American Chinese cuisine chow mein Chaomian was introduced from China into the United States by Chinese immigrants who came from the Guangdong provinces in the
California gold rush era, bringing their Cantonese style of cooking. Crispy chow mein either has onions and celery in the finished dish or is served "strained", without any
vegetables. Steamed chow mein can have many different kinds of vegetables in the finished dish, most commonly including onions and celery but sometimes
carrots,
cabbage and
mung bean sprouts as well. Crispy chow mein is usually topped with a thick brown sauce, while steamed chow mein is mixed with
soy sauce before being served. There is a regional difference in the US between the East and West Coast use of the term "chow mein". On the East Coast, "chow mein" is always the crispy kind. At some restaurants located in those areas, the crispy chow mein noodles are sometimes deep fried and could be crispy "like the ones in cans" or "fried as crisp as hash browns". At a few East Coast locations, "chow mein" is also served over rice. There, the steamed style using soft noodles is a separate dish called "
lo mein". On the West Coast, "chow mein" is always the steamed style, and the term "lo mein" is not widely used. In Philadelphia, Americanized chow mein tends to be similar to chop suey but has crispy fried noodles on the side and includes much celery and bean sprouts and is sometimes accompanied with fried rice. Jeremy Iggers of the
Star Tribune describes "Minnesota-style chow mein" as "a green slurry of celery and ground pork topped with ribbons of gray processed chicken".
Bay Area journalist William Wong made a similar comment about what is sold as chow mein in places like Minnesota. A published recipe for
Minnesota-style chow mein includes generous portions of celery and bean sprouts. Another Minnesotan variant includes ground beef and
cream of mushroom soup. In
Louisiana, "Cajun chow mein" is a noodle-less rice dish that is a variation of
jambalaya. Food historians and cultural anthropologists have noted that chow mein and other dishes served in Chinese American restaurants located away from areas without any significant Asian American population tend to be very different from what is served in China and are heavily modified to fit the taste preference of the local dominant population. As an example, the chow mein gravy favored in the
Fall River area more closely resembles that used in local
New England cooking than that used in traditional Chinese cooking. The creator of canned chow mein, who founded the food manufacturer Chun King, admits to using Italian spices to make his product more acceptable to Americans whose ancestors came from Europe. The product's creator was
Jeno Paulucci, the son of Italian immigrants, who developed a recipe based mostly upon Italian spices that would be better catered to the food preferences of European immigrants and some Americans of similar ethnic origins. To keep cost down, Paulucci replaced expensive water chestnuts with lower-cost celery stalks that were originally destined for cattle feed. After Paulucci sold Chun King in 1966, the company was sold several more times more until it was dissolved in 1995. By 1960, Paulucci told
The New York Times that "At Chun King we have turned out a 'stew-type' chow mein. I'd guess this type has been around for thirty—maybe forty—years. To make it, all the meat, seasonings and vegetables are dumped into a kettle and stewed for hours—until everything is cooked." Outside of Chinese restaurants, what is labeled as chow mein is frequently a chop suey-like stew that has little resemblance to actual chow mein. For example, the official U.S. military recipe (employed by cooking facilities of all four American military services) does not include noodles, comes with instructions to serve the dish over steamed rice, and can serve 100 persons per batch.
Australian cuisine Outside of Asian communities, many Australians appear to confuse chow mein with
chop suey. The most common Australian version contains minced beef (called ground beef in North America) and curry powder and sometimes served over rice instead of fried noodles. This version has been promoted by the
Australian Institute of Sport, on
ABC radio, and a popular Australian women's magazine since the mid-1960s and during the 21st century. A chicken chow mein recipe that was published in a major
Melbourne newspaper in 1963 had a recipe list that included a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup, a can of pineapple pieces, and cooked noodles or macaroni that were combined and baked in an oven.
Canadian Chinese cuisine Canadian westernized Chinese restaurants may offer up to three different types of chow mein, none of which is identical to either of the two types of American chow mein.
