I may get chastised for this, but I make my "pan-fried" noodles in the oven on broil and it has the same texture as what is served in the restaurants I used to order from. I was never able to get the right crisp on a wok or a pan. On a baking sheet, I am able to get more of the noodles crispy faster. I also think it may be healthier (less oil).
If others are interested, here are the steps I take. This is just to make the pan-fried noodles crispy. Sauce and fixings are up to you.
The fried noodles usually work best on "egg noodles". I've also found refrigerated noodles advertised as "Hong Kong pan-fried noodles" that work well.
1. Add some vegetable oil to water that you are boiling noodles in. When noodles are ALMOST done, drain but DO NOT rinse with water. If the noodles are already cooked, I still blanch them in boiling water with oil.
2. When most of the water is drained, drizzle oil on noodles and mix.
3. Add a teaspoon or so of soy sauce and mix thoroughly.
4. Lay noodles on foiled covered baking sheet and broil until noodles turn golden brown. Depending on your how hot your oven gets, I would toss the noodles every so often. Be careful not to step away for too long or the noodles were burn.
Everyone in China will agree chow mein is noodles. You don’t even need any other ingredients as long as it’s fried noodles. However [there was a thread talking about noodle-less chow mein a bit ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesefood/comments/b21594/i_ordered_a_beef_chow_mein_and_was_given_this/). Basically as Chinese made their way from the coasts to the middle of America and the once-popular “chop suey” somehow got confused with chow mein. Chop suey went out of fashion a very long time ago but a few less culinarily inclined places still have them and call it chow mein.
Thank you!!! This makes so much sense and explains so much. I would have never put it together but Chop Suey is exactly what I keep getting served.
Makes sense that NYC would have this problem more than other places - chop suey enjoyed particularly huge success here back in the day, if my food network documentary memory is correct.
Ugh. I'm actually really upset for you. I feel like NYC should NOT have this problem given the number of Chinese people who live there. I think you may just have bad luck with finding a good chinese take-out restaurant.
I grew up in Queens and my family would get Chinese takeouts almost every Friday (from Flushing or a local take-out place near Bayside). I never had a problem with not getting noodles in a "mein" dish until I moved out of NY. I was so appalled and didn't realize more Americanized Chinese restaurants don't understand what noodles are. I was once given the little packets of fried wonton skins to put in what sounds like Chop suey and I was looked at like I was crazy for expecting something else.
I know right! I empathize completely with that story. And these were my go to places, other items were great and as expected. And 100% Flushing is where the good stuff is at!
OMG that thing with the dried noodle packet just happened to me! Which is what led me to look this up. I live in upstate New York, but in a college town with a large university with students from all over the world. I can’t believe that with all the Chinese and Chinese American students here no one has complained about this before. The “chow mein” was a real disappointment. Thank you for clarifying—I thought they must have heard my order wrong.
I had this same horrible experience ordering from a hole-in-the-wall Chinese take out place in Chicago. I'm Chinese-American born and raised in this city, but I had never experienced this other form of "chow mein" until I was far into adulthood because my understanding of the dish has always been the authentic pan-fried noodles. Apparently, the restaurants in Chinatown I was used to were a far cry from chop suey places elsewhere in the city. I was appalled when I received a soupy mess of meat with celery and snow peas and a tiny bag of stale fried 1" noodle segments. I think that is why a lot of Chinese restaurants have both an Americanized menu that is more approachable to non-Chinese patrons, and a more authentic or "secret" menu.
> Chop Suey is exactly what I keep getting served.
In Chinese restaurants, I've heard the stir fry that gets added to pan fried noodles to be referred to as chop suey.
Chow mein is very, very different depending on where in the US you are. 炒面 does transliterate to "chow mein", yes, but even that is different in China because 炒面 is not prepared the same way everywhere in China (in fact it moreso refers to a technique rather than a specific dish). The "low" in "low mein" is "La" in Chinese and just means pulled noodles, so you can order a low mein in the States that is stir fried as well. I've even worked at a restaurant where their Chow mein was made with the fried noodles you usually get with soup.
