Indeed, bits and pieces! Under the terror of gun and knife, a new dish was born. Though still shaking in their pants from fear, the cousins managed to say, " Chop chop suey suey." "Ooh this is good!" the burly miners exclaimed. In a flash, they dumped a generous portion of the garbage in a wok, made a sauce, and served the dish piping hot. As they rummaged through the shelves, cupboards and storage places for edibles, they came to the day's garbage, which they had been too tired to throw out before retiring. What to do? There was nothing they could serve. In the dim moonlight, they saw two big, mean looking miners had barged in and were pointing a gun and knife at them. Before they could respond, the door was kicked open. In the middle of the night they were awakened by loud pounding and voices demanding food. Late one night they had locked up and gone to bed dog-tired after every scrap of food was sold. To survive such a lawless foreign land, the pragmatic and resourceful one opened eateries and laundries instead.Īmong the successful restaurateurs were two cousins Ah Ying and Ah Sing. When they found gold, they were invariably killed by claim jumpers. Many Chinese joined the 1849 California Gold Rush. Your father is not the only person now on record as having used the expression "chop chop suey suey." From " Chop Suey" in Katherine Chew, The Magical Dumplings and Other Chinese Fables (2008): This evolved into "chop-chop" and was quickly picked up by the Englishmen who traveled the Asian seas. In Mandarin, the word is jí, and in Malay it's chepat. In an 1838 article, "Chinese English," the magazine defined "chop-chop" as "the sooner the better," but made no mention of the phase being rude or curt.Īccording to Hobson-Jobson: The Definitive Glossary of British India, the noted Anglo-Indian dictionary published in 1886, the phrase originates from the Cantonese word kap, or 急 (which means "make haste"). Two years later, it would also appear in The Penny Magazine, an illustrated English publication geared toward the working class. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first usage of "chop chop" in print to an 1834 article in the Canton (Ohio) Register. Several etymological dictionaries trace the origins of the word to a version of pidgin English used on ships (and later by Chinese servants and traders who regularly interacted with foreigners). Wikipedia and The Phrase Finder both talk about the etymology of chop chop, meaning "hurry up" or "quickly, quickly!" The portions are large, and the service is fast.Perhaps your dad added the "suey suey" part on his own, maybe for humorous effect? Paul Sandwich – I’m told his are the best in town. Some of my favorites off the Combination Plate section: Green Pepper Beef, Hunan Beef, Garlic Chicken, Cashew Chicken, Hot Braised Chicken……and I always substitute steamed rice for the fried rice with the combo plates. I should tell you his egg rolls are excellent, you can’t go wrong with his fried rice and if you’ve never had a St. “I’ve eaten pretty much everything he serves over the last 14 years. In a recent letter to neighbors in the West End neighborhood, Doug recommends some of his favorite dishes. While some finishing touches need to be added to the building, Delmar Lee’s is now open and back to the public and back to serving its loyal customers! Much of the interior had to be gutted and renovated to accommodate the new restaurant setup. Renovations started late in 2015 at 5162 Delmar, an old fuel station used by Third Degree for equipment storage. His idea? To relocate the Lee family’s business to their own building, and claim the entire building at 5200 Delmar for Third Degree. For more than 20 years, well before Third Degree opened its doors in 2002, numerous people could be seen parking outside our patio to grab a bite from Delmar Lee’s Chop Suey, the go-to place for area residents and Third Degree’s staff and artists alike for delicious Chinese takeout.īut recently, when the need arose to repair the façade on the building, TDGF co-founder Doug Auer saw it as an opportunity.
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