Cooking At Home: Young at Heart

Madame Wong's Long-Life Chinese Cookbook was first published when I was about 4 years old. By the time my parents got a copy (and a West Bend electric wok to go with it) in the early 1980s, Chinese food had become the most popular global cuisine in the United States. As a little girl with a budding fascination with food and cooking, I was charmed by all Chinese ingredients and recipes. Egg rolls were my dinner of choice on birthdays, and my favorite anytime-of-year meal was, without a doubt, Egg Foo Young.

I realize now why egg rolls were a rare treat and egg foo young was ubiquitous in my household. The first dish is time-consuming and messy to prepare; the second is fast and easy. Thankfully, fresh bean sprouts are easier to come by than they were in the '80s, when my dad's only option was a can from La Choy. My modern recipe also freshens up the dish's iconic brown gravy with a scratch-made sauce – miles better than the foil packet of dry ingredients we would "just add water" to back in the day.