Recipes

Buster Keaton Contributes His Favorite Dish—Chop Suey

An iron pot is used in making this dish, greased with 3 tablespoons peanut oil. One cup of raw lean pork is cut in cubes, put in pot and allowed to cook until brown. After the pork is brown a preparation of vegetables, mixed, is placed in pot and allowed to steam, tight-fitting lid making this possible, first cooking it 10 minutes while stirring.

This mixture consists of 2½ cups water, chestnuts cut in cubes, 2½ cups bamboo shoots, 2 cups Chinese greens, cut in small pieces, 2 cups chopped celery, cut in small pieces, 1 cup onion chopped in small pieces, 3 cups canned mushrooms, chopped in small pieces, 5 cups bean sprouts, ½ cup chopped salted almonds. After steaming for 30 minutes chicken stock is added to moisten. Next 2 tablespoonfuls corn starch mixed with chicken stock is added to thicken it. If this becomes too thick a little more chicken stock is added to thin it.

Next a whole roast chicken, cut in dices, being careful to use no skin or fat part of the chicken is put in the iron pot and cooked slowly for 10 or 15 minutes with a cup of "Soy" sauce added to season it and to give it the proper dark color.

(Most of these ingredients are purchased in Chinatown. This recipe takes care of about 8 people.)

Fashions in Food in Beverly Hills (1930)

Chop Suey (from the Mandarin tsa sui, meaning "odds and ends") was, according to legend, served to Chinese immigrants working on the transcontinental railroad. Not a traditional dish, it was advertised by all Chinese restaurants catering to Americans. This version was offered by Buster Keaton as "His Favorite Dish."

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