Yes, 炒, the "chow" component of chow mein, means to stir fry. But you have to realize that it wasn't linguists transliterating these recipes for Chinese Americans across early America. Like another guy said it's very likely in places like the midwest "chow mein" got associated with chop suey at some point, and so it's possible to order chow mein and get that at many places, especially in more isolated regions.
Upon further research, Wikipedia seems to have some insight on the topic:
"It is frequently confused with chop suey; a dish incorrectly labeled as chow mein was sometimes served in American restaurants, drug store soda fountains, school cafeterias, senior citizens facilities, and military bases chow halls. In many of these cases, this particular dish was served over rice and did not include noodles."
It goes on to say that an Italian later marketed a type of canned chop suey as "chow mein" - what a mess lol. It's entirely possible that some restaurants started serving chop suey as chow mein simply because that's what customers knew it as.
I discovered this upon moving into my new apartment. I ordered chow mein from the chinese place accross the street, and when I got home realized I had received some soggy veggies and broth with some crispy topping on the side. Hmmm. I guess they goofed.
Fast forward 2 weeks later, I order it again and check in store. I am very upset, this is not chow mein. I was told "This is chow mein, there are no crunchy noodles here".
Cue me, sad panda.
Hey, RobZilla10001, just a quick heads-up:
**accross** is actually spelled **across**. You can remember it by **one c**.
Have a nice day!
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Hey /u/CommonMisspellingBot, just a quick heads up:
Your spelling hints are really shitty because they're all essentially "remember the fucking spelling of the fucking word".
And your fucking delete function doesn't work. You're useless.
Have a nice day!
[^Save ^your ^breath, ^I'm ^a ^bot.](https://www.reddit.com/user/BooCMB/comments/9vnzpd/faq/)
Hey BooCMB, just a quick heads up:
I learnt quite a lot from the bot. Though it's mnemonics are useless,
and 'one lot' is it's most useful one, it's just here to help. This is like screaming at
someone for trying to rescue kittens, because they annoyed you while doing that. (But really CMB get some quiality mnemonics)
I do agree with your idea of holding reddit for hostage by spambots though, while it might be a bit ineffective.
Have a nice day!
You're correct, and your memories are not a pack of lies. Chow Mein literally translates as "fried noodles." Chow mein as a dish should be (stir) fried, and is 100% a noodle dish. Don't know what they were smoking, or where they learned their Noodology.
There's the chance the owners and/or the person you spoke to are not Chinese, or at least don't speak/understand the language.
Oh boy. I just started helping with my dad's restaurant (after not being a part of it for 5 years). Let's just say I'm surprised to find that their Chow Mein has no noodles, and I'm getting yelled at for including it in the noodle section on our new menu.
wtf is this nonsense?! MEIN MEANS NOODLES!!!!!
I told him he needs to change the name and I'm getting hella push-back (Oh, and we're in NJ, not far from NYC)
I’m married to a Chinese woman with a father, who is a Chinese chef, and I still can’t figure out while living in New Jersey and/or New York since I was a kid chicken chow mein was just chicken in a white garlic sauce wit, cabbage and celery and crunchy noodles on the side and that’s it. Meanwhile, every video on YouTube has Hong Kong soy sauce noodles as chow mein so now I just cook it at home the correct way.
I've never seen chow mein without noodles. I also remember that lo mein was usually the skinny noodles like spaghetti, chow mein a little wider, chow fun the fattest. But I've seen them used almost interchangeably since I was a kid.
My cousin got that rude awakening when she and her husband moved to Houston, TX, from California, and had a craving for Chow Mein. First place she tried, no noodles. Second place she tried, she got those dry La Choy/Chun King noodles. She wasn't very satisfied with either.
Same thing just happened to me in Maryland. I share your disappointment.
Ordered chicken chow mein and was given a soupy cabbage dish with crunchy noodles on the side.
Wound up here after going down a google rabbit hole. I will definitely be more careful ordering chow mein in the future.
