Live free and eat Chinese Pie

E-mails, I’ve got e-mails, from folks responding to my blog entry on food a while back. 

John Colburn writes: 

"My father used to kill squirrels and my mother would cook them. Often the squirrel meat would be put in the bean pot to be baked with the beans. Somebody mentioned Shepherd's Pie. When I was young it was like what we used to call Chinese Pie, but it had lamb in it instead of beef. Now everyone refers to Chinese Pie as Shepherd's Pie. In Canada it is called something like Pati Chinois (pardon my French, which may explain our use of the term Chinese Pie. Incidentally, in England it was called Cottage Pie when beef was used."

Squirrel and beans? Never heard of that before. But it sounds . . . good. John’s theory about Chinese Pie coming from the French sounds about right. Anybody speak French? Could it be pate chinois? And is a chinois a dog in Francais? Or is that chignon, a fancy hairdo? 

Pat Cummings writes: 

"A favorite food in my family of origin was Lima Bean Soup. My mother claimed it was a southern dish to which she was partial because of her "heritage." No matter that she spent only five years as a Georgia Peach! She made this soup often, usually with cornbread. The men all loved it. Any repairman who showed up in her small town would be given a bowl or two of this potent soup. Of course, the wives had to have the recipe, after hearing their husbands' raves, and so the trend of making Lima Bean Soup spread throughout town. Many a woman did not like the soup, for reasons I cannot divulge. My mother's own son's family referred to it as, 'Oh, The Beans Floating in Water Soup.' Some folks have no respect. If you have water, salt pork, salt, Lima Beans, and an onion, you're good to go. Of course, she got more elaborate in her old age, adding carrots and calling it 'Pioneer Lima Bean Soup.' 'Rooty-toot-toot for the moon' is a phrase that takes on new meaning, when fondly remembering Mother's Lima Bean Soup."

Rooty-toot-toot, indeed. Thanks, John and Pat. I wonder if people eat Chinese Pie in other parts of the country. I found several recipes for it in my grandmother’s handwritten cookbooks. Welsh Rarebit also seemed to be a favorite. And just last night a man reminded me of that culinary delight: “Salmon Pea Wiggle.”

Comments

[Nancy Larkin]

Chinois and chinoise are French for Chinese (the masculine and feminine forms, respectively). Paté Chinois would be Chinese pie.

[rebecca Rule]

That makes perfect sense! Mystery solved.
Thanks,
Becky