Chop suey was once a classic Chinese American dish enjoyed on December 25 — a day when most other restaurants were closed — by Jews and other non-Christians.
These days, we tend to think of chop suey as a mishmash of stir-fried ingredients that emerged from immigrant communities in the United States. But its roots run deep, says Miranda Brown, a professor of Chinese history at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She wrote a 2021 article called “The Hidden, Magnificent History of Chop Suey” for the website Atlas Obscura.
“It’s a dish that is chopped offal,” she says. “Lung, liver, tripe, kidneys.”
Yes, originally chop suey was primarily made of organ meats. Brown is quick to note that offal is flavorful, rich in nutrients, and was enjoyed widely until a few generations ago, thanks, in part to industrial meat packaging processes.
“It can be chewy, it can be buttery, it can be kind of rubbery,” Brown says of offal’s distinctive textures. “For some people, that’s really kind of exciting. Bouncy!”
The origins of the dish itself bounces back hundreds of years, she says, to imperial China.
“We have references to chop suey in Ming Dynasty texts,” she notes. “The Journey to the West, which is a famous novel [from the 16th century], has a reference to chop suey. You will find it on fancy banquet menus. A version of the dish was even eaten at the Qing court.”
When Chinese immigrants to the U.S. in the mid-1800s wanted to impress local officials, Brown says, they held banquets similar to ones back home, with 300-course meals that would get written up in local newspapers, in articles marveling over delicacies such as Peking duck, chop suey and bird’s nest soup.
“All the bling foods that were popular when you had to [build] a good relationship with a person who had a lot of say about your life,” Brown says.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted immigration heavily, but Chinese restaurants still spread rapidly across the United States. By the early 1900s, chop suey had become a cultural phenomenon, a beloved ambassador dish to what had been an unfamiliar cuisine to many Americans.
Louis Armstrong recorded a song in 1926 called “Cornet Chop Suey.” The 1958 musical Flower Drum Song dedicated an entire number to it. And in the movie A Christmas Story, set in the 1940s and based on the writings of Jean Shepherd, a white, Midwestern, working-class family celebrates Christmas at a Chinese restaurant called the Bo Ling Chop Suey Palace.
“It was exotic,” Brown says. “It involves a little bit of adventure, and it is a name that people can pronounce.”
But by the late 20th century, chop suey had fallen out of fashion. Brown says she never saw it on menus in her home city of San Francisco in the 1980s, when she was growing up. By then, Americans had deepened their appreciation of Chinese food, thanks in large part to popular cookbook author, PBS host and restaurateur Cecilia Chiang.
Before she died in 2020 at the age of 100, Chiang told NPR she thought it was hilarious how so many Americans had believed that the contemporary versions of chop suey were authentic. “They think, oh, chop suey is the only thing we have in China,” she said in a 2017 NPR interview. “What a shame!”
“I think for her, it had just evolved to the point where it was no longer recognizable,” says Miranda Brown, whose own mixed heritage is half white, half Chinese. “Foods evolve. I always think, if I met my great-great-grandparents, would they recognize me? Would they see elements of their faces in mine or my daughter’s? And I would guess not. Something similar happened with Chinese food in America. When a dish leaves, a hundred years later it has evolved, a lot.”
And perhaps it’s about time, Brown says, for chop suey’s next evolution: to make a comeback.
Transcript:
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Chinese American dish chop suey is a holiday classic.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CHOP SUEY”)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Chop suey. Chop suey.
MARTIN: This Broadway show tune dates back to the 1950s, when chop suey was a more common menu item. Eventually, it became a Chinese restaurant staple for Jewish people and others who don’t celebrate Christmas if they dined out on Christmas Day, when many other restaurants closed. NPR’s Neda Ulaby has more.
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: What is smelling so amazing in the kitchen of Miranda Brown?
MIRANDA BROWN: Bell peppers cooking with some garlic.
ULABY: Brown is a professor of Chinese history at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She became interested in the history of chop suey a few years ago and offered to make it.
BROWN: It’s a dish that is chopped offal.
ULABY: Offal, the gutsy stuff. O-F-F-A-L. For many years in this country, we’ve thought of chop suey as a mishmash of stir-fried ingredients, Brown says. But what first made chop suey chop suey was organ meat.
BROWN: Lung, liver, tripe, kidneys.
ULABY: Rich in flavor and nutrients, offal was once more commonly enjoyed than it is today.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOK SIZZLING)
ULABY: As she stirs livers into the bubbling wok on her stove, Brown says the texture of offal is, at least for some, part of its appeal.
BROWN: It can be chewy, buttery, rubbery. For some people, that’s really kind of exciting – bouncy.
ULABY: And this dish bounces back in history much further, she says, than you might expect.
BROWN: We have references to chop suey – (speaking Chinese) in Mandarin – in Ming dynasty texts. So the “Journey To The West,” which is a famous novel, has a reference to chop suey, (speaking Chinese).
ULABY: That novel from 400 years ago is still adapted into TV shows and movies in China, like one from 2013…
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, speaking Chinese).
ULABY: …Where a character enjoys a lavish banquet. In real life, Brown says chop suey was part of ceremonial meals in imperial China.
BROWN: And so you will find it on fancy banquet menus. A version of the dish was even eaten at the Qing court.
ULABY: When Chinese immigrants to the U.S. in the 1800s wanted to build relationships with local officials, Brown says, they held similar banquets, 300-course meals that would be written up in newspapers – Peking duck, bird’s nest soup, chop suey.
BROWN: All the bling foods that were popular when you had to make a good relationship with a person who had a lot of say about your life.
ULABY: Although the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 heavily restricted immigration, Chinese restaurants spread rapidly across the United States. Chop suey became a favorite.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S “CORNET CHOP SUEY”)
ULABY: In 1926, Louis Armstrong recorded a song called “Cornet Chop Suey.” The dish became a beloved ambassador to what had been to many an unfamiliar cuisine.
BROWN: It was exotic, involved a little bit of adventure. And it is a name that people can pronounce.
ULABY: In the movie “A Christmas Story,” set in the 1940s, a white working-class family celebrates Christmas at a Chinese restaurant in Indiana. Its sign says Chop Suey Palace. But within decades, Brown says…
BROWN: It fell from grace, you know, in a very big way. I grew up in San Francisco and never encountered it on a menu in the ’80s.
ULABY: By then, chop suey was widely seen as inauthentic, no longer the tempting organ meat melange that had once impressed aristocracy. Professor Miranda Brown cooks from her own mixed heritage – half white and half Chinese. Chop suey, she says, reflects a people’s resilience and adaptation.
BROWN: Foods evolve. I mean, I always think, like, if I met my great-great-grandparents, would they recognize me? Would they see elements of their faces in mine? And I would guess not.
ULABY: Something similar happened with Chinese food in America, she says.
BROWN: When a dish leaves, a hundred years later, it has evolved a lot.
ULABY: Miranda Brown thinks it’s time for chop suey’s next evolution in the form of a comeback.
Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SYSTEM OF A DOWN SONG, “CHOP SUEY”)
