Going retro- Chop suey!

Like everyone else, I dismiss chop suey as "fake Chinese". and probably haven't had since I was 10.

But this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/magaz ... .html?_r=0
made it sound pretty good, and as a lovely huge head of pac choi was in this week's CSA, on menu for tonight.

I'm thinking Riesling, but would welcome other suggestions as to match.

[Jenise]

Reisling's a great choice. Gruner would be fairly equal, IMO. Also like lighter bodied reds for a connection with the soy sauce that will likely be in your seasoning, like a village burgundy.

Shucks, I need to look at your recipe! I grew up with a mother who made 'Chop Suey'. Haven't thought of it in years, but I recall it as a giant panful of stuff--we didn't have a wok, so she cleverly used the turkey roaster, that dark blue enamel with the white spots kind. She made a huge amount to feed a family of 6+, and would deliberately have hoped for leftovers. It was the kind of thing she'd eat as a late-night snack. Her basic constituent was regulation bok choy, which was just about the only Chinese green available in stores, but there would also be tons of mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts. For meat, she'd use pork. The sauce was chicken broth (from a boullion cube ), sherry and soy sauce thickened with corn starch, and it would be garnished with a can of Chung King fried noodles. I loved it. It bore no resemblance to restaurant Chinese food, but that didn't matter to me at all.

The only Chinese food I had growing up outside of bad Chinese-American restaurants was the 2-piece chow mein cans with the crunchy noodles.

[Jenise]

That was Chung King brand, too! I remember trying it. In texture, it was about as close to Chinese food as Spaghettios were to real Italian, but in some parts of the country there wasn't a fresher alternative. My mother's was probably closer to that than restaurant-quality, but hey, it was mom's cooking and we loved it.

My mom wouldn't have done any such a thing! We called up the restaurant and had them deliver chow mein. (I don't think I've ever had chop suey.)

[Jenise]

Yahbut you lived in wonderful, amazing New York! Btw, a new couple we've gotten to know here just moved here from Manhattan. Bellingham has self-deprecatingly billed itself as "the city of subdued excitement". Dan, who LOVED Manhattan but just didn't think it was a good place to raise his new child, or the children who might come, is just dying of boredom. He struggles with the fact that he can't walk out of his apartment at 11:00 at night and get a pizza or have Chinese delivered. He really isn't into wine but he's determined to change that just for something to do!

OK, recipe was quite good, but think next time I'll follow examples of Latino customers in article and add lime and hot sauce (or Betsy said she'd either add chili paste or more oyster sauce). This was less intense that ideal, but nice idea (and a nice way to eat a bit less meat).

Too lazy to go get the actual NYT magazine from other room last night, I searched NYT for "chop suey." Found the article and the recipe, but 3rd hit was an article from 1904 about the Chop Suey injunction. "Chinatown last night was plunged in a gloom worse than Cimmerian, and, notwithstanding the fact that the chop suey restaurants were more crowded than usual, there was an air of silent preoccupation overhanging the habitues of Mott and Pell Streets." Apparently Lem Sen of SF arrived to sue from copyright infringement, claiming to be inventor of Chop Suey.

[Robin Garr]

I know this sounds really strange, but when I was growing up in Louisville we had a large, popular Chinese restaurant, Hoe Kow. It opened not long after WWII, I guess, located in the cool old Art Deco administration building of Bowman Field, the old-school airport that was replaced by a larger former military air base after the war.

In retrospect, it must have been a generation ahead of its time. It wasn't Sichuanese or regional or anything like that, and I'm sure its dishes were tweaked for Westerners ... pork fried rice, moo goo gai pan, war sue gai, stuff like that ... but it was serious enough that we had to travel to San Francisco and NYC to discover more Americanized dishes like chow mein and egg foo yung. I think that even as a kid I knew that chop suey came in cans from the grocery store and wasn't really Chinese.

[Jenise]

OK, recipe was quite good, but think next time I'll follow examples of Latino customers in article and add lime and hot sauce (or Betsy said she'd either add chili paste or more oyster sauce). This was less intense that ideal, but nice idea (and a nice way to eat a bit less meat).

Too lazy to go get the actual NYT magazine from other room last night, I searched NYT for "chop suey." Found the article and the recipe, but 3rd hit was an article from 1904 about the Chop Suey injunction. "Chinatown last night was plunged in a gloom worse than Cimmerian, and, notwithstanding the fact that the chop suey restaurants were more crowded than usual, there was an air of silent preoccupation overhanging the habitues of Mott and Pell Streets." Apparently Lem Sen of SF arrived to sue from copyright infringement, claiming to be inventor of Chop Suey.

Oh isn't that a delightful tidbit! Am impressed to know that there was a thriving Chinatown in NY that long ago.

The chili paste would be good as would your other thought--it just needs, it sounds like, an intensifier. Maybe more garlic, too.

Yahbut you lived in wonderful, amazing New York! Btw, a new couple we've gotten to know here just moved here from Manhattan. Bellingham has self-deprecatingly billed itself as "the city of subdued excitement". Dan, who LOVED Manhattan but just didn't think it was a good place to raise his new child, or the children who might come, is just dying of boredom. He struggles with the fact that he can't walk out of his apartment at 11:00 at night and get a pizza or have Chinese delivered. He really isn't into wine but he's determined to change that just for something to do!

Good luck to Newbie Dan! There is Life outside NYC, just gotta know how to find it. Or make it.

That was Chung King brand, too! I remember trying it. In texture, it was about as close to Chinese food as Spaghettios were to real Italian, but in some parts of the country there wasn't a fresher alternative. My mother's was probably closer to that than restaurant-quality, but hey, it was mom's cooking and we loved it.

There used to be two brands of chow mein and chop suey from cans: Chung King and La Choy. Chung King went out of business, but La Choy still sells the two-can chow mein and one-can chop suey. My family used to buy the chop suey and chow mein in cans back in the bad old days before "Joyce Chen Cooks" and the wok revolution of the 70s. Back in those days you couldn't find fresh bean sprouts or ginger in supermarkets outside of big city Chinatowns.

-Paul W.