Jimmy’s Kitchen – Chop Suey, Corned Beef Hash and Peanut Cake
Posted: April 15th, 2010 | 2 Comments »Before the war Jimmy James and his establishments were all very popular in Shanghai. James, a Minnesotan formerly of the US Army’s 15th Infantry, who had stayed on in China after discharge, originally ran the Handy Bar on Central Road (now Shashi No.1 Road) for many years, a much beloved institution of soldiers, bachelors and married men “slumming itâ€. The Handy Bar staffed largely by White Russian women, which earned it the nickname the “Randy Barâ€. Then he opened a chain of four restaurants called Jimmy’s Kitchen – a name that lives on in Hong Kong (see the picture below of the current establishment). Many people remembered the fried breakfasts, hamburgers and ice creams served up at Jimmy’s after a long night’s carousing- though bringing chop suey to China, a San Francisco invention is rather amusing and as for corned beef hash and peanut cake…well.
Jimmy was later interned by the Japanese and sent to the camp at Woosung where conditions were terrible. Many prisoners later recalled the kindness “Shanghai Jimmy†provided when at Christmas in 1942 (at which time he was still living outside the camp in Japanese occupied Shanghai) he managed to provide the Woosung prisoners with a Christmas tree complete with decorations as well as cigars, cigarettes and a hot turkey dinner – a tremendous boost to both health and morale. He continued to send food, medicine and other help to the prisoners until he, too, was interned in the prison camp.
Below an ad for his specials from July 1937 and then a shot of the Jimmy’s that still carries on his name in Hong Kong:
James was not a prisoner at Woosung, which was a POW camp – he was interned in Chapei in early 1943, along with his wife and two daughters. He also had two mentally disabled daughters who spent the war in an asylum up in Minghong. James also ran a string of other restaurants, such as the St. Georges and the Yellow Jacket, as well as the posh Mandarin Club.
My grandpa Jimmy was in the Chaipei” civilian assembly center” as was my mother Doris Helen James, Annie her sister and my grandma Mae.
I have many pictures of her and the family and several letters from the time in Shanghai.
My mother Doris passed away December 11, 2021 at age 95 and today February 1, 2022 was layed to rest at the Bellevue Memorial Park, Ontario, California.
If anyone is interested in more of this story of my family contact me @ firetruckfreddy@earthlink.net, Thank you, Fred .