Chinese Southern Cornerstores in the Mississippi Delta
While a part of their past is fading, there are Chinese who feel blending their old culture with the flavor of the (Chinese) South is a recipe for success.
Chef Wally Jo’s family owns K.C.’s in Cleveland, among the top-rated restaurants in the Delta.
“We had a grocery store just like everybody else. As we got a little older, there was an opportunity to buy an existing restaurant,” says Jo, who came to the Delta from Hong Kong in 1966 when he was 4 years old.
The restaurant has served Southern cuisine with an Asian flair for 31 years, and Jo has made a national name for himself with unique dishes that use homegrown ingredients such as stone-ground grits, pork bellies and okra.
“It’s really based on my experiences as a Chinese-American growing up in the Deep South,” Jo says. “The older I get I try to hold on to those traditions and try to learn more about where I’m from.”
The Southern Foodways Alliance‘s films celebrate the people and places who enrich the landscape of Southern food and culture.