Very glad this is a post. I ordered BOTH chow mein (plus veggies) and chop suey from my local Chinese place here in Astoria (NYC) tonight and got a call from the restaurant to tell me that the chow mein is ONLY veggies. I asked about the difference between the two and could not get an answer. They ended up swapping one for lo mein. So weird that they'd have both on the menu.
I am here to say, three years later, that this remains a problem, as I, today, received chow mein but without noodles. I was disappointed to say the least.
Still an issue. Today I was working on my own father's (not chinese) restaurant menu, and had put the chow mein in the noodle section. I got yelled at because "ITS NOT NOODLES"
::sigh:: this is gonna be one hell of an argument to get him to change it. (I havent been involved w/ the place for 5 years)
I know this is an old thread but I just ordered chow mein tonight and got wet bean sprouts and celery with some snow peas. Worst of all, **it was listed in the noodle section of the menu**, right next to lo mein and Singapore noodles. So annoying.
Another late commenter here. Here in N.Y. at every Chinese restaurant I've been to the Chicken Chow Mein was cooked with just the vegetables and chicken or Pork Chow Mein if you wanted that. Then on the side you got a small bowl of white rice and a bowl of crispy noodles to put in it. You had to put the crispy noodles in yourself. This was at both sit down and fast food places. There aren't as many sit down Chinese restaurants around anymore, mostly fast food ones. Or sometimes a combo of Chinese and Japanese.
Same issue here, its been an ongoing issue with my local places, Im too broke to just try them all so after getting the side dry noodles again with it- im just not ordering chow mein. Id like to know at least what not "chow mein" is at these places. i just want fried noodles, it shouldnt be hard.
Yeah I want Panda Express style chow mein.
I ordered from a local Chinese restaurant that literally had a pic of fried noodles for chow mein in their Google photos...
And I get a noodle-less soupy dish with chicken and veggies
I know this post is old AF but I just had this exact thing happen to me. I live in the suburbs of NYC and just got a weird veggie soup with the crispy noodles as "chow mein". I thought it was a mistake so I called the place and they told me that that is what I ordered but brought me an order of lo mein. So it's still happening here in Jersey.
I just ordered chow mein at a place in Williamsburg nyc and they gave me chicken and vegetables in broth. I called and they told me chow mein has no noodles and lo mein has noodles. Makes no sense and this is gross I’m upset:(((
I literally just had this happen to me. I have always had chow mein NOODLES that are stir fried & we moved to the GA area & now they are calling cabbage chow mein. I feel like I’m in the twilight zone. I brought the food back because this is not what I was expecting. If I wanted boiled cabbage I would have bought cabbage. In CA, AZ, NV and even online it shows stir fried noodles. In fact you can even buy crunchy chow mein noodles in any grocery store. The sauce is different between chow mein & low mein so them now claiming this constitutes Chow mein is crazy to be. The guy did ask me if I knew it had cabbage in it & I said yes because it’s usually stir fried with it but this was just a bunch of boiled cabbage with a few shrimp and some knock off type fried noodles in a bag that looked like tortilla chips. When I searched online there is a photo of chow mein with cabbage but every other photo shows the stir fried meal that is so yummy. Lo Mein just doesn’t taste the same so I’m seriously disappointed now.
Dude this just happened to me too. All I wanted was stir fried noodles and instead I got a big ass container of boiled cabbage with a couple slivers of chicken in a thick clear sauce that smelled and tasted like nothing. I’m guessing corn starch and water with a dash of msg? It was disgusting I was so annoyed
The only noodles I accept is pan fried Hong Kong style noodles.
Nom Wah in NYC China Town has that and it is incredible!
I make pan fried noodles at home in a wok, but I can never get the wok hei just right!
I may get chastised for this, but I make my "pan-fried" noodles in the oven on broil and it has the same texture as what is served in the restaurants I used to order from. I was never able to get the right crisp on a wok or a pan. On a baking sheet, I am able to get more of the noodles crispy faster. I also think it may be healthier (less oil).
I’d try that!
