Chop suey
From Freepedia
- This article is about the dish. For the song by System of a Down, see Chop Suey!.
Chop suey (Simplified Chinese: 杂碎; Traditional Chinese: 雜碎; pinyin: zásùi; Jyutping: zaap6 seoi3; Cantonese Yale: jaāhp seui) literally means mixed pieces. It roughly means chopped up odds and ends, alluding to "leftovers". It is not an authentic Chinese dish, but rather an invention catering to Western tastes - American Chinese cuisine and Canadian Chinese cuisine.
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American-style Chop Suey
American-style Chop Suey is a stir-fry vegetable dish, served with pieces of beef or pork in a semi-thick sauce, and often soy sauce. Typical ingredients for chop suey are usually local vegetables, cooked to Western-style softness, and tend to include:
- bamboo shoots
- bok choy, or its Western equivalent cabbage
- broccoli
- green pepper
- mushrooms
- onion
- sliced Chinese water chestnuts
- snow peas
Chop Suey in American Art and Literature
Chinese Chop Suey appeared in the mainstream American novel as early as 1914. Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis in his novels:
- 1914 Our Mr. Wrenn wrote: "“Well, down at the Seven Flowery Kingdoms Chop Suey and American Cooking there’s tea at five dollars a cup that they advertise is grown on ‘cloud-covered mountain-tops.’".[1]
- 1920 Babbitt wrote:"Paul returned four days later, and the Babbitts and Rieslings went festively to the movies and had chop suey at a Chinese restaurant. " [2]
- Edward Hopper 1929 oil painting titled "Chop Suey"
