Chop suey

Chop Suey(usually pronounced/ˈtʃɒpˈsuːi/) is a dish fromAmerican Chinese cuisineand other forms of overseasChinese cuisine, generally consisting of meat (usuallychicken,pork,beef,shrimporfish) andeggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such asbean sprouts,cabbage, andcelery, and bound in astarch-thickened sauce. It is typically served with rice, but can become the Chinese-American form ofchow meinwith the substitution ofstir-friednoodles for rice.
Chop Suey has become a prominent part ofAmerican Chinese cuisine,British Chinese cuisine,Filipino Chinese cuisine,Canadian Chinese cuisine, Thai Chinese cuisine,Indian Chinese cuisine, andPolynesian cuisine. InChinese Indonesian cuisineit is known ascap cai(tjap tjoi) (雜菜, "mixedvegetables") and mainly consists of vegetables.
Chop Suey is widely believed to have been developed in the U.S. byChinese Americans. However, the anthropologistE. N. Andersontraces the dish totsap seui(杂碎, "miscellaneous leftovers"), common inTaishan, Guangdong(Toisan) – the home of many early Chinese immigrants to theUnited States.Hong Kong doctorLi Shu-fanlikewise reported that he knew it in Toisan in the 1890s.
The long list of conflicting stories about the origin of Chop Suey is, in the words of food historian Alan Davidson, "a prime example of culinary mythology" and typical of popular foods.
One account claims that it was invented by Chinese American cooks working on thetranscontinental railroadin the 19th century. Another tale is that it was created duringQing dynastypremierLi Hongzhang's visit to the United States in 1896 by his chef, who tried to create a meal suitable for both Chinese and American palates. Another story is that Li wandered to a local Chinese restaurant after the hotel kitchen had closed, where the chef, embarrassed that he had nothing ready to offer, came up with the new dish using scraps of leftovers. Yet recent research by the scholar Renqiu Yu led him to conclude that "no evidence can be found in available historical records to support the story that Li Hung Chang [Li Hongzhang] ate Chop Suey in the United States." Li brought three Chinese chefs with him, and would not have needed to eat in local restaurants or invent new dishes in any case. Yu speculates that shrewd Chinese American restaurant owners took advantage of the publicity surrounding his visit to promote Chop Suey as Li's favorite.
Another myth is that, in the 1860s, a Chinese restaurant cook in San Francisco was forced to serve something to drunken miners after hours, when he had no fresh food. To avoid a beating, the cook threw leftover meat and vegetables into a wok and served it to the miners, who loved it and asked what dish it was—he replied "Chopped Sui".There is no good evidence for any of these stories.
Chop Suey appears in an 1884 article in theBrooklyn Eagle, byWong Chin Foo, "Chinese Cooking", in which he says it "may justly be so-called the 'national dish of China'."In 1888 Wong wrote that a "staple dish for the Chinese gourmand is chow chop svey  [sic], a mixture of chickens' livers and gizzards, fungi, bamboo buds, pigs' tripe, and bean sprouts stewed with spices."An 1896 newspaper report states: "Chow Chop Suey is a sort of stew made of chicken's livers and gizzards, calves' tripe, bean sprouts, celery and 'meu', which is a sort of Chinese first cousin to macaroni".An article inThe Illustrated Americanon Chinese cuisine in 1897, reproduces a menu from Ma Hung Low's restaurant onMott Streetin New York'sChinatownquarter which includes the dish "Beef Chop Suey with Bean Sprouts, Water Chestnuts and Boiled Rice." The dish itself, referred to as "the standard Chinese dish of Chop Suey," is described as "a stew of beef, chicken, or pork, with bean sprouts, mushrooms, water-lily roots, sprouted grain and unknown flavorings."In 1898, it is described as "A Hash of Pork, with Celery, Onions, Bean Sprouts, etc."
During his travels in the United States,Liang Qichao, a Guangdong (Canton) native, wrote in 1903 that there existed in the United States a food item calledChop Sueywhich was popularly served by Chinese restaurateurs, but which local Chinese people do not eat, because the cooking technique is "really awful".
In earlier periods of Chinese history,Chop Sueyorchap suiin Cantonese, andza sui, in Mandarin, has different meanings of cooked animaloffalorentrails. For example, in the classic novelJourney to the West(circa 1590),Sun Wukongtells a lion-monster in chapter 75: "When I passed through Guangzhou, I bought a pot for cookingza sui– so I'll savor your liver, entrails, and lungs."The termza sui(杂碎) is found in newer Chinese-English dictionaries with both meanings listed: cooked entrails, andChop Sueyin the Western sense.