I grew up in my family’s chop suey restaurants in Chicago, owned by uncles, cousins, and other dubious relations from the old country. ey formed a hidden village within the city. My first job was at 4 years-old, folding pale, jade green menus into sharp, neat thirds. My first job in the kitchen had me manning the deep fryer, long before classmates got their Easy Bake ovens.
Chop suey was likely once a culinary truism, like hash, scrambles, or fricassees. Its contemporary practitioners and crictics seem to have condemned it to a goopy, gloppy, and even goppy purgatory.
Culinarily-speaking, bad chop suey is the rule rather than exception, but it’s a problem with execution, not concept. The truth about chop suey is that it was likely introduced in name and form to the United States in the mid-1800s, during the first large wave of Chinese immigration for the Gold Rush. It’s also likely that it became fashionable after the highly publicized visit of Chinese Viceroy Li Hung-Chang in 1896. Chop suey palaces may have again peaked after Prohibition. However, the facts and details about chop suey seem to have been lost to history.
Three possibly true stories about the invention of an iconic American dish:
1) THE GOLD RUSH – Late one night in 1850, up in Weaverville, 262 miles north of San Francisco, 49 year-old Chinese 2boardinghouse owner Ah Nam was sweepingup when he heard a pounding at his door. “I’m closed!” he shouted, in English. He spoke not only English but Spanish fluently, having cooked for Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola in Monterey. Ah Nam had chosen to leave his southern Chinese hometown Canton in 1815 with two childhood friends, all three, just boys then, seeking adventure and fortune….
The Dish on Chop Suey
by Louisa Chu
I grew up in my family’s chop suey restaurants in Chicago, owned by uncles, cousins, and other dubious relations from the old country. ey formed a hidden village within the city. My first job was at 4 years-old, folding pale, jade green menus into sharp, neat thirds. My first job in the kitchen had me manning the deep fryer, long before classmates got their Easy Bake ovens.
Chop suey was likely once a culinary truism, like hash, scrambles, or fricassees. Its contemporary practitioners and crictics seem to have condemned it to a goopy, gloppy, and even goppy purgatory.
Culinarily-speaking, bad chop suey is the rule rather than exception, but it’s a problem with execution, not concept. The truth about chop suey is that it was likely introduced in name and form to the United States in the mid-1800s, during the first large wave of Chinese immigration for the Gold Rush. It’s also likely that it became fashionable after the highly publicized visit of Chinese Viceroy Li Hung-Chang in 1896. Chop suey palaces may have again peaked after Prohibition. However, the facts and details about chop suey seem to have been lost to history.
Three possibly true stories about the invention of an iconic American dish:
1) THE GOLD RUSH – Late one night in 1850, up in Weaverville, 262 miles north of San Francisco, 49 year-old Chinese 2boardinghouse owner Ah Nam was sweepingup when he heard a pounding at his door. “I’m closed!” he shouted, in English. He spoke not only English but Spanish fluently, having cooked for Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola in Monterey. Ah Nam had chosen to leave his southern Chinese hometown Canton in 1815 with two childhood friends, all three, just boys then, seeking adventure and fortune….