The St. Paul sandwich can be found in many

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

restaurants in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, as well as other cities in Missouri, including Columbia,

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the capital of Missouri, United States. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 census, ranking as the 15th most populous city in the state. It is also the county seat of Cole County and the princi ...

, and Springfield. The

sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

consists of an

egg foo young Egg foo young (, also spelled egg fooyung, egg foo yong, egg foo yung, or egg fu yung) is an omelette dish found in Chinese Indonesian, British Chinese, and Chinese American cuisine. The name comes from the Cantonese language. Egg foo young is d ...

patty (made with

mung bean sprouts Mung bean sprouts are a culinary vegetable grown by sprouting mung beans. They can be grown by placing and watering the sprouted beans in the shade until the hypocotyls grow long. Mung bean sprouts are extensively cultivated and consumed in East ...

and minced white onions) served with dill pickle slices,

white onion White onion or ''Allium cepa'' (“sweet onion”) are a cultivar of dry onion which have a distinct light and mild flavour profile. Much like red onions, they have a high sugar and low sulphur content, and thus have a relatively short shelf life ...

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar s ...

, and

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...

between two slices of

white bread White bread typically refers to breads made from wheat flour from which the bran and the germ layers have been removed from the whole wheatberry as part of the flour grinding or milling process, producing a light-colored flour. This milling pro ...

. The St. Paul sandwich also comes in different combinations and specials, such as chicken, pork, shrimp, beef, and other varieties.

Origin

One source has the origin of the St. Paul sandwich dating to the early 1940s, when Chinese restaurants created the sandwich as a unique dish that was in a more familiar sandwich form that would appeal to the palates of Midwestern Americans, an early example of

fusion cuisine Fusion cuisine is cuisine that combines elements of different culinary traditions that originate from different countries, regions, or cultures. They can occur naturally and become aspects of culturally relevant cuisines, or they can be part of ...

. According to local legend, the St. Paul sandwich was invented by Steven Yuen at Park Chop Suey in Lafayette Square, a neighborhood near

downtown St. Louis Downtown St. Louis is the central business district of St. Louis, Missouri, the hub of tourism and entertainment, and the anchor of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The downtown is bounded by Cole Street to the north, the river front to the eas ...

; Yuen named the sandwich after his hometown of

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

. Food writers

James Beard James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, ...

and Evan Jones believed that the Denver or Western sandwich was created by "the many Chinese chefs who cooked for

logging camp A logging camp (or lumber camp) is a transitory work site used in the logging industry. Before the second half of the 20th century, these camps were the primary place where lumberjacks would live and work to fell trees in a particular area. Many ...

s and railroad gangs in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries" and was probably derived from

. They believed that the early Denver sandwiches were actually St. Paul sandwiches. This sandwich was featured in the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

documentary ''

Sandwiches That You Will Like ''Sandwiches That You Will Like'' is a 2002 PBS documentary by Rick Sebak of WQED. The unique sandwich offerings of cities across the United States (although excepting two from California, the remaining sandwiches all originate no further west ...

'' in 2003 and featured in a book by artist Kelly Pratt released in 2016 called ''Stately Sandwiches'' as the sandwich chosen to represent the state of Missouri.

Availability

It is usually only available in Chinese restaurants in the St. Louis metropolitan area as well as a select few

restaurants in outlying regions of

, the owners of which are typically originally from St. Louis.

References

External links

Article on the St. Paul sandwich by Thomas Crone"St. Louie Chop Suey," St. Louis Riverfront Times, Nov 15, 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Paul Sandwich American Chinese cuisine American sandwiches Asian-American culture in Missouri Chinese fusion cuisine Cuisine of St. Louis Cuisine of the Midwestern United States Egg sandwiches

Origin

Availability

See also

References

External links