Cycle 5 – Item 46

20 (Thu) February 2014

Chop Suey

2.5

at Shanghai Cuisine

(Robinsons Place)

-Ermita, Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines-

solo

Try Every Restaurant in Robinsons Place (19) (see also TERRP)

Chop Suey is a Chinese dish.  Consists of mixed vegetables, typically stir-fried, often in a light soy/oyster sauce gravy.  Rumored to have been invented and only available in the United States, origin stories about transcontinental railroad workers, gold prospectors, etc., supposedly the ultimate embodiment of Americanized Chinese food – though I can’t ever recall seeing it on a menu, certainly never had it.  The dish does have counterparts in China – I mean, it’s just mixed vegetables.  The etymology of the term isn’t definitive but likely derives from the Chinese characters for (1) “mixed (雜)” + either (2a) “broken/pieces (碎)” or (2b) “vegetables (菜).”

DID YOU KNOW?  The name of the Korean dish japchae uses (1) + (2b), even though it’s a noodle dish with very little veg, even at Chinese restaurants in Korea.

When I asked the server to recommend a vegetable dish, she suggested seafood chop suey.  Sure, but all veggie, please–in the end, they charged me the same.  Incidentally, the menu also offers a dish called “mixed vegetables.

It was pretty good.  Tasted like mixed vegetables, in a light soy/oyster sauce gravy.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN PHILIPPINES)