Cantonese style chow mein contains deep-fried crunchy golden egg noodles, green peppers, pea pods,
bok choy, bamboo shoots,
water chestnuts, shrimp, Chinese roast pork (
char siu), chicken, and beef, and is served in a thick sauce. Plain
chow mein is similar to other Western chow meins, but contains far more mung bean sprouts; some regional recipes may substitute bean sprouts for noodles completely. The Japanese Canadian community also have their own version of chow mein that might include dried seaweed and pickle ginger and could be served in a bun. The Japanese Canadian chow mein is sometimes referred to as "Cumberland Chow Mein" where it first appeared in the Canadian coal mining town of
Cumberland, British Columbia, during the nineteenth century. Cumberland was the first site of significant Japanese immigration into Canada. In
Newfoundland, their
version of chow mein does not contain any noodles. In place of noodles, cabbage cut in such a way to resemble noodles are used as a substitute. Although no one knows the reason why this change had occurred, it is believed that the island's remoteness in the North Atlantic during its history as an
independent self-governing British dominion contributed to the lack of availability of the necessary ingredients from the rest of North America or from Europe.
Caribbean Chinese cuisine Many
West Indian people include chow mein in their cuisine, especially peoples from islands like
Trinidad and Tobago and
Jamaica, which include a significant ethnic Chinese population; much of the cooking has infused itself into the population in general. As well, in the South American Caribbean countries
Guyana and
Suriname (known by its Dutch name "tjauw min" or "tjauwmin"). These chow mein dishes are cooked in a similar manner, with green beans, carrots, peas, onions and sometimes other vegetables. Meat used is mostly chicken but sometimes pork or shrimp. The Surinamese version may use a
pork sausage as the meat. Another recipe includes canned corn. In
El Salvador, chow mein may contain carrots, cabbage or broccoli. Another Salvadoran recipe includes potato and
chayote. In
Guatemala, chow mein (or chao mein) is usually prepared with
chayote and carrots and served on a corn
tostada.
Indian Chinese cuisine style egg chow mein Chow mein is also common in
Indian Chinese. In India, it was introduced by the
Chinese of Calcutta. Chow mein always refers to soft, boiled noodles. When the noodles are lightly fried, the chow mein is referred to as "
Hakka style". Crispy fried noodles are also often available, but under the name "
chop suey" or "American chop suey". All styles always include a medley of vegetables including cabbage, bamboo shoots, pea pods, green peppers, chilli peppers and carrots. Common proteins are chicken and scrambled eggs, but pork and shrimp are also used. In the New Delhi area, chow mein can sometimes include
paneer with the mixture of noodles and vegetables. In
Kolkata, the home city of Indian-Chinese cuisine, the dish is sold out of thousands of street carts lining every neighborhood, often spelled as "chowmin" and involves heavy use of green chilli and garlic. The Pakistani version includes carrots, cabbage, peppers, spring onions, chilies, and ginger garlic paste.
Indonesian Chinese cuisine There are two Indonesian versions of chow mein. One is
Mie goreng, which is (sometimes spicy) stir-fried noodle dish with variants of toppings, and the other is a crispy noodle dish topped with sauce that is pretty popular and existed in virtually all Chinese restaurant in Indonesia. It goes popular with the name of
Ifumi or
Mi Siram, literally means drenched noodle, in
Indonesian Chinese cuisine. In Indonesia, ifumi is usually served with thick egg sauce with
cauliflower,
broccoli,
mushroom,
kekkian or prawn cake, and
chicken. Several varieties does exists such as
vegetarian and
seafood that contains
squid,
prawn and
fish instead of
kekkian. The dish is often confused with
Lo mein.
Mauritian cuisine In
Mauritius, Mauritian chow mein is known as "mine frire", "mine frite", "mine frit" and "minn frir". The term is a combination of Cantonese/Hakka word for noodles "mein" () and French word for "fried". It was mainly eaten by the Chinese community who settled in Mauritius and eventually evolved in a distinctively Mauritian dish diverging from the original recipe. It is a classical
Sino-Mauritian dish which is eaten by all Mauritians regardless of ethnicity, reflecting the influence of Chinese and Sino-Mauritian community despite being one the smallest community on the island. It is a very common street food and can be found in almost all restaurants on the island.
Nepalese cuisine Tibetans who settled in
Nepal during the 1960s introduced chow mein into Nepal. It is a popular fast food in
Nepal. The
Newari people of the
Kathmandu Valley use
water buffalo meat and
chicken in their cuisine, and chow mein in
Nepal is often cooked with onion, vegetables and buff (water buffalo meat).
Peruvian Chinese cuisine Chinese food (
chifa) is very popular in Peru and is now a part of mainstream Peruvian culture. Chow mein is known to Peruvians as
tallarín saltado ("sautéed noodles") and may contain peppers, onions, green onions, and tomatoes. Chicken or beef are the preferred meats used in this Peruvian variant. ==See also==