Food & drinkMyths & disputes

chop suey

Chop suey is Cantonese tsap seui, 'mixed bits', a Taishan dish of odds and ends brought by the first Chinese immigrants; it was on American menus by 1884, long before the stories said it was invented, and American menus carried it on to the Philippines and Japan.

Weakest linkCertain

The story you may have heard

That chop suey was invented in America — for Li Hongzhang's visit in 1896, or for drunken miners or railroad workers. The word and dish are attested in 1884, and historians find no evidence for these stories.

The road to American English

From American English to English

From American English to Tagalog

From American English to Japanese

1850Cantonese

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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