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Chop Suey was my late father's favorite dish to order when we visited a Chinese restaurant. He remembered first having it as a boy in the 1920's in Detroit. I
by rmason 5y ago
Chop Suey was my late father's favorite dish to order when we visited a Chinese restaurant. He remembered first having it as a boy in the 1920's in Detroit.
In fact I've seen Detroit pictures from that era and you can see big signs advertising Chop Suey restaurants.
But sometime in the eighties it began disappearing from Chinese restaurant menus and I'm not certain why? Perhaps it became less popular over time.
- sethhochberg 5y agohttp://conniewenchang.bol.ucla.edu/menus/index.html http://conniewenchang.bol.ucla.edu/menus/index.html You might find this interesting - it seems like every few years we get a new history / analysis of chinese-american food like this, and this student project is one of my favorite versions (I'd seen it shared previously in the comments of another article on the same topic) . It uses an NYPL database of historical restaurant menus and proposes some ideas about why the menus changed over time.
- wenc 5y agoChinese restaurants in the Chicago area still have chop suey on their menus. I had some a few weeks ago. I also bought some for a homeless person a few months ago —- they specially mentioned they wanted chop suey. You do have to go to an American Chinese restaurant though - these are usually the ones located in strip malls or in the suburbs. Newer Chinese restaurants tend to be run by more recent immigrants and therefore don’t serve American Chinese — American Chinese is a different cuisine from Chinese.