Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 18:17:04 -0500

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Chop Suey



Just in time for Thanksgiving--chop suey! Oh, c'mon--"turkey" has been

overdone!

I was cleaning out my files and realized that I hadn't posted (nor

published) this item. It's agreed that "chop suey" is an Americanism, but

there has been a New York Chinatown vs. San Francisco Chinatown "chop suey"

debate.

The Dictionary of Americanisms has:



1928 ASBURY _Gangs of New York_ 301 The tongs are as American as chop

suey--the latter is said to have been invented by an American dishwasher in a

San Francisco restaurant,....

1947 _Democrat_ 7 Aug. 8/1 Chop suey, unknown in China, was originated in

New York City by an American chef. The word chop suey in Chinese means

"hash."



John Ayto's A GOURMET'S GUIDE: FOOD & DRINK FROM A TO Z has the OED

citation and states: "..._chop suey_ is first recorded (in the October 1888

issue of _Current Literature_, an American publication). It represents a

slightly mangled rendition of Cantonese Chinese _shap sui_, 'odds and ends',

literally 'miscellaneous bits'."

This is from the Brooklyn Times, 24 July 1886, pg. 3, col. 1:



NEW YORK'S CHINA-TOWN.

A DINNER IN MONG SING WAH'S RESTAURANT.

Not Altogether an Affair of Dogs and Bats

--The Joss of the Kitchen--How to Order

a Chinese Dinner--Tea in Oriental Style.

(...)

"Chow chop suey, chop seow, laonra an, san sui-goy, no ma das," glibly

ordered my friend, and the white-robed attendant trotted off and began to

chant down a dumbwaiter. It sounded as if he was intoning a service to some

mysterious downstairs Joss of the kitchen, but he wasn't, he was ordering our

dinner.

(...)



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