329906 Fri Sep 29 12:02:31 -0700 2006 34 13 New England 0 1910447 Hi all! I'm looking for some verification that I am not crazy down here in Florida! My husband and I are both originally from New Hampshire (Nashua) and we were just talking about the Chinese restaurants up there. Chinese food in Florida IS NOT THE SAME! Specifially, the egg rolls. Here they are filled with chunky pieces of cabbage and carrots and sometimes have a tiny shrimp stuffed in there. But up in Nashua the food was more of a Hawaiian or Polynesian kind - the egg rolls were filled with something chopped and shredded very fine. I don't know if any of the restaurants we used to go to are still there -- The Kahala, Haluwa, and Singapore?? Does anyone know what I'm talking about?! And, even better, would anyone happen to have any kind of recipe for those egg rolls?! I would LOVE to have it!! Thanks for any insight ;-) Fri Sep 29 12:02:31 -0700 2006 43654 BabyBee 1 1910961 You're not crazy. I think the Polynesian – Chinese thing is unique to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Rhode Island not so much (anymore) and Maine not at all. I cannot comment on the places you mention but the most famous of this genre is a place in Saugus, MA called Kowloon. It’s grand (huge). A lot of the places in MA have gone down in quality and focus more on strong drinks and Keno (which I’ve heard referred to as “Tiki Bingo.” The more Scorpion/Volcano bowls one consumes the more bold one becomes as it were.) Nor can I comment on a specific egg roll recipe, but I can venture a guess that you will not find a lot of menus serving “American Chop Suey” down in Florida. Fri Sep 29 16:15:33 -0700 2006 1910447 28415 bewley 2 1911277 Thank you!! I have the hardest time trying to describe the food to people down here! No "American Chop Suey" on the menus, but ironically, we have a local guy who carves tiki totems out of palm tree trunks! I think we have the "atmosphere" mastered, although I can't say I've seen any flaming volcanoe drinks in coconut bowls recently! Toooo bad ;-( Fri Sep 29 17:51:35 -0700 2006 1910961 43654 BabyBee 2 1911502 there's also the hukelau in chicopee, which even still does the cheesy hawaiian floor show thing. http://www.hukelau.com/index.html i have not been there in many, many years though. i'll admit i have a nostalgic soft spot for this kind of chinese-american food, though, as inauthentic and generally low quality as it tends to be. Fri Sep 29 18:48:38 -0700 2006 1910961 15912 passing thru 3 1911656 That looks very similar to a place in Lynnfield, MA called “Bali Hai.” You can see it while driving north on I-95, on the left just before the 95-128 split. We enjoyed the food and the bartender, who, I think may actually have been from the Pacific Islands, made the most potent drinks. (After only two we were out-the-door.) No floor show however, which makes your recommendation more special, though we would have seen it in double if there was one. We’ll have to check that out. Thanks. Fri Sep 29 19:30:58 -0700 2006 1911502 28415 bewley 3 1912393 Oh the Hukelau! When I was growing up we BEGGED to go to this place. No floor show at the time, but had a bridge over a goldfish pond that we threw pennies in. Shirley Temples and the sterno gently glowing under the PU-PU platter- good times, good times. Sat Sep 30 00:21:30 -0700 2006 1911502 11576 cheesey 2 2949343 I am from up in Mass also, Newburyport. If here is a good Chinese restaurant in the southwestern part of Florida that knows how to cook good ole Boston/New England Style Chinese Chop Suey I haven't found it in my over 30 years of being here. It's really a simple receipe, my Mother use to make it all of the time when I was a youngster. We use to get a flank steak and have it sliced as thin as possible, cooked very slowly in a frying pan with some butter and a little water. Not to let it burn, cook until very tender. Chop some celery in small pieces, mushrooms, lots of finely chopped onions, and cook with the beef slowly. Stir his a lot so that it wont dry out, add water occastionally. Wash and steam brussle sprouts until nice and soft. Mix this all together, add some soy sauce to your taste, and let it thicken. This is where I am loss I can remember if my Mom used baking soda or white flour to thicken the suey. She would also chop up chessnuts and boil them until tender, adding them to the mixture for flavor. With a nice bowl of white rice or mashed potatoes I was in heaven. I remember her saying the longer you cook it adding a little choy sauce now and then will really make the flavor come to the top. I don't think I left anyhing out. Mon Sep 17 12:53:18 -0700 2007 1910961 128008 Butchrgt 1 1911643 I asked my husband about these places (he's from