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Today, chop suey is cooked in pretty much the same way that most meat and vegetable stir fries are. Ingredients or 2 medium chicken thighs pounds bok choy, washed and cut into eighths lengthwise, then crosswise into 3-to-4-inch ribbons vegetable oil. It was so bad that the Chinese in America did not eat it.īut all that was long ago. American-style chop suey, in its earliest form, bore little resemblance to anything found in China. The immigrants who introduced the stir fry to America were not skilled cooks, and their attempt to replicate the dish from home was more Frankenstein-like than anything else. The difference between the source and the adaptation is in the cooking. While the term chop suey itself, spelled that way, may be an American thing, there are anthropological bases that the Chinese-American chop suey is most probably an adaption of the Chinese tsap seui (literally, “miscellaneous leftovers”), a dish found in Guandong where many of the early Chinese immigrants to the United States came from.
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Just think of fried rice and you get the idea. The story, in either version, sounds plausible enough especially when we consider how good the Chinese are at salvaging leftovers because being wasteful is frowned upon in Asia. American miners demanded food, the flustered Chinese cook didn’t have much to cook with so he got creative. ingredients whole chicken breasts cups chicken broth head bok choy (about 8 oz) or 1/2 head napa cabbage (about 8 oz) teaspoons cornstarch cup water. Literally meaning mixed up scraps, chop suey is similar to the food Chinese people ate. He tossed them together, added sauce, and chop suey was born.Ī variation of the story pins the birth of chop suey during the Gold Rush. Chop suey is an American dish invented by early Chinese immigrants. You might have read the story that, during the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad when the Chinese flocked to the United States to seek work, American laborers wanted food but there was this Chinese cook had only bits and pieces of meat and vegetables. Ingredients 3 tablespoons oil 1 1/2 pound pork or chop suey meat 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms 1 cup sweet onion 2 cups celery 1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon. Its a flexible dish with endless varieties, which means that you. If that’s not confusing enough, I would learn much later that the American tale might be more myth than fact. Your typical Chinese stir fry chicken, chop suey is a classic in many Asian households. Then I read that the dish was born in America. The recipe is finished off with a sauce combining oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, and sesame oil. Simply stir-fry noodles along with a variety of fresh vegetables, including bell peppers, zucchini, and mushrooms for a colorful and filling dish. Along with sweet sour pork, I grew up thinking that chop suey was the quintessential Chinese food. This classic stir-fry dish is a crowd pleaser.
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