Bear Paw Meanderings

When I was a boy there were lots of Oriental people in Havre. I am reminded of this because the Chinese New Year is January 28.

Many Chinese and Japanese had come here to work on the railroad and when the railroad was finished they liked the country and stayed or maybe some could not afford to go anywhere else.

I saw a lot of Chinese people in particular because Havre was full of Chinese restaurants and it seemed as if there was not a Chinese restaurant, why then many Chinese started laundries in the town.

Some of the best food I have ever eaten I ate at the Boston Café that was owned by Tommy Woo. It was located where PJ’s is today and was not much of a building. Sad for me to say that because I think that at the time my great grandmother Thackeray still owned the structure but she put nothing into it. I remember well, when it rained Tommy Woo got out the buckets and they held the rain that soaked through the roof.

That did not change the quality of the food. Often times Havre florist Willie Garrahan and I would hoof it over to the Boston for lunch. We would always have the same thing, that being Chop Souy and soda crackers. We would butter the soda crackers and heavily salt the already heavy salted crackers and dunk them in the sauce that covered our Chop Souy. What a meal that was! I often asked Tommy Woo what made his Chop Souy so good and he always and modestly said it was the gravy that he put with his meat and vegetables and rice. I think that was so true for years later I got an old recipe for Chow Mein and the first requirement of making Chow Mein was that you had to make a pork roast and have lots of gravy from that roast.

For dessert at the Boston Café, Tommy Woo had raisin pie and that was out of this world too.

Years later I noticed that Chop Souy was not on many Oriental menus any more. It had been replaced by Chow Mein. And yet when I saw old signs of Havre they always were advertising Chop Souy.

So I did some research. Chop Souy apparently came first and came from San Francisco and spread like wildfire across the United Sates as first class food. Chop Souy was served with rice but later on when that very or almost very same meal was served with noodles it was called Chow Mein or Low Mein and was equally as good and equally as popular.

Today, when I see a Chinese or Oriental menu that has both Chop Souy and Chow Mein on it, I know they must know what they are doing in that restaurant.

And that makes me miss the old Boston Café and Tommy Woo and Willie Garrahan too.

One thing for sure, those old Chinese cooks really knew what they were doing. I was fortunate to have been able to eat their wonderful selections.