Nashua, too). He says the Kahala and Singapore are long gone, but Haluwa is still there. Fri Sep 29 19:26:45 -0700 2006 1910447 11695 Roundelay 2 1912510 OHHHHHHH!!! You guys are KILLIN' ME!! The sterno and the PU PU platter - funny! We have Bo Bo platters here in FL. They are sorta the same - teriyaki on a stick, spare ribs, a couple of crab rangoon wantons - if you're lucky - otherwise you get some kind of really weird looking "shrimp toast", and of course, the chunky cabbage egg rolls. And we seem to have a lot of mongolian buffet chinese restaurants and those "hole-in-the-wall, order by number take-out" places in the strip malls. There really aren't any old-fashioned, sit down on a plastic covered chair with the zodiac placemats under the glass tabletop places either. Come to think of it, I don't think I've had my fried rice served to me in the big silver dish with the dome cover since I moved here! Oh well - I haven't been back to Nashua in about 20 yrs. I imagine a lot of things I remember are gone now. Sat Sep 30 01:17:23 -0700 2006 1911643 43654 BabyBee 1 1916353 I laughed out loud when I read your post as my wife and I had the exact same feeling about Florida Chinese when we lived there for one year after we got married in 1980. The rice was yellow with peas of all things. The eggrolls were awful and the Lobster sauce was white or yellow depending where you got it. My benchmark has always been the Aku Aku in Cambridge so I know what you mean. Funny, but anytime a friend or family member visits me from Florida they ALWAYS want, in order, Chinese, fried clams, and Pizza. Mon Oct 02 16:40:14 -0700 2006 1910447 14387 CapeCodGuy 1 1920433 Hey Babe...I got a kick out of your remembering all the old "haunts" I used to go to the Singapore a couple of nights a week. I then moved to CA and wondered where all the good food went. CA's chinese is totally different, took a little getting used to, but somethings I actually got to liking and I miss them, now that I'm back here in NE. I have heard that the "Lilac Blossom" in Nashua is absolutely the best in the area now. Anyone been there lately? Tue Oct 03 23:29:31 -0700 2006 1910447 40385 othervoice 2 1931282 Oh yes - fried clams and pizza! Thanks for reminding me!! Let's see, do you all prefer the rubbery strips or the big fat ones with the bellies?! We have quite a few decent seafood places here, but I can't say I've been to any comparable to, say, Markies (?? not sure about the name) in the Hampton Beach area? Pizza - eh .... Bizzarro is the best around the Melbourne area. They are genuine Italian guys and make a nice thin crust that you can fold up and eat a slice nicely. I guess I just don't consider Dominoes and Pizza Hut to be "Pizza joints". Gotta be the neighborhood pizzeria. I think what we need in this town is a Chinatown and a Little Italy!! I've never been to CA, but my husband did live in San Bernadino for a while back in the 80's. I'll have to ask him about the food out there ... Sun Oct 08 19:36:59 -0700 2006 1920433 43654 BabyBee 3 2470159 When I was growing up, we'd go to South Pacific, in Newton. Every so often, as a special treat, my parents would order the pu-pu platter. American Chinese food must be very regional. When I moved from Boston to NYC, I was shocked to find that the fried rice was very light in color and had peas (darker, no peas in Boston), the fried noodle were wide in NYC (like fried fettucine), not skinny (like fried spaghetti) as in Boston and a few other things I don't remember. Wed Apr 11 08:18:33 -0700 2007 1931282 12151 marcia2 4 2498609 Lobster sauce is dark brown in Boston, pale in NY. Fri Apr 20 04:21:59 -0700 2007 2470159 11421 GaryLovesFood 1 2472214 Fall River, MA had The China Royal...complete with dancers and music . It was originally supermarket, converted to a Polynesian restaurant and now it is........gone and in it's place??? CVS...ahhh Wed Apr 11 16:48:05 -0700 2007 1910447 69900 gato 1 2525135 We moved to S. Florida about 10 years ago and the Chinese food is awful. Boston style is unique. I learned to cook most of the foods before I left MA (taking a course from a wonderful Chinese lady who owned a grocery store in Burlington, MA). I can make the spare ribs. I can make two types of chicken wings -- one is the garlicy type which was served in these restaurants from when I was a little girl and the other is the Kowloon style which is deeply fried. I can make lobster sauce. I have a recipe for beef lo mein and fried rice, too. I can even make pork strips and crab rangoons. They are all wonderful and we have Chinese night about once a month. But I cann't get the recipe for egg rolls. I went to Kowloon and they said that their recipe is a secret. I tried at Oriental Jade and they