Wordl kuliner: American Chop Suey

Is Chop Suey American or Chinese? It definitely tastes Chinese and “Chop Suey” has a Chinese ring to it. But, many actually believe that Chop Suey is an American dish.

The story goes that once in San Francisco, when a restaurant was closing down a few sleazy customers bullied the chef into serving them. Since he was out of food he improvised using the leftovers in his kitchen and came up with what became America’s authentic 'Chinese dish'. American Chop Suey!

Anthropologist, M Anderson who disagreed with this popular belief and came to the scene with the Chinese tale of Chop Suey. According to him Chop Suey was born in a county called Taishin in China. 60% of migrants to America from China were from this city. This county is renowned for dishes that use an assortment of vegetables that are stir fried. He believes, that since the arrival of the migrants from Taishin, this dish was adopted and then adapted to the American taste.

So finally, is Chop Suey American or Chinese??...and you thought only humans suffer from identity crisis!

American Chopsuey usually is made with crunchy stir fried vegetables, topped with fried noodles and then topped with the chopsuey sauce. This used to be one of my favorite items to order when I visited any Indo- Chinese restaurant in India. There was something about this sweetish slightly spicy sauce that really appealed to me and there is no denying the crunchy fried noodles had something to do with my interest in this dish too :-)

Just read on further for the delicious recipe:-

Noodles 2 pkts. ( I used Maggi Noddles....Well I had some packets of tasteless pakistani Maggi noodles; So I used the noodles and threw away the Masala. You can use regular noodles as well)

Salt to taste

Oil 6 tablespoons + to deep fry

Cornflour/ corn starch 2 tbsp.

Ginger, chopped 1 inch piece

Garlic 3-4 cloves

Onion , Diced 1 medium

Carrot, diced 1 medium

Bell Peppers Diced 1/2 cup (all 3 Colours)

Cabbage, Diced 1/4 medium

Corn and Green Peas - 1 tbsp. each

White pepper powder 1/2 tsp.

Sugar 1 tsp.

Tomato Ketch-Up 4 tbsp.

Water / stock 1 cup

Eggs 2

1. Boil noodles in water by adding salt, oil until almost cooked. Remove, drain and cool.

2. Divide the cooked noodles into four equal portions, form into a nest and deep fry in hot oil till light brown and crisp. Remove and drain on an absorbent kitchen towel.

3. Blend cornstarch in quarter-cup water and set aside.

4. Heat two tbsp of oil now, add chopped ginger, garlic and stir-fry briefly.

5. Add onion and sauté for a minute or until it turns translucent. Add carrot, beans, cabbage, corn , green peas and stir-fry for two minutes or until the vegetables are just cooked but still retain the crispness.

6. Add pepper powder, salt and sugar.

7. Stir in the tomato sauce and pour in the stock/water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and stir in the blended cornstarch.

8. Simmer for two minutes or until it thickens to a sauce consistency.

9. In the meanwhile using 1/2 tsp. of oil, prepare fried eggs in a non-stick fry pan.