If you didn’t grow up here, you’ll probably dismiss chop suey as “westernized Chinese food.” Chinese people (even including Steph) tend to instinctively look down on this dish, but they’ll come around, just like how authentic Italian pizzerias actually make American pizza and don’t even know. Does that make it worse or less authentic than “real” Chinese food? I say no: it’s just as authentic as Italian American food, which used to be trashed by “real” Italians, but these days is celebrated as its own thing by people in the know. Chop suey is through and through an American dish. Other people will tell you it’s just a Chinese stir fry gone wrong, but I disagree. The answer was always “brown”.Īnd what is that, if not a choose-your-own adventure chop suey? I always got extra rice (grudgingly free, but how can you say no to teenage boys who need extra rice?) and they would always ask which of 10 different sauces I wanted. When I went to the mall with my friends as a teenager, my food court joint of choice was that place where I could pick out meat and vegetables by the pound, and they would stir fry it on a giant flat top and serve it over rice. Chop suey is a stir fry of too many vegetables (some canned), a not-quite-authentic Chinese stir fry sauce, way more meat than they’d ever use in China, and way more delicious than it has any right to be. At its core, chop suey is a glorious meat and vegetable stir fry with American ingredients. There are a lot of people who try to answer this question with a history lesson, but I think that stuff doesn’t matter. I made this one up extra saucy because the whole point of chop suey is that crazy delicious sauce.
Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. We made a big batch of rice to eat it with but in the end we barely touched the rice at all.
This modern chop suey is so good, you’ll never need to go out again.
Even though the name chop suey has become unfashionable, versions of it are still everywhere.
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