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The most elaborate versions included dried lychee “nuts,” along with nearly every other typical “chop suey” ingredient. Sometimes the topping was made with maple syrup, but tea syrup also made an appearance. Much like its namesake, variations abounded. Fantastical sundaes, like the chop suey, were hits across the country. Another variation added French cherries and chocolate syrup to the figs, dates, and walnuts, which the author noted was “a very popular dish in Chicago.” Other recipes for the topping leaned on other ingredients, such as a “Chop Suey for Sundaes” that involved strawberries, pineapple, coconut, and walnuts mixed with sugar syrup.
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It could get much more elaborate, though.
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In a 1911 book called The Lunch Room, the basic concept is described as a topping of figs, dates, and walnuts, combined with vanilla syrup, over ice cream. On top of ice cream, “chop suey” was a topping of dried and preserved fruit, nuts, and syrup, mixed together by the pound. While the inventor of the chop suey sundae remains mysterious (one sundae scholar suggests a long-closed fountain in Pennsylvania as the source), recipes for the treat spread in the 20th century. Actual chop suey doesn’t involve ice cream. As Anne Mendelson writes in Chow Chop Suey: Food and the Chinese American Journey, soon the term chop suey “had become a stand-in for any hashed mélange of ingredients,” including the chop suey sundae. Before long, it became a recipe-book standard as well, typically sporting celery, bean sprouts, meat, and a thick coat of sauce.īut the dish was endlessly modified in restaurants and homes alike. Its most likely ancestor is a dish from Taishan, Guangdong, called tsap seui, or “miscellaneous leftovers.” Entrepreneurial Chinese chefs adapted it for American palates, and it became a standard at restaurants across the United States by the early 20th century. One perennial favorite was the chop suey sundae.Ĭhop suey is a classic Chinese-American meat and vegetable dish served with rice. In fact, many pharmacy and druggist’s magazines included detailed instructions on how to make the most cutting-edge sundaes possible to draw in customers. Across the country, soda fountains and and drugstores served up elaborate sweet treats. The first few decades of the 20th century were a golden age for ice cream in the United States. General’s Tso’s chicken ice cream, served “Chop suey” style.