decoding Chinese takeout

Ok, I know Chinese take-out (or Take away) is different from country to country, state to state in the US, and even restaurant to restaurant...but I am trying to get a general idea of the difference between Chow mein and Chop Suey...any one? I have ordered them both and restaurants and they seem esentially identical, except chow mein is served with crispy fried noodles and chop suey is served with rice. Also, Chop suey is usually more expensive. TIA!

I've never had either of these dishes, so I can't really say what the difference might be. In fact, I don't even recall seeing them on any menus at Chinese places here.

Can you give a general description of them, Maria? Maybe I've seen them but called something else?

WOW...Cynthia, I thought they might only be American Chinese food dishes, but maybe they are New Jerseyian Chinese food dishes...LOL!

They both consist of lots of stir fried onions, boy choy, and water chestnuts. Most places also add some combination of the following: snow peas, celery, carrots, tomatoes, bean sprouts, and bamboo shoots. It is always in a thick whitish sauce (corn starch thickened chicken and garlic broth, I am assuming). I usually order a small veggie Chop suey or veggie chow mein, because for $2.50/$3.00 it's the cheapest veggie dish on the menu.

That's classic East Coast Old School American-Chinese. Add in some excess dark sesame oil and somewhat gloppy cornstarch thickener, season with La Choy, MSG, and sugar, and there ya go.

Oh my. I think I'm glad I didn't know what it is!

I saw a documentary on Chinese food in America. They said that the phrase "chop suey" was invented by Chinese railroad workers in the 1880's. It's a corruption of the Chinese words for "leftovers."

On the other hand, there has never been a Chinese dish named "chow mein". That was totally made up for Americans.

Maria,

Both of these are dishes from the old school of Chinese-American restaurant cooking. As Jeff said, this tradition dates back to the 1880s, when a big wave of Chinese immigrants came to work on the railroads. They got the most menial jobs--washing and cooking--and this is what led to the profusion of Chinese laundries and restaurants in the US. Most of them were from the Guangzhou (Canton) region of China. They of course had to heavily adapt and modify their native dishes to the ingredients and palates of 19th century America. When returning GIs from the Pacific Theater brought back a nostalgia for Polynesian flavors and decor, there was a further adoption of the Tiki motif by US Chinese restaurants, and the Chinese/Polynesian restaurant that predominated in the 1960s and early 1970s was born. The Mandarin/Szechuan revolution of the late 1970s brought some more authentic Chinese cuisine (from Beijing, Sichuan, Hunan, etc.) to the US culinary scene, but many of the old Chinese/Polynesian restaurants still soldier on.

Chow mein and chop suey are two of the signature dishes of this Americanized Chinese-style food. "Chow mein" is Chinese for "stir-fried noodles" and is a generic name for a category of authentic Chinese dishes. Lo mein (noodles stir-fried with a sauce) is one subclass of dishes in this category, as is chow foon (stir-fried meat and vegetables with thick rice noodles). In a Chinese/Polynesian American restaurant, "chow mein" generally means stir-fried strips of meat (chicken, pork, beef, or seafood) with sliced onions, bok choy, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, and perhaps other vegetables, with lots of soupy sauce thickened with cornstarch, served over crispy (deep-fried) wheat flour noodles. A similar concoction with a browner sauce (soy sauce added) is called Chicago-style chow mein. "Subgum" style has more veggies added.

Chop suey is, as Jeff said, a corruption of the Chinese for "leftovers". In my experience it doesn't differ all that much in ingredients or preparation from Chinese/Polynesian chow mein, except it's served with rice rather than noodles, tends to be a bit more assertive in flavor, and has more soy sauce added.

Both dishes were attempts by Chinese to adapt their cuisine to the least common denominator of meat-and-potatoes midland Americans, most of whom would have fainted dead away at any sign of flavor or assertiveness in their food.

But still, back in the early 1960s when bean sprouts were considered "exotic vegetables", these dishes--chow mein, chop suey, fried rice, moo goo gai pan, sweet-and-sour pork, fried chicken wings, barbecued spare ribs, teryaki beef, pu pu platters--were what got me started on exploring oriental cuisine. They led to my discovery of real Chinese cooking. So I can't really diss them too much.


So bottom line is, you've got the essential difference: chow mein is served with crispy noodles, chop suey is served with rice. Not that much difference otherwise.

-Paul W.

Wow Paul. Thank you so very much for that explanation...that is exactly what I was looking for. Very interesting and informative!!