A new book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8 Lee, notes that today there are some 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., more than the combined number of McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC stores.

She calls eating Chinese food a ritual for Americans because it is predictable, familiar and readily available.

In researching her book, which takes readers through the culinary, social and cultural history of American Chinese food, she visited Chan’s Fine Oriental Dining in Woonsocket where she learned about the chow mein sandwich. Crunchy Asian-style noodles mixed with a saucy blend of celery, onions and bean sprouts and served on a hamburger bun is not a common sandwich, but it offered a taste of home for those who live in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, including its birthplace of Fall River. The Oriental Chow Mein Co., and its proprietor Frederick Wong, started making crunchy noodles when he opened his business back in 1936. A gravy mix followed, and chow mein took off as an inexpensive and tasty meal perfect for take-out.

As for Chan’s, it opened as the New Shanghai in 1905. In 1965, Ben and Ethel Chan purchased the restaurant and nine years later renamed it. Their son John, who was a recent Providence College grad with a passion for jazz joined the family business at the same time. He continues the business today with both egg rolls and jazz as well as chow mein sandwiches. In business for 103 years, it is believed to be the oldest, continuously run Chinese restaurant in Rhode Island, said John Eng-Wong, the Brown researcher studying the globalization of Chinese food.

Today, Chan keeps traditional dishes on the menu, but is considering adding dishes that stem from other Asian cuisines such as California rolls, nime chow, salads and stirfry wraps.

Balancing what longtime customers crave and future diners look for is a must for all restaurants, no matter what their cuisine.