The first Chinese immigrants came to the U.S. to work in the California Gold Rush. But when more established immigrants began to fear for their jobs in light of their rising numbers in the late 1800s, the first of many laws was passed to restrict Chinese immigration.

The first Chinese restaurants were likewise on the West Coast and mainly served Chinese. As immigration laws cut off the supply of Chinese customers, Chinese restaurateurs were forced to cater to the broader market. In "Have You Eaten Yet?" this is reflected in old menus offering both Chinese and "American" steaks and chops, Americanized Chinese dishes like chop suey and chow mein, and "column A" and "column B" ordering for the Caucasian clueless. Many of the Philadelphia Chinese restaurant menus in the exhibit have Rittenhouse or midtown addresses—locations catering to non-Asians, who felt Chinatown unsafe, explains Atwater Kent deputy development director Christine Davis.

China's status as ally during World War II and the experience of U.S. soldiers in the Pacific increased white Americans' comfort with Eastern culture, and Chinese supper clubs, like New York's China Doll restaurant, with its "Slant Eyed Scandals" show, become popular attractions. So popular, in fact, that many clubs retained photographers to take souvenir snaps that fill one of the exhibit's most amusing cases.

There's also a brief but interesting discussion of why American Jews love Chinese food, and in one of few audio components of this low-tech exhibit, CD recordings of comic Stan Freberg's classic and very funny ads for Chun King grocery foods—although the exhibit fails to tell their fascinating backstory. (Could this be because Chun King founder Jeno Paulucci is Italian, Freberg is Swedish and this exhibit was developed by New York's Museum of Chinese in the Americas, and this is a reverse case of the discrimination the Chinese have long suffered in America?)

Make sure to read the visitor book of "Chinese restaurant memories" at the end of the exhibit for its funny mouse story and local Chinese restaurant recommendations for the Chinese meal you will come out of here dying to eat.

(cwyman@citypaper.net)