It’s a long-lived – probably eternal – misconception. But foodsphere insiders regularly make the effort to debunk it. There are popular ‘Chinese foods’ they’ve never heard of in Asia. And there are differences between them…
There’s a wide-spread misconception that some of the most popular dishes on American ‘Chinese Food’ menus are authentic Asian specialties. Nothing could be further from the truth. But the reasons why remain tangled in histor-ical twists and turns and the vagaries of supply and demands…
Industrious adaptability
Today, in the 202os, we enjoy a growing selection of increasingly authentic and specialized Asian dining opportunities. Not just differentiated by country but, in some cases, by sub-regions.
But back when Asian food first came to North America, the situation was much different. The reason there’s a ‘Chinese’ restaurant in many small towns across the continent is, Asians who came here to work on the transcontinental rail-roads stayed. They dropped off the navvy, chow-wagon and laundry gangs at intervals along the way.
And did what they knew best.
There were a lot of fishing people. But the Japanese, who came later, took over the west coast fishing industry. Until they were disenfranchised and imprisoned by the fearful European-descended major-ity during the Second World War.
Necessity the mother
There were also a lot of Asian farmers on the railroads. And they wanted to re-establish their tradi-tional culture, as far as they could, in their new world. Central to that effort was food. But many of the traditional ingredients they sought were unavailable. That’s primarily why ‘American Chinese’ dishes we have today feature so many substitutions.
Carrots and potatoes took the place of daikons and other root veggies. Nappa Cabbage was originally cultivated here specifically to supply the Asian-descended market. Broccoli as we know it came not from Asia but England. But it’s come into almost universal use in ‘Chinese’ cuisine because, for de-cades, the similar-looking but different stuff they had back home was unavailable.
And bean sprouts? They’ve never heard of them in China. Sprouts were first grown from Mung Beans the Chinese newcomers brought with them as seeds. But so prolific were the sprouts, they quickly took the place of unavailable traditional ingredients.
Which lead, naturally, to…
… Those cornerstones of American Chinese Food: Chop Suey, Chow Mein and Lo Mein.
Of all the questions I regularly field about ‘Chinese Food’, inquiries about the ‘differences’ between those dishes take runaway first place (followed by, “What’s the deal with MSG, anyway?”)
Chop Suey
The name ‘chop suey’ comes from the Cantonese phrase ‘tsap sui’, which translates to ‘odds and ends’. The legend hols, a chef who cooked for Chinese Ambassador to the US Li Hung Chang decided to substitute ingredients Americans attending an 1896 state dinner would find more familiar. More plausibly, another story contends it was first made by a Chinese chef in California who ran out of traditional ingredients and had to cobble together a new dish with what he had on hand: odds and ends.
Chop Suey is reliably decribed as, “some kind of meat, whether this is beef, pork, chicken or seafood, an assortment of veggies, sometimes an egg and a thick sauce. […] Served with either noodles or rice, although rice is a more common and popular pairing.
Chow Mein
Chow Mein translates from a northern Chinese dialect as ‘stir-fried noodles’. But its origins are im-penetrably obscure. Unlike Chop Suey, which is served atop or beside Rice, Chow Mein is always served by itself, with its angel hair noodles integrated in the preparation.
Its key ingredients include meat, vegetables such as cabbage and/or bok choy, and a sauce. However, the ‘rules’ for Chow Mein are more rigid than those for Chop Suey: it is always served with stir-fried noodles.
Lo Mein
Is very similar in composition to Chow Mein. But its veggies are cooked separately from the noodles, which are stir-fried in their own thin sauce and combined with the veggies before serving.
My take
Of course, any of the above American Chinese foods can be rendered perfectly vegetarian – even ve-gan. Simply leave out the meat and address the rules for preparing such dishes – prominently among them, in this context, avoiding animal fats.
I think it’s also important, at this juncture, to emphasize that you should fear no stigma nor feel no shame for enjoying these classic American Chinese foods. If you love them – and who among us wasn’t exposed to them as a culinarily impressionable youth? – go right ahead.
And feel free to educate any food snob who has the effrontery to sneer down at you on the unique and venerable history of American Chinese cuisine!
~ Maggie J.