Springfield, Missouri’s cashew chicken ought to be the only cashew chicken

I turned in a draft of this piece on the day my brother and sister-in-law just happened to be dining at Leong’s Asian Diner. My work sometimes intertwines with life in the most unexpected ways. My first piece for The Takeout is a defense and explanation of just how Springfield-style cashew chicken differs from the standard fare served at Chinese-American restaurants across the country. The whole piece is here.

The most American of American comfort foods was reinvented by a Chinese immigrant in Springfield, Missouri.

David Leong needed a way to incentivize people to try the food he was serving at Leong’s Tea House. Chinese food was still new to the Midwest in 1963, but Leong thought that people might just like his Cantonese-inspired take on fried chicken and gravy.