Chop Suey

First report on the healthy cooking project.

Recipe’s name:   CHOP SUEY

Group members: Oscar Celis Sebastian Tilagui Laura Nájera

Last meeting held: 30/03/12

Next scheduled meeting:

Activities done in the current session: In this session we talked about many recipes that could be healthy and easy to prepare. Finally we chose (chop suey) because is very healthy, also is very cheaper because we don´t need many ingredients, moreover it has many vegetables and we could learn about different cultures like the Middle East and especially China's culture. For that we think that an important part of the project is talk about the origin of the recipe and the changes that it had suffer.

Agreements: We agreement search more information about the history of the recipe and the ingredients that it have. Moreover what Benefits brings for the health consume chop suey and if it recipe is recommended for someone medical authority

Short description of the advances in the task: We select the calendar for working in the project and search more information about that. In addition we search the ingredients for the recipe and its costs. Usually chop suey has a lot of meat (like chicken, fish, beef, prawns, or pork) and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables), for that we think that this recipe is cheaper and easy to do.

Changes made to the task: At the moment we don´t change the task because we search information about the recipe.

•   History and meaning

Food historians generally agree that chop suey as we know it was invented in the United States in the mid-1800's, possibly by one of the Cantonese immigrants who flooded California searching for work. Constrained by the lack of Asian vegetables, and trying to produce a Chinese dish palatable to westerners, a Cantonese cook stir-fried whatever vegetables were handy, added some meat or chicken, and served the finished product on a plate of steamed rice. He christened his creation, chop suey, which is the English pronunciation of the Cantonese words "tsap seui" ("shap sui," in Mandarin) which means "mixed pieces". As a culinary term, shap sui refers to a kind of stew made of many different ingredients mixed together. Shap sui probably first came to the United States with the waves of Chinese immigrants drawn to the California gold fields

A variation of the story credits a Japanese chef with inventing chop suey in an effort to appease a visiting general. As it was too late in the evening to prepare a proper meal, the chef simply threw together some leftovers and chop suey was born. In this version the dish was originally called Lee Gone Chop Suey, named after General Lee Hon Chung, the man who inspired its creation.    

Entertaining as these stories are, the origins of chop suey may actually lie in the countryside of southern China. According to anthropologist E.N. Anderson, the idea of combining leftover vegetables and noodles into a single, stir-fried dish originated in Toisan, a rural area south of Canton. Since many of the original immigrants to the United States were from this region, they naturally prepared the type of food they were familiar with.

Soon thousands of non-Chinese were regularly making the trip to Mott Street to eat chop suey. Chinese restaurateurs also opened eateries outside of Chinatown, serving food adapted to the tastes of largely non-Chinese customers. Chop suey was standardized into a stew of easily identifiable meats cooked with bean sprouts, onions, celery, and bamboo shoots. By the 1920s, the dish had spread across the United States, becoming as popular as hot dogs and apple pie.

• Beginning

Chow-chop originally was a toothsome stew, composed of bean sprouts, chicken’s gizzards and livers, calfe’s tripe, dragon fish, dried and imported from China, pork, chicken, and various other ingredients which I was unable to make out."

The recipe chop Suey have been more changes since its creation in the mid-1800's. Today is very frequently to found some modification like pork of chop suey and chicken of chop suey

Pork of chop suey is primarily a vegetable dish; the meat is added for extra flavor. Some of its the ingredients are: pork of beef, soy sauce, salt, cornstarch, oyster, cornstarch, broccoli, mushrooms, green pepper, stalks celery, onion, snow peas.

In the other way, chicken chop suey is a recipe that its principal ingredient is chicken meat. Some of its ingredients are: chicken meat, salt, egg white, corn flour, garlic, fresh ginger root, onions, bean sprouts, green pepper, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil.

• Why eat chop suey?

The chop Suey is a very healthy recipe because it has many fresh vegetables, it don´t include a lot of sauces and its preparation is made with a few olive oil.  Moreover it have soy bean that is very important for a good digestion.

Also it has broccoli that is a vegetable that brings many nutrients and a fewer calories. It is rich in vitamin A and C. Moreover it has iron, vitamin B1, B2, B6, calcium, folic acid, potassium, iodine, cooper, manganese and zinc. This vegetable helps fight constipation and contributes to good skin and mucous membranes.  

·         Biography:

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/recipesbymeal/a/chow-mein.htm

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/foodamerica/a/chop-suey-history.htm