Chop suey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Chop suey |
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| Traditional Chinese | 雜碎 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 杂碎 | ||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | zá suì | ||||||||||||
| Jyutping | zaap6seoi3 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | odds and ends assorted pieces |
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Chop suey is a popular dish often found in American Chinese cuisine. It's made with meat (like chicken, beef, or shrimp) and eggs. These are quickly cooked with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery. Everything is mixed in a thick sauce. You usually eat chop suey with rice. Sometimes, if you add stir-fried noodles, it becomes like chow mein. Chop suey is a very well-known part of Chinese food in America.
Where Did Chop Suey Come From?
Many people think chop suey was first made in America by Chinese Americans. However, some experts believe the dish came from a Chinese dish called tsap seui. This name means "miscellaneous leftovers." It was common in Taishan, a part of Guangdong province in China. Many early Chinese immigrants to the U.S. came from this area.
In China, farmers would stir-fry small shoots and leftover vegetables at the end of the day. This simple dish was the original tsap seui. A doctor from Hong Kong, Li Shu-fan, even said he knew this dish in Taishan in the 1890s.
There are many fun, but probably untrue, stories about how chop suey started. A food historian named Alan Davidson calls these stories "culinary mythology." This means they are popular myths about food.
Here are some of those stories:
- One story says Chinese American cooks invented it. This happened while they were working on the transcontinental railroad in the 1800s.
- Another tale says it was made for a Chinese official named Li Hongzhang. He visited the United States in 1896. His chef supposedly created a meal that both Chinese and Americans would like.
- A different version of Li Hongzhang's story says he went to a local Chinese restaurant late at night. The chef had no fresh food. So, he quickly made a new dish using leftovers.
- However, new research shows there's no proof Li Hongzhang ever ate chop suey in the U.S. He brought his own chefs. It's more likely that clever Chinese American restaurant owners used his visit to make chop suey famous.
Another myth says that in the 1860s, a cook in San Francisco had to feed some hungry miners late at night. He had no fresh food, so he threw leftovers into a wok. The miners loved it and asked what it was. The cook supposedly replied "chopped sui." There is no real proof for any of these stories.
See also
In Spanish: Chop suey para niños
Images for kids
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Chop suey, made with garlic chicken and peapods, on fried rice
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Far East Chop Suey restaurant in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles: Restaurants like this are now rare, but were once a common sight in the United States.
