Moo shu pork facts for kids
Moo shu pork (also spelled mù xū ròu or moo shi pork) is a tasty Chinese dish that's become very popular, especially in the United States. It's believed to have started in northern China, possibly in a region called Shandong. This dish first appeared in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. in the late 1960s and is now a common part of American Chinese food.
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What is Moo Shu Pork?
Traditional Chinese Style
In China, traditional moo shu pork (木须肉 / mùxūròu) is made with thin slices of pork tenderloin. It also includes cucumber and scrambled eggs. These ingredients are stir-fried in lard with small pieces of wood ear mushrooms (also called black fungus) and enokitake mushrooms. The dish gets its flavor from minced ginger and garlic, scallions, soy sauce, and rice cooking wine.
American Chinese Style
Moo shu pork became popular in American Chinese restaurants around 1966, first appearing in places like New York City and Washington, D.C. Early on, it was made in the traditional way. However, some ingredients like wood ear mushrooms were hard to find in America.
So, a new recipe was created that became very common in North America. In this version, green cabbage is usually the main vegetable. It's mixed with scrambled eggs, carrots, scallions, and bean sprouts. Sometimes, smaller amounts of day lily buds and wood ear mushrooms are still used. This American style is often more like the filling you'd find in a Chinese spring pancake. Other ingredients like shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, snow peas, bell peppers, onions, and celery are sometimes added. Instead of Chinese rice wine, dry sherry is often used. Most of the vegetables are cut into long, thin strips before cooking.
Moo Shu Variations
While pork is the most common meat for this dish, you can also make it with other meats or seafood. Usually, only one type of meat is used at a time.
- If it's made with chicken, it's called moo shu chicken.
- If it's made with beef, shrimp, or duck, the name changes to match.
- If it's made without any meat, using only vegetables and eggs, it's called moo shu vegetables.
Many Chinese families often use chicken when they cook this dish at home.
How to Serve Moo Shu Pork
Chinese Serving Style
In China, moo shu pork is usually served with rice.
American Chinese Serving Style
In America, moo shu pork is served with a small dish of hoisin sauce and several warm, thin, steamed pancakes. These pancakes are made from flour and are sometimes called "moo shu pancakes" or "Mandarin pancakes." They are similar to the pancakes served with Peking duck. Some restaurants might even use thicker, Mexican-style flour tortillas instead of the traditional pancakes.
To eat moo shu pork, you spread a little hoisin sauce onto a pancake. Then, you place some of the moo shu pork mixture in the center of the pancake. You fold up the bottom of the pancake to keep the food from falling out. After that, you fold or wrap the sides, much like you would with a soft taco. You usually eat it right away, so there's no need to fold the top. Since the dish can have a lot of liquid, you need to be careful so the pancake doesn't get too wet and break while you're rolling or eating it!
The Name of Moo Shu Pork
There are two main ideas about how this dish got its name.
One idea is that the name is written as 木犀肉 (mù xī ròu). The last word, 肉 (ròu), means "meat" and refers to the pork. The first part, 木犀 (mù xī), is the name of the sweet osmanthus tree. This tree has small, fragrant yellow or white flowers.
People thought that the scrambled eggs in the dish looked like these yellow and white flowers. So, using "sweet osmanthus" was a poetic way to talk about the eggs. Also, in some Chinese traditions, the word for "egg" (蛋; dàn) was avoided in certain situations. So, "sweet osmanthus" became a polite way to refer to eggs.
The second common way to write the name in American Chinese restaurants is 木须肉 (mù xū ròu). The middle word, 须 (xū), means "whiskers." It's possible that this spelling was used by mistake or because of how Chinese typewriters worked when the dish first came to America. It might also have been a simple mix-up of characters that sound similar.
Images for kids
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American-style moo shu pork, with pancakes, ready to wrap
See also
In Spanish: Cerdo mu shu para niños
