It was thought to be invented in 1896 by the Chinese ambassador Li Hung Chang’s cooks, who cooked the dish for some American guests for dinner.
Chow mein, on the other hand, is always fried noodles and with a lighter sauce.Chop suey, on the other hand, is an American-Chinese cuisine, and could also be called other overseas cuisines such as Filipino cuisine, Indian-Chinese cuisine, Polynesian cuisine, Indonesian cuisine, etc. In essence, though, chop suey is liberal with its ingredients and is often sat on a bed of rice (although not always). It tends to be either very sweet or salty and sticks to the ingredients to pack in the flavor.Īll in all, the differences between the two are slight, which is where the confusion has come from. The delicate nature of the sauce helps it not overpower the flavors of chow mein, meaning you get much more out of the meat and vegetables found within the dish.Ĭhop suey, however, has a much thicker sauce. See, chow mein tends to contain a thin sauce, usually either soy sauce or garlic. This one might be slightly more subtle for the uninitiated, but it’s a crucial one: The sauce. In essence, it’s stir-fried rice or noodle dish made with leftovers, mainly comprised of meat, vegetables, and a thick sauce. Its name refers to a broad group of dishes. That’s what often makes this a confusing topic: There’s no formal definition for chop suey. On the other hand, chop suey was originally based upon throwing a bunch of leftovers together, so its rules are less strict. Ingredientsīesides chow mein always containing noodles and chop suey usually containing rice, there are other ingredient and flavor differences between the two that make them easy to tell apart.Ĭhow mein always contains meat (usually pork or chicken), cabbage, bok choy, a thin sauce (always soy, garlic, or oyster sauce), and egg noodles. Some variations of it are made with noodles, but you’ll see it paired with rice for the most part. On the other hand, American chop suey is typically served on rice.
One of the most significant differences between chop suey and chow mein is obvious as soon as you look at them both: One is made with rice and the other noodles.Ĭhow mein comes from the Chinese 炒面, pronounced chao mian, literally meaning ‘fried noodles.’ The noodles used are typically made with wheat flour and egg and beautifully crafted to give a satisfying taste. wanted to create a fusion of Chinese food and Western cuisine. Some say it has Cantonese origins in the South of China, while others say 19th-century Chinese migrants invented it in the U.S. It’s disputed where the dish first came into being. Its popularity was helped by the egg-based noodles’ ability to hold in flavor and the fact that it can be rustled up in mere minutes. However, its simplicity saw it spread over the country quickly, with variations being adopted by cooks of different cuisines. While chow mein and chop suey are often confused, the two origins of these two dishes are markedly different.Ĭhow Mein is unmistakably Chinese, with its origins in the North of the country. Today we’re here to dispel a few myths and spell out the main differences between the two popular dishes. With the growing number of Chinese-influenced recipes available, the lines between certain dishes have become blurred, meaning that plenty of people struggle to define one dish from another.Īnd this brings us on to a hot topic: Chow Mein vs. Not only do we now have easily accessible Chinese restaurants in most cities, but we now have Asian fusion and even Chinese-Western fusion appearing globally. The popularity of Chinese cuisine has given rise to a massive number of Chinese restaurants worldwide, and this has seen the influence of the country’s cooking styles go from strength to strength.
While Chinese food varies significantly from region to region, it often bears the same two essential traits of my favorite food: Simple to make and satisfying as heck to eat. Chinese food is one of the world’s most popular cuisines, and for a good reason: It’s crazy delicious.
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