaurants. And if they couldn’t always meet the demands of the 24-hour lifestyle, the restaurants began packaging hot food to take home. This required the use of the most readily available container, the lowly oyster bucket – a wax coated cardboard contraption with a thin wire handle. Oysters, shucked by the fish monger for customers, were quickly losing their market due to over-fishing. Chinese restaurateurs quickly realized the waterproof buckets were perfect for transporting prepared food. They’re still ubiquitous with Chinese takeout today.
But Exeter isn’t New York. There was no explosion of Chinese owned restaurants here. Boston was the closest one could get for any type of Asian food until after World War II. Polynesian and Hawaiian themed restaurants opened in Portsmouth and Hampton Beach in the 1950s. For two long decades, if you wanted Chinese take-out, you’d need to travel quite a distance.
Exeter finally got a Chinese restaurant in June of 1974 with the opening of Ho Kong Chinese and Polynesian Restaurant on Portsmouth Avenue. Two years later, owners Steven and Lillian Tam expanded the cocktail lounge. It offered two phone lines to call for take-out food. To lure in possibly skeptical customers, it offered “your favorite American specialties” alongside the typical offerings of adapted Chinese dishes. The Ho Kong was popular for over 25 years. Today there are numerous restaurants in town offering Chinese and other Asian fare.
In October of this year, the Exeter Historical Society was notified of the death of Molly Stevenson. She died after a short illness in Tampa, Florida where she was teaching at the Berkeley Preparatory School. One of the most gifted teachers we’ve worked with, she’d recently adopted two boys from Haiti. A GoFundMe account has been set up for their further education.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: Advertisement from 1978 – Ho Kong could rightly claim to be “Exeter’s Newest and First Chinese Restaurant” – it was also the only one available for take-out during the holiday season.