St. Paul sandwich gangs in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries" and was probably derived from egg foo young. They believed that the early Denver sandwiches were actually St. Paul sandwiches. This sandwich was featured in the PBS documentary "Sandwiches That You Will Like" in 2003 and will be featured in a book by artist Kelly Pratt to be released in 2016 called "Stately Sandwiches" as the sandwich chosen to represent the state of Missouri. It is usually only available in Chinese restaurants in the St. Louis metropolitan area as well as a select few Chinese American restaurants in outlying regions of Missouri,
History of Chinese Americans in St. Louis History of Chinese Americans in St. Louis Greater St. Louis has a Chinese community. There are 1,931 Chinese Americans in St. Louis (0.6% of the city's population), and 14,460 living in the Greater St. Louis area (0.5% of the area's population). The first Chinese immigrant to St. Louis was Alla Lee, a 24-year-old from Ningbo who arrived in 1857. He socialized with the Irish American community and married an Irish woman. He sold coffee and tea in a shop on North Tenth Street. Around 1867, several hundred Chinese looking for work in factories and mines in and around St. Louis