American Chop Suey?

[CarolPa]

Harrisburg, and his mom is of PA Dutch stock. Lots of Lebanon baloney and scrapple action going on!

Oh yes, I think we've discussed scrapple before.

 

[powerplantop]

Hands down, far and away, the absolute best school cafeteria food I ever had was a dish called "pork and gravy". It was served over mashed potatoes and was so sinfully good I couldn't get enough. I can still taste it and I still miss it.

My school served it over rice and it is one of the things that I really liked.

 

[Dawgluver]

Oh yes, I think we've discussed scrapple before.

Heh. I won't eat scrapple, but I'm a huge fan of Lebanon bologne, both sweet and the other kind! They're probably both some kind of scrapple come to think of it....