![]() ![]() And non-Asian restaurants serve cashew chicken. I presume Korean and Japanese restaurants also serve cashew chicken. Vietnamese restaurants serve cashew chicken. Most every Chinese restaurant in town notes the availability of cashew chicken on their exterior signage. ![]() The reason, in part, if not exclusively, is cashew chicken. Springfield has the highest per capital density of Chinese restaurants of any city in the United States. Yet, in this city of under 200,000 residents there are almost 100 Chinese restaurants. I saw no Latinos, and the only Asians I saw were inside of the Chinese restaurants. The entire time in Springfield I saw only three African Americans, and they were all hotel guests. In all of my post civil rights era travels, I have never seen an urban area so homogenous as Springfield. While the reason for the trip was the Springfield cashew chicken, the city of Springfield itself turned out to be most interesting, and in some regards, contradictory. Also when I discovered that the airport in Springfield was called Springfield-Branson airport, that helped explain the existence of that direct route. To my surprise, I learned that there were direct flights between Los Angeles and Springfield, albeit only three days a week, on Allegiant Airlines. Little did I realize that weeks later I would be in Springfield sampling five varieties of that dish, as the guest of Susan Wade and the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau. A.Weekly Squid Ink article, and she asked me what Chinese restaurant I hadn't been to that I would most like to go to, it didn't take deep thought on my part to reply it would be someplace in Springfield, Missouri to try their cashew chicken which was deep fried and served with gravy, rather than the typical pan fried version. So when Clarissa Wei first interviewed me for her L. ![]() Over the years I had tried to think of ways to incorporate Springfield, MO into my travel itinerary, but had never been able to do so, and been resigned to the reality that I'd never make it to Springfield. Louis, MO the chow mein sandwich of Fall River, MA and Woonsocket, RI chicken fingers in Boston and adjoining areas of New England and honey chicken in South Florida and other parts of the south. This was one of a handful of regional Chinese American specialties that had developed over the years, including the St. Sometime probably in the early 1980s I first heard of Springfield cashew chicken. ![]()
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