Godfather's Chinese Take out

Grace decided to submit a piece for a food blog about Chinese Take Out in the Godfather. But a lot of our discussing points were edited out. So I felt I should write them here in this blog.
Basically the question is, "Why did Michael and Sonny and Tom Hagen and Clemenza and other assassin plotters eat Chinese Take out right before the dinner that Michael was going to go to and shoot Sollozzo and the Police Chief in order to protect Vito Corleone (Michael's Father)."

He was what Grace thought were reasons not to order Chinese food during this very important point of the movie.

1) Michael has a broken jaw from the Police Captain McCkluckey's fist. Kung Pao Chicken and egg rolls would have been very difficult to chew. Why didn't they just make him Spaghetti?

2) Where are all the Italian women to cook for them? This is going to be his last meal before going into hiding. Perhaps even his last meal period. Shouldn't it be more important and symbolic?

3)Does he really want to go kill someone and be all stressed out while also feeling the effects of the grease and the MSG?


So we talked about this and I argued that Chinese food was actually the perfect choice.

1) It is convenient. Chinatown is right next to Little Italy. This is 1946. in the 1990's the Fujianese will actually battle the Italians for a couple of streets. But in 1946 there are quiet neighbors outside of the Italian Community. They will not ask any questions about why these Italian guys from the Corleone family are ordering Chinese Take Out when supposedly they are may be a meeting with these other gangster people for dinner. They are less likely to know about all that. Or at least can feign ignorance more convincingly. When asked who picked up food (if it would even matter) one Gwai lo is the same as another. But at the same time, they are right down the street. Convenient for everyone with a healthy jaw. As for Michael, maybe he just ahd lo mein and egg drop soup. Protein and watery for the latter. The former is pretty much the same consistency as Spaghetti. I doubt that Jook was on the menu back then.

2) The Italian women are not part of the business side of things in this Family. They don;t want them around. They don;t want them to know anything about it. All the men present do not have time to be cooking. (Though Clemenza can cook) They need to focus their energy on strategy and supporting Michael, who has combat experience. But has never assassinated someone sitting at the same dinner table before. Everyone who is outside the immediate circle for this business is not present. Even Fredo, the second son, who was useless when trying to defend his father both in his lack of thinking and his lack of action, is not there.

3) One would not tend to have an appetite in a situation like this. But fueling your body with something is important. The flavor and MSG in Chinese food will help you to just gulp some stuff down even though you don't feel like eating, and then head out to go blow your enemies heads off. The two men who were behind the gunning down of your Father.