Until the 1970s, Chinese restaurants served bland concoctions such as egg foo yong and chop suey, or ersatz Polynesian fare such as fried rice in pineapple bowls, bits of deep-fried chicken shellacked in a sugary lemon sauce or a neon-tinted sweet-and-sour sauce. But dishes predating the menu revolution remain wildly popular at Master Wok. The Lee's Summit location is one of three suburban restaurants owned by chef Steve Tran and his wife, Shunpeng Yeh, in which time has stood still. A satellite radio is frequently tuned to American show tunes of the 1950s, making a fine soundtrack for a plate of moo goo gai pan — as groovy at Master Wok as it was when Marlo Thomas craved the dish on That Girl. The Springfield cashew chicken here isn't exactly like the dish introduced in the early 1960s at Leong's Tea House in Springfield, Missouri, but it's pretty darn close.
