#First chop suey plus

Her bestselling book chronicles a trip she took across Canada, visiting dozens of Chinese restaurants, many in small towns, from Newfoundland to B.C. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.Įnjoy dinner and a book to benefit ChinatownĪnn Hui, author of Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants, will talk about her book and related topics at Victoria’s Don Mee restaurant on Saturday, Oct. An equal weight of boneless, skinless chicken breast or thigh, thinly sliced, could replace the pork in this Akis is the author of eight cookbooks, including seven in his Everyone Can Cook series. If you can’t find them, six sliced medium-brown mushrooms will also work in the chop suey. Toss in the bean sprouts and green onion and heat through 30 seconds or so, and then serve.Įric’s options: Fresh shiitake mushrooms are sold at most supermarkets. Return pork to the pan, add the broth/cornstarch mixture and bring to a simmer. When oil is hot, add onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper, mushrooms and cabbage and stir-fry three to four minutes, until crisp/tender. Place remaining 1/2 Tbsp of oil in the pan you cooked the pork in and set back over medium-high heat. Place broth, cornstarch, sugar (or honey), chili sauce and remaining 1 Tbsp soy sauce in a small bowl and mix to combine. Remove pan from the heat, lift pork out of it with tongs and set in a clean bowl. When oil is very hot, add the pork and sear and stir-fry until cooked through, about four minutes. When pork has marinated, place 2 Tbsp oil in a wok or large skillet set over medium-high heat. Cover and let pork marinate 30 minutes at room temperature. Place pork, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and 1 Tbsp soy sauce in a bowl and toss to combine. hot Asian-style chili sauce, to taste (I used Sriracha)ġ small to medium carrot, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced diagonallyġ medium celery rib, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced diagonallyĨ shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and discarded, caps sliced (see Eric’s options).

#First chop suey plus

Preparation time: 30 minutes, plus marinating timeģ25 grams pork tenderloin or boneless pork loin chops, cut into thin stripsĢ 1/2 Tbsp peanut or vegetable oil (divided)

Serve the chop suey with Chinese-style egg noodles or steamed rice. Strips of quickly marinated and seared pork are tossed with a tasty mix of stir-fried, sauce-coated vegetables. The chop suey cooks quickly, so have all the ingredients cut and ready to go before you fire up your wok. My recipe sees seared strips of pork tossed with stir-fried vegetables, lightly coated with a simple sauce. That’s exactly what the dish, which eventually became known as chop suey, was, as it was often made with ingredients the cook had on hand.

It was also known as tsap seui, a Cantonese dish that translates as miscellaneous leftovers. In Chinese restaurants that opened during that time, shap sui was served, which in Mandarin meant odds and ends or mixed pieces. Legend suggests that this style of vegetable-rich dish, which usually also contains a protein such as meat or shrimp, was first made in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants in California’s gold rush.

In fact, some of those dishes were actually invented in North America, not China. They were Chinese-style dishes designed to please a broad range of palates. When I grew up and became more knowledgeable about food, I realized that what we were served that day wasn’t exactly authentic Chinese cuisine. I was mostly raised on meat and potatoes, so they were things I had never tried before. When platters filled with egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken balls, fried rice and chop suey came, they seemed absolutely exotic. Inside, the place was decorated with Chinese lanterns, dragons and other cultural symbols that mesmerized me.īut what really caught my attention was the food. The exterior of the restaurant had a curved Chinese-style roof. We went to a Chinese restaurant, whose name I cannot remember, probably because I was so captivated by everything else about the experience. It must have ended around suppertime, because our coaches decided the team should go out for a meal before driving the two hours back home. One winter, my Moose Jaw-based peewee hockey team traveled to Swift Current to play a game. My first experience with North American-style Chinese food occurred when I was a kid living in Saskatchewan.