Chop suey (thing)

An Westernized Chinese dish. In the 1940's (in Australia where I was it was a little bit later, more 1960's, thanks sensei for the date) when Chinese cooking first entered mainstream America, chop suey was introduced as an easy-to-make dish that uses Western ingredients. However, this is not representative of Chinese cuisine, it was more an attempt by the Chinese cooks to create a dish that would not upset the Western stomachs, and yet uses Chinese seasonings and cooking style (stir fry) and look as if it was really Chinese food. Here is how you make it:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 2 celery sticks
• 1/2 lb beef, chicken or pork
• 1 lb soya beans
• 3 tbs corn starch

Pre-cooking:

• Chop the onion and celery
• Cut the meat into bite size chunks
• Mix the 1/2 cup soy sauce with 2 1/2 cups of water and the corn starch

Cooking:

• Set tall frying pan in mid-high heat
• Add the olive oil to frying pan
• Fry the chopped onion, celery and meat for 1 minute, continuously stirring
• Add the soya beans, continuously stirring for 3 minutes so that all vegetables are fried
• Stir the soya/water/corn starch mix and add to the frying pan
• Once boiling, continue stirring for a few minutes until all vegetables appear darker and the meat is fully cooked

It's a quick dish, and was Chinese enough to serve in the past. Now, with more specialized Chinese restaurants appearing all over the country (Northern, Sichuan, Cantonese, etc.), chop suey is a lot more rare than it used to be.