Chop suey

Chop Suey (Chinese 雜碎 / 杂碎, Pinyin zásuì, W.-G. tsa-sui, Jyutping zaap6seoi3 - "mixed, chopped") is a dish made of various vegetables such as bamboo shoots, mung bean sprouts and mushrooms. In addition, it may contain thin slices of pork, beef or chicken. Today, it is known as a Chinese-style dish in many Western countries, but not in China itself.

There are various explanations about its origin, but they are often unsubstantiated. One theory is that chop suey was invented in the 1860s by a Chinese expatriate living in the United States named Li Hongzhang (李鴻章 / 李鸿章, Lǐ Hóngzhāng, Li Hungchang, Jyutping Lei5 Hung4zoeng1). Possibly overlapping is the theory that a Chinese chef in the US invented the recipe on behalf of a diplomat who needed a diet dish. According to another theory, chop suey originated in San Francisco when a customer wanted something to eat after closing time, whereupon the cook threw the leftovers into a wok and reheated it.

However, cultural historians Alan Davidson and Eugene N. Anderson consider these explanations to be "culinary mythology." According to Anderson, the dish is mentioned in a 1964 Chinese book and described as a dish from the Taishan region, Cant. Toisan, south of Guangzhou in Guangdong province. It consisted of various vegetable scraps and noodles. In Cantonese dialect, tsap seui (雜碎 / 杂碎, zásuì) means 'various leftovers'. The early Chinese immigrants who came to California also came from this region.