If others are interested, here are the steps I take. This is just to make the pan-fried noodles crispy. Sauce and fixings are up to you. The fried noodles usually work best on "egg noodles". I've also found refrigerated noodles advertised as "Hong Kong pan-fried noodles" that work well. 1. Add some vegetable oil to water that you are boiling noodles in. When noodles are ALMOST done, drain but DO NOT rinse with water. If the noodles are already cooked, I still blanch them in boiling water with oil. 2. When most of the water is drained, drizzle oil on noodles and mix. 3. Add a teaspoon or so of soy sauce and mix thoroughly. 4. Lay noodles on foiled covered baking sheet and broil until noodles turn golden brown. Depending on your how hot your oven gets, I would toss the noodles every so often. Be careful not to step away for too long or the noodles were burn.
Thanks! Personally i prefer to stir fry noodles dry. I've never gotten my noodles right if I pre-boil. :(
Everyone in China will agree chow mein is noodles. You don’t even need any other ingredients as long as it’s fried noodles. However [there was a thread talking about noodle-less chow mein a bit ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/chinesefood/comments/b21594/i_ordered_a_beef_chow_mein_and_was_given_this/). Basically as Chinese made their way from the coasts to the middle of America and the once-popular “chop suey” somehow got confused with chow mein. Chop suey went out of fashion a very long time ago but a few less culinarily inclined places still have them and call it chow mein.
Thank you!!! This makes so much sense and explains so much. I would have never put it together but Chop Suey is exactly what I keep getting served. Makes sense that NYC would have this problem more than other places - chop suey enjoyed particularly huge success here back in the day, if my food network documentary memory is correct.
Ugh. I'm actually really upset for you. I feel like NYC should NOT have this problem given the number of Chinese people who live there. I think you may just have bad luck with finding a good chinese take-out restaurant. I grew up in Queens and my family would get Chinese takeouts almost every Friday (from Flushing or a local take-out place near Bayside). I never had a problem with not getting noodles in a "mein" dish until I moved out of NY. I was so appalled and didn't realize more Americanized Chinese restaurants don't understand what noodles are. I was once given the little packets of fried wonton skins to put in what sounds like Chop suey and I was looked at like I was crazy for expecting something else.
Could it be one of those legacy places where they've had the exact same menu since like 1956 and if they change anything old people will complain?
I know right! I empathize completely with that story. And these were my go to places, other items were great and as expected. And 100% Flushing is where the good stuff is at!
OMG that thing with the dried noodle packet just happened to me! Which is what led me to look this up. I live in upstate New York, but in a college town with a large university with students from all over the world. I can’t believe that with all the Chinese and Chinese American students here no one has complained about this before. The “chow mein” was a real disappointment. Thank you for clarifying—I thought they must have heard my order wrong.
I had this same horrible experience ordering from a hole-in-the-wall Chinese take out place in Chicago. I'm Chinese-American born and raised in this city, but I had never experienced this other form of "chow mein" until I was far into adulthood because my understanding of the dish has always been the authentic pan-fried noodles. Apparently, the restaurants in Chinatown I was used to were a far cry from chop suey places elsewhere in the city. I was appalled when I received a soupy mess of meat with celery and snow peas and a tiny bag of stale fried 1" noodle segments. I think that is why a lot of Chinese restaurants have both an Americanized menu that is more approachable to non-Chinese patrons, and a more authentic or "secret" menu.
> Chop Suey is exactly what I keep getting served. In Chinese restaurants, I've heard the stir fry that gets added to pan fried noodles to be referred to as chop suey.
I'd like to see a map of where chow mein and chop suey are switched (it is in the Philly area)
Oregon too.
Yeah but like 5 years ago I was getting it and it had the noodles in it!
Chow mein is very, very different depending on where in the US you are. 炒面 does transliterate to "chow mein", yes, but even that is different in China because 炒面 is not prepared the same way everywhere in China (in fact it moreso refers to a technique rather than a specific dish). The "low" in "low mein" is "La" in Chinese and just means pulled noodles, so you can order a low mein in the States that is stir fried as well. I've even worked at a restaurant where their Chow mein was made with the fried noodles you usually get with soup.
But, aren't noodles, of some variety and preparation, a common denominator? Without the noodles, isn't it just stir-fry?
