Thanks to Rule 34, ‘Hotdish’ sends me off into another plane of thought. Damn Internet!
And they are. America-style Hong Kong style.
Is there a term for when a part of a cuisine leaves its native home, spends some time abroad, then is brought back to the place of origin in its mutated form? Like Americanized Chinese food, or Philly sushi rolls showing up in Japan or one of the American styles of pizza being served in Italy? Boomerang dish, maybe?
terentii, don’t you live in Toronto now? Toronto has an excellent Chinatown where you can get authentic Chinese cuisine. And there is no shortage of ‘American- style’ Chinese places where you can get chow or lo mein and egg foo young. I don’t think that you’d be able to find ‘Minnesota- style’ however.
Is it OK if I say how much I hate this meme? They aren’t designed to be plates, they’re designed to be folded up from a flat sheet into a non-leaking carrying container. It’s almost as bad a meme as the “top of your paper soda cup is a coaster” one.
If there isn’t already a term, I nominate this one.
IME in Maryland and Texas, lo mein has always been with soft noodles and chow mein always comes with crispy noodles, though the crispy noodles are used more as a topping for the vegetable-meat glop which is served over rice.
One of my favorite meals at my local “Chinese” restaurant is sesame-fried chicken(or beef) fajitas, served with Szechwan salsa. 
Most places I’ve seen in Canada, the crispy noodles are the major distinguishing feature between Chow Mein and Chop Suey.
Otherwise they seem identical. 80% bean sprouts, 10% meat of some sort, 10% other vegetables like celery and carrots.
Yes. Watching what the staff made and ate themselves was always part of the fun of going to the better sort of Chinese (or other) ethnic restaurant. It always seemed to me that of the various “Americanized” cuisines, the Chinese is the one that was most thoroughly bastardized.
See here and many of the next 60-ish posts below for a good discussion of hotdish:
I have ingested the cream of mushroom soup version of “chow mein” - it is about what it sounds like - Lutheran church basement hot dish with the highly ethnic ingredient “soy sauce” added over crispy wheat noodles.
My mothers was the ground pork, lots of celery, over crispy wheat noodles.
I never had any belief that either of these was real Chinese food, any more than I believed that the Old El Paso taco kit created authentic Mexican food or a jar of Ragu over Creamette spaghetti was anything like my grandmother’s homemade pasta.
I should get out more, but it’s difficult for me, for a number of reasons. I’ve told my daughter we should go to a nice restaurant sometime when the pandemic is over, so long as we can coordinate our schedules.
There are a lot of places I’d like to try, not just Chinese: Greek, Indian, Ethiopian…
I like the Korean version “japchae” of stir-fried noodles. Some Koreans consider it Chinese food, but of course it’s yet another foreign modification of the original dish.
I only once had good chop suey or chow mein from a Chinese restaurant, and I can’t remember where. I keep searching for it, but all I get is stewed cabbage and a few carrot and celery strips in a translucent bucket of goo.
When I think of Korean-style Chinese food, I think of jajangmyeon.
Be that as it may, I’m sure it was a lot more authentic than what I had in Minnesota.
Mind you, it was back in the '50s that we were served the green glop. I remember when Szechuan cuisine arrived in our neck of the woods sometime in the '70s. It quickly became the au courant Chinese food to sample.
Nitpick. People may have figured out to unfold a take-out box to make a crappy plate but they’re certainly not designed for that. Their original purpose was to carry shucked oysters.