| Oriental Chow Mein Company |
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HISTORY Key Events
Summary In 1926, a small factory located on Third Street in Fall River, Massachusetts produced and delivered raw (unfried) noodles to area restaurants. At that time, each restaurant would fry their own noodles for their Chow Mein dishes. In addition to raw noodles, the Hoo Mee Chow Mein mix was packaged at the Hong Kong Restaurant on Main Street, Fall River, Massachusetts . This mix was sort of starter kit for creating Chow Mein and consisted of fried noodles and a powdered gravy packet. Later in the 1930's, Frederick S. N. Wong, decided to expand the business by providing bottled Chop Suey . Thus, the business was originally named the Oriental Chow Mein & Chop Suey Company. This lead to further expansion of the business. Mr. Wong built a small plant in the back of his second restaurant, the Hong Kong Annex at the corner of Second and Morgan Streets in Fall River, Massachusetts . There, he cooked and bottled and then pressure cooked the Chop Suey . Later, he added bottled noodles to his product line. Unfortunately, the bottling of the Chop Suey and the Noodles had to be discontinued with the advent of World War II because glass was not available for consumer use during the war. After the war, in 1946 he built the present day factory on Eighth Street, Fall River, Massachusetts where the Hoo Mee Chow Mein mix is still produced. The company's name also changed to the name it is presently known as, the Oriental Chow Mein Company. PRODUCTS The Oriental Chow Mein Company makes 2 commonly used ingredients in Chow Mein the noodles and the bean sprouts. The Noodles are thin wide egg noodles and are prepared in a variety of ways depending the type of Chow Mein desired. Some of the noodles are dried so that a person can boil them later like spaghetti. Others are deep fried for a more crispy taste. The bean sprouts are grown in large vats of water where the temperature and moisture is controlled by computer. Both the noodle making and bean sprout growing processes deserve sections of their own. HOW THE NOODLES ARE MADE HOW THE BEAN SPROUTS ARE GROWN |
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