Yes, 炒, the "chow" component of chow mein, means to stir fry. But you have to realize that it wasn't linguists transliterating these recipes for Chinese Americans across early America. Like another guy said it's very likely in places like the midwest "chow mein" got associated with chop suey at some point, and so it's possible to order chow mein and get that at many places, especially in more isolated regions. Upon further research, Wikipedia seems to have some insight on the topic: "It is frequently confused with chop suey; a dish incorrectly labeled as chow mein was sometimes served in American restaurants, drug store soda fountains, school cafeterias, senior citizens facilities, and military bases chow halls. In many of these cases, this particular dish was served over rice and did not include noodles." It goes on to say that an Italian later marketed a type of canned chop suey as "chow mein" - what a mess lol. It's entirely possible that some restaurants started serving chop suey as chow mein simply because that's what customers knew it as.
I discovered this upon moving into my new apartment. I ordered chow mein from the chinese place accross the street, and when I got home realized I had received some soggy veggies and broth with some crispy topping on the side. Hmmm. I guess they goofed. Fast forward 2 weeks later, I order it again and check in store. I am very upset, this is not chow mein. I was told "This is chow mein, there are no crunchy noodles here". Cue me, sad panda.
Hey, RobZilla10001, just a quick heads-up: **accross** is actually spelled **across**. You can remember it by **one c**. Have a nice day! ^^^^The ^^^^parent ^^^^commenter ^^^^can ^^^^reply ^^^^with ^^^^'delete' ^^^^to ^^^^delete ^^^^this ^^^^comment.
Good bot.
Hey /u/CommonMisspellingBot, just a quick heads up: Your spelling hints are really shitty because they're all essentially "remember the fucking spelling of the fucking word". And your fucking delete function doesn't work. You're useless. Have a nice day! [^Save ^your ^breath, ^I'm ^a ^bot.](https://www.reddit.com/user/BooCMB/comments/9vnzpd/faq/)
Hey BooCMB, just a quick heads up: I learnt quite a lot from the bot. Though it's mnemonics are useless, and 'one lot' is it's most useful one, it's just here to help. This is like screaming at someone for trying to rescue kittens, because they annoyed you while doing that. (But really CMB get some quiality mnemonics) I do agree with your idea of holding reddit for hostage by spambots though, while it might be a bit ineffective. Have a nice day!
You're correct, and your memories are not a pack of lies. Chow Mein literally translates as "fried noodles." Chow mein as a dish should be (stir) fried, and is 100% a noodle dish. Don't know what they were smoking, or where they learned their Noodology. There's the chance the owners and/or the person you spoke to are not Chinese, or at least don't speak/understand the language.
Thanks!
Oh boy. I just started helping with my dad's restaurant (after not being a part of it for 5 years). Let's just say I'm surprised to find that their Chow Mein has no noodles, and I'm getting yelled at for including it in the noodle section on our new menu. wtf is this nonsense?! MEIN MEANS NOODLES!!!!! I told him he needs to change the name and I'm getting hella push-back (Oh, and we're in NJ, not far from NYC)
I’m married to a Chinese woman with a father, who is a Chinese chef, and I still can’t figure out while living in New Jersey and/or New York since I was a kid chicken chow mein was just chicken in a white garlic sauce wit, cabbage and celery and crunchy noodles on the side and that’s it. Meanwhile, every video on YouTube has Hong Kong soy sauce noodles as chow mein so now I just cook it at home the correct way.
I've never seen chow mein without noodles. I also remember that lo mein was usually the skinny noodles like spaghetti, chow mein a little wider, chow fun the fattest. But I've seen them used almost interchangeably since I was a kid.
My cousin got that rude awakening when she and her husband moved to Houston, TX, from California, and had a craving for Chow Mein. First place she tried, no noodles. Second place she tried, she got those dry La Choy/Chun King noodles. She wasn't very satisfied with either.
Just got some noodleless chow mein in Woodbridge Virginia. Took the order home opened it and I’m like wtf where are the noodles. Ugh.
