SC - On a Tangential, OT Note - Was: Potato salad+pasta salad- the mild Oregon version - OOP

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
> 
> My lord husband grew up in New Hampshire, and his family ate a
> similar dish.  It was known locally as "American Chop Suey".  A quick
> Altavista search on that phrase pulled up over 200 hits, several of which
> were cafeteria menus from public schools in New England.  So it
> appears to be a commonly used term for that dish in that region.  (And
> now we can begin the inevitable sub-sub-thread about chop suey being
> an American invention anyway...)

OK, since you brought it up, I'll oblige ;  ).

It isn't American, it's Chinese, and generally refers to a particular
cooking method (a quick saute followed by a brief simmer as the sauce
thickens), not that there's much etymological connection between the
common interpretation of the name and the technique. The name basically
means "quickly simmered", but is used in Cantonese to denote any "mish-mosh".

The reason chop suey, as known by Americans, is called an American
invention is that what we see here contains virtually no vegetables a
Cantonese cook would put into chop suey, like Chinese okra or silk
squash, black mushrooms, sliced lotus root, cubes of fried bean curd,
etc. Instead we get stuff that would be unheard of for Chinese cooks
making chop suey: onions, celery, button mushrooms, with optional canned
bamboo shoots or water chestnuts, etc. Essentially the dish has evolved
to the point where it is no longer recognizable. So, BTW, has chow mein,
which is _supposed_ to be a pan-fried patty of thin egg noodles, crunchy
on the outside, fluffy and moist in the middle, topped with, for
example, sliced steak sauteed with choy sum or yu toy, both being
long-stemmed broccoli variants, in oyster sauce. 

I'd heard of American Chop Suey before, but didn't realize it was so far
removed from the original, if any, as all that. Wow!

Thanks, though!

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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