Reconstruction
When Walter James opened the Nankin Café in downtown Minneapolis on October 23, 1919, he entered a restaurant trade shaped by both opportunity and racial exclusion. Chinese labor immigration remained restricted under federal law, while Chinese food was often treated by white Americans as simultaneously suspect and exotic. Restaurants offered one of the limited commercial paths available to many Chinese Americans, and their menus commonly combined Cantonese-derived dishes with familiar American foods.
The Nankin’s exact opening menu has not been located, so the presence of its celebrated Special Chow Mein on the first night cannot be demonstrated. A surviving 1926 menu, however, gives unusually concrete evidence. It advertises “Our Famous Nankin Special Chow Mein,” available with chicken or crabmeat, accompanied by steamed rice and tea. The menu lists chicken, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, celery hearts, water chestnuts, green pepper, pimentos and almonds, and says each order was cooked individually. One order was intended for two diners. Separate combination meals paired subgum chow mein with almonds, egg foo young, rice and tea.
What happened in the kitchen is less certain. No authenticated house recipe is known, and Nankin representatives repeatedly declined newspaper requests to release one. Later reconstructions and diners’ memories describe meat and abundant celery, mushrooms, bean sprouts and water chestnuts in a soy-seasoned, cornstarch-thickened gravy, served with rice and crisp fried noodles. These accounts are useful but should not be mistaken for the original formula. They may also blend the 1926 Special Chow Mein with the later, particularly famous subgum chicken version.
Nankin’s significance extended beyond the plate. It introduced generations of Upper Midwestern customers to Chinese American restaurant dining while offering steaks, sandwiches, seafood and desserts alongside chow mein and chop suey. That mixed menu reduced the risk of trying unfamiliar food and reveals adaptation as a business strategy rather than simple culinary dilution. Oral histories also identify the restaurant’s upstairs rooms as a meeting and celebration space for Minnesota’s small Chinese community; some unmarried cooks lived there as well.
The café moved twice but remained downtown until closing in 1999. Its celery-rich, gravy-based chow mein became part of a broader Minnesota style served over rice with crisp noodles, remembered in restaurants, takeout shops and home adaptations. Nankin did not preserve Cantonese cooking unchanged. It helped create a regional Chinese American cuisine—one formed through migration, restricted opportunity, local ingredients, restaurant labor and negotiation with customer expectations.
Nutrition
| Nutrient | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 95–150 kcal | estimated |
| Protein | 5–9 g | estimated |
| Fat | 3–7 g | estimated |
| Carbohydrate | 10–18 g | estimated |
| Fibre | 1–2.5 g | estimated |
| Glycaemic index | 45–60 | estimated |
| Glycaemic load | 4–10 | estimated |
| Micronutrients | ||
| sodium | 250–650 mg | estimated |
| potassium | 180–320 mg | estimated |
| iron | 0.8–1.8 mg | estimated |
| niacin | 2–5 mg | estimated |
Typical serving: estimated restaurant serving of chicken-based chow mein mixture with a modest quantity of crisp noodles; excludes separately served rice and tea
The Nankin recipe was never authenticated or published. Estimates use the documented 1926 ingredient list, later reconstructions and USDA analyses of restaurant chicken chow mein. Crabmeat substitution, the meat-to-vegetable ratio, almonds, frying oil, gravy concentration, crisp-noodle quantity and separate rice can materially change every value.
Historical context
At this time, Minneapolis was a rapidly growing milling and rail center approaching 380,600 residents in the 1920 census. The Twin Cities streetcar system was near its early-1920s peak, when more than 900 cars traveled roughly 523 miles of track and carried over 200 million passengers annually, concentrating shopping and entertainment downtown. Chinese communities remained small because the Chinese Exclusion Act, made permanent in 1904, sharply restricted immigration and burdened even lawful Chinese travelers and residents. Nankin opened in this exclusion-era urban world, one year before national Prohibition began and less than two years after the United States entered World War I.
Evidence
Written sources
StrongThe October 23, 1919 opening is reported from a contemporary Minneapolis Tribune notice, and a surviving 1926 Nankin menu directly documents the named Special Chow Mein, price, serving format and ingredients.
Recipe evidence
LimitedThe 1926 menu supplies an ingredient list but no quantities, sauce formula, noodle treatment or complete cooking instructions. Published recreations are later approximations, not authenticated Nankin recipes.
Food identification
StrongThe dish is explicitly named on the 1926 menu and distinguished from plain, subgum and chicken-mushroom chow mein.
Dating
ModerateThe restaurant's opening date is well supported, but the earliest located direct documentation for the Special Chow Mein itself dates to 1926 rather than opening day in 1919.
Preparation method
LimitedThe menu states that orders were individually cooked, while oral memory and later reconstructions support a thickened meat-and-vegetable gravy with crisp noodles. The precise historical method remains unknown.
Geographic attribution
StrongMenus and historical records consistently associate the dish with the Nankin Café at its original South Seventh Street location in downtown Minneapolis.
Historical interpretation
ModerateThe interpretation of the dish as Chinese American adaptation is consistent with its mixed Cantonese-American menu context and scholarship on exclusion-era restaurants, but specific customer motives cannot be directly observed.
Visual reconstruction
InterpretiveNo verified period photograph of the plated Special Chow Mein has been identified. Any visual depiction must infer color, proportions, sauce consistency and noodle arrangement from menus and later recollections.
Sources
- 1.Nankin Café (1926). Nankin Menu, Page 3. Hennepin County Library Digital Collections, Menu Collection. digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/Historical primary source
- 2.Minnesota Historical Society; interviewer Sarah G. Fackler; narrator Oy Huie Anderson (2002). Minnesota Chinese Oral History Project: Oy Huie Anderson Interview. Minnesota Historical Society. 49482661.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/49Historical primary source
- 3.Twin Cities Music Highlights (2026). Nankin. Twin Cities Music Highlights. twincitiesmusichighlights.net/venue/nankin/Modern synthesis
- 4.United States Bureau of the Census (1921). Population: Minnesota—Composition and Characteristics of the Population. Fourteenth Census of the United States. www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1Historical primary source
- 5.National Archives and Records Administration (2023). Chinese Exclusion Act (1882). Milestone Documents. www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-excModern synthesis
- 6.Yong Chen (2014). Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America. Columbia University Press. cup.columbia.edu/book/chop-suey-usa/978023116893Modern synthesis
- 7.Robin G. Thomas; Jaspreet K. C. Ahuja; Melissa G. Daniel (2015). Nationwide Variation of Sodium Levels and Portion Sizes of Chinese Restaurant Menu Items. Procedia Food Science 4: 138–147. doi:10.1016/j.profoo.2015.06.019Scientific literature
Limitations
- moderatedate start
October 23, 1919 is the documented opening date of the Nankin Café, but the earliest located direct evidence for the named Nankin Special Chow Mein is a 1926 menu. Its availability on opening day remains unverified.
- moderatecoordinates
The supplied longitude places the card east of the original restaurant. Historical records locate the first Nankin Café at 15–17 South Seventh Street, approximately 44.9780, -93.2743.
- minordescription
The description blends the documented 1926 Special Chow Mein with later memories of subgum chicken chow mein. The 1926 menu lists these as distinct offerings, although their preparations may have overlapped.
