Chop Suey
(Shap Suì, Tsap Seui, Zá Suì)
The earliest known Chinese-American dish called chop suey is believed to have been invented in the United States in the mid-1800s by Chinese immigrants who were trying to make authentic Chinese food more suitable for westerners. And even though chop suey could easily be as American as apple pie, some food historians speculate that it originated from the Cantonese tsap seui (lit. mixed leftovers), an impressive medley of stir-fried vegetables. However, being limited by the scarcity of Asian vegetables in America, Chinese cooks started stir-frying any vegetables which were at hand, adding shredded chicken, pork, or even beef to the mix, and serving it over steamed rice.
Being such an amazing mash-up of Oriental and Western cuisine, it soon started to appear on the menus of Chinese restaurants across the country. Chop suey became incredibly popular, especially in big cities like New York and San Francisco. Read more
By the 1920s, the chop suey craze had completely swept the nation: Louis Armstrong recorded Cornet Chop Suey; Edward Hopper painted his Chop Suey, and women's magazines and cookbooks were suddenly filled with various recipes for this versatile dish.
However, due to the growing trend of replacing exotic Asian ingredients with locally available foods, the fad had finally peaked in the 1960s. Chop suey had slowly become over-Americanized, and people grew tired of it, especially since new wave gourmet restaurants started serving real Asian food such as Beijing duck, Gong Bao chicken, and other traditional Chinese dishes.
Today, the once omnipresent chop suey has nearly disappeared from restaurant menus and almost completely dwindled into oblivion.