laughed. I would be eternally grateful to get this recipe. I travel to MA 3-4 times a year and always take home 4 orders (8) of egg rolls when I come back. I will re-fry them and they taste really good that way. Does anyone have that recipe? I only need to know what goes into making the filling. I can do the wrapping on my own. Please write to me at: hytzipky0719@bellsouth.net if you have this recipe. I will share what I have with you. Thank you. Sun Apr 29 10:36:05 -0700 2007 1910447 95081 Hytzipky 2 2529329 OK, my favorite subject..Boston Chinese Food! The spareribs are to be bright red, slightly charred black/slightly crunchy on the surface. The egg rolls are so distinctive because they are made with finely chopped spinach, NOT cabbage. Duck sauce is brown/orange and thick, not yellow/orange and thin. Pork strips: red on outside, slightly pink on inside, sliced about a quarter of an inch thick. The lobster sauce is dark brown, with bits of scallions flecked in; best eaten mixed with bowl of hard fried (complementary) thin noodles, dark brown fried rice with pork chunks snipped in, and chicken chow mein. Where to get it: China Sails (RIP), South Pacific(Newton), Kowloon (not so great), China Star (Quincy), Bob Lee's Islander (RIP), Cathay House (RIP)and still, Golden Temple (Brookline). Am I right or am I right??? You have to be from Boston! Big Fat Moe Mon Apr 30 18:02:55 -0700 2007 2525135 18016 Big Fat Moe 3 4964937 Hey Moe, I went to camp in Maine with a bunch of Newton kids. They all loved South Pacific. I grew up in RI so I have to agree -- at least for kids there is no finer cuisine! Boston is also the only place I'm aware of where dumplings are known as Peking ravioli. Fri Aug 21 06:24:56 -0700 2009 2529329 12829 Bob W 1 2878007 I'm from Nahua as well and I remember all of those great places and I miss New England chinese food so much. I found your blog by looking for recipes for Lobster sauce, fried rice, chicken fingers and duck sauce. I was in Florida for a few years and now I am in Texas and the Chinese food is terrible. I am a true New Englander and I mentioned to someone just yesterday how much I missed fried clams (with belly), good pizza and chinese food, there is no place in America like the Boston area. Fri Aug 24 11:12:15 -0700 2007 1910447 121829 Golfnutz 1 2878025 The Honolulu in Westboro is now gone as well. Classic bad tiki joint. Big drinks served in bowls. AAnd what was with the french bread they gave you when you ordered? We wnet only a few times each year when i was a kid. Great place. Great memories. Fri Aug 24 11:16:14 -0700 2007 1910447 18069 Westy 2 4420611 Yes, the Honolulu was classic Polynesian-Chinese! I grew up in Westboro and went there regularly with my family. The highlight as a kid was the decor, walking in and across the little bridge over the water. I live in Seattle now and a friend who also grew up in MA laments the lack of good Chinese food in Seattle. It's baffling because the Chinese here seems way more authentic than what I grew up with. Maybe he misses the Polynesian aspect... Sun Feb 15 20:54:17 -0800 2009 2878025 203851 TownSpa 1 3251163 Just wondering if you ever came close to duplicating the type of egg roll we used to get in New Hampshire. I too live in Florida now and am craving a decent egg roll that's dark and crunchy on the inside - not mushy chop suey. I would love to know the ingredients. Tue Jan 01 09:36:24 -0800 2008 1910447 153851 cas430 2 4420041 Bob Loo's in Salem NH is missed. Beef and Mushroom Chow Yoke or the "Brown" Lobstrer Sauce...Memories Sun Feb 15 16:30:02 -0800 2009 3251163 267148 gdistefano 3 4422617 Oh wow - I'm getting hungry. Are there any good Chinese restaurants - Plynesian ones - in Rhode Island? When I was younger we would go to "House of Moy" in North Providence, and "Rickshaw" in Riverside. "House of Moy" is long gone, as is 'Rickshaw' (been to the 'new place' in the old Rickshaw lication and it wasn't good). For a while I was also going to Fortuna near Charles St. on the Providence line, but that closed last year. Any suggestions? Mon Feb 16 14:43:32 -0800 2009 4420041 194211 OOliver 1 4928846 BabyBee, I also am from Newburyport, and I have been in Florida over 35 years, and I am still looking for our type of New England Chop Suey. My wife cooks a very close call using all the same ingredients we look for, it is very good, but not identical. Still looking, and hope to find one someday.As far as spring rolls there is a little take out place in St Pete that has VG spring rolls, but they are not the same as home. Sat Aug 08 12:12:54 -0700 2009 1910447 128008 Butchrgt 1 4931672 I too, like Polynesian.Bob Loo's in Salem was very good.There was a place on route 101 in Portsmouth N,H. that was very good.The Kai Lau in North Attleboro Mass was good but they closed.Right now I go to the Mon Kua in South Attleboro Mass.