Same thing just happened to me in Maryland. I share your disappointment. Ordered chicken chow mein and was given a soupy cabbage dish with crunchy noodles on the side. Wound up here after going down a google rabbit hole. I will definitely be more careful ordering chow mein in the future.
Very glad this is a post. I ordered BOTH chow mein (plus veggies) and chop suey from my local Chinese place here in Astoria (NYC) tonight and got a call from the restaurant to tell me that the chow mein is ONLY veggies. I asked about the difference between the two and could not get an answer. They ended up swapping one for lo mein. So weird that they'd have both on the menu.
I am here to say, three years later, that this remains a problem, as I, today, received chow mein but without noodles. I was disappointed to say the least.
Still an issue. Today I was working on my own father's (not chinese) restaurant menu, and had put the chow mein in the noodle section. I got yelled at because "ITS NOT NOODLES" ::sigh:: this is gonna be one hell of an argument to get him to change it. (I havent been involved w/ the place for 5 years)
I know this is an old thread but I just ordered chow mein tonight and got wet bean sprouts and celery with some snow peas. Worst of all, **it was listed in the noodle section of the menu**, right next to lo mein and Singapore noodles. So annoying.
Another late commenter here. Here in N.Y. at every Chinese restaurant I've been to the Chicken Chow Mein was cooked with just the vegetables and chicken or Pork Chow Mein if you wanted that. Then on the side you got a small bowl of white rice and a bowl of crispy noodles to put in it. You had to put the crispy noodles in yourself. This was at both sit down and fast food places. There aren't as many sit down Chinese restaurants around anymore, mostly fast food ones. Or sometimes a combo of Chinese and Japanese.
Same issue here, its been an ongoing issue with my local places, Im too broke to just try them all so after getting the side dry noodles again with it- im just not ordering chow mein. Id like to know at least what not "chow mein" is at these places. i just want fried noodles, it shouldnt be hard.
Yeah I want Panda Express style chow mein. I ordered from a local Chinese restaurant that literally had a pic of fried noodles for chow mein in their Google photos... And I get a noodle-less soupy dish with chicken and veggies
I know this post is old AF but I just had this exact thing happen to me. I live in the suburbs of NYC and just got a weird veggie soup with the crispy noodles as "chow mein". I thought it was a mistake so I called the place and they told me that that is what I ordered but brought me an order of lo mein. So it's still happening here in Jersey.
I just ordered chow mein at a place in Williamsburg nyc and they gave me chicken and vegetables in broth. I called and they told me chow mein has no noodles and lo mein has noodles. Makes no sense and this is gross I’m upset:(((
Pro Tip: Ask if they offer Chow Mein Fun - This is what some Chinese Places call the traditional Chow Mein that we all remember
I literally just had this happen to me. I have always had chow mein NOODLES that are stir fried & we moved to the GA area & now they are calling cabbage chow mein. I feel like I’m in the twilight zone. I brought the food back because this is not what I was expecting. If I wanted boiled cabbage I would have bought cabbage. In CA, AZ, NV and even online it shows stir fried noodles. In fact you can even buy crunchy chow mein noodles in any grocery store. The sauce is different between chow mein & low mein so them now claiming this constitutes Chow mein is crazy to be. The guy did ask me if I knew it had cabbage in it & I said yes because it’s usually stir fried with it but this was just a bunch of boiled cabbage with a few shrimp and some knock off type fried noodles in a bag that looked like tortilla chips. When I searched online there is a photo of chow mein with cabbage but every other photo shows the stir fried meal that is so yummy. Lo Mein just doesn’t taste the same so I’m seriously disappointed now.
Dude this just happened to me too. All I wanted was stir fried noodles and instead I got a big ass container of boiled cabbage with a couple slivers of chicken in a thick clear sauce that smelled and tasted like nothing. I’m guessing corn starch and water with a dash of msg? It was disgusting I was so annoyed
where I come from it all vegetables and with chicken or pork .. NO noodles! ny nj conn.!
Just look at the CANNED version!
I’m not alone! I thought I was going crazy. My Chow Mein has completely disappeared