(Washington St.,just over the R.I. border). Sun Aug 09 17:51:46 -0700 2009 1910447 164607 raf945 1 4932289 What a wonderful thread! I'm in the Chinese restaurant business and can tell the OP (and others) that the deal with the egg rolls we all loved from childhood is that they were *fresh.* Nowadays, a lot of places par-fry them after rolling 'em and then freeze them. This ruins the wrapper and renders the filling into unidentifiable mush. The fine shreds the OP is looking for are essential to a proper egg roll. The cabbage and other veggies (celery is a now often-forgotten ingredient) are cut fine and then marinated in salt and rice wine vinegar. The juice must be pushed out under pressure. Ground pork (sauteed and colored with some red food coloring) is then added. Speaking of mushy filling -- another thing Chinese restaurants have taken to doing is buying the egg roll filling pre-prepared. This is not good. The little mom-and-pop take-out joints have started to rely on this stuff. Hey, I remember when Polynesian-style Chinese places were a dime a dozen. The cuisine wasn't "authentic" anything -- but oh, so good. Mon Aug 10 03:47:00 -0700 2009 1910447 270888 shaogo 1 4959496 Hi BabyBee I just came across this while I was doing a search. Thank you very much for your kind words. My name is Wayne Louis and my family owned the Kahala in Nashua. There is a lot that goes into making an egg roll, but if you would like the recipe, I may be able to dig it out. It may not turn out the same as the restaurant though as the type of skin used is very important and I have not been able to match the type used at the restaurant. Email me at wplouis@msn.com if you still want the recipe and I will give it to you. Wed Aug 19 11:13:21 -0700 2009 1910447 1102902 Kahala123 1 4964102 Oh my goodness! I am so happy to hear about all the great memories you all have!! It's really nice to connect with people who understand what I'm talking about!! Wayne - I am on my way to email you right now! Thank you! Thu Aug 20 18:01:39 -0700 2009 1910447 43654 BabyBee 1 4990263 Ok, i know this trail started years ago, but it looks like some conversation is still happening! I grew up going to Bob Loo's as a child (my stepfather actually named a racehorse after the bartender Michael's Mai Tai!), and my mom has been fondly remembering the little sesame coated chewy snacks that they served at the end of the meal along with the fortune cookies - if i remember correctly, they were like little squishy cubes cubes. Does anyone have any idea what these were called or how to make them??? I've been searching all over the Internet for soft sesame candies chinese, or sesame cookies to no avail! Maybe it's the polynesian influence?? Sun Aug 30 09:35:59 -0700 2009 1910447 1105701 sharoncamara 2 5154940 Is there anything similar or comparable in to Bob Loo's in Southern NH today? I too am from the RI area and miss the Polynesian style Chinese joints. Would love to find one close to home! Wed Nov 04 08:33:29 -0800 2009 4990263 17304 snl1129 3 5155081 I think the Pago Pago in Milford is still open, although the last time I ate there was probably in '84! I used to love the flaming Pu Pu platters as a kid. Wed Nov 04 09:05:13 -0800 2009 5154940 10917 Kat 3 5168882 Bob Loo's was good for chinese....Lobster Claw for seafood, just down the street in Derry.....magnifique!!!! Mon Nov 09 18:57:40 -0800 2009 5154940 1123187 bostonsunshine 1 5155117 OMG! I loved this really fun tacky "Polynesian" place we used to go to in Sturbridge, MA. It's still there (on the road to Southbridge?)! I loved their drinks- BIG, colorful and tacky! Also this thing called a "PuPu Platter" of little appetizers. Recently, there was an ad for some kind of stomach acid reducer and the characters are at a Polynesian style buffet place- loved the decorations in the background and the luau music-funny w/o trying to be. Wed Nov 04 09:17:47 -0800 2009 1910447 181204 stuck in Hartford County 1 5168874 Bob loo's in Salem NH is ok, Kowloon in Saugus Mass is good, Hawaiian Isle in Plaistow NH is great but the absolute best is Oriental Gardens in Haverhill, Mass. They have the awesome eggrolls that everyone is looking for. Tons of chopped veggies, shredded pork & deep fried to a dark golden brown. I loved cutting into them, seeing the deep greens of the spinach & the dark red from the roasted pork. I make 3-4 trips "home" each year & make the rounds between chinese, pizza & seafood. I return to LA smiling...10 lbs heavier & laden with AH-SO red & duck sauce, Salada teabags, Fluff & yankee doodles. Mon Nov 09 18:54:09 -0800 2009 1910447 1123187 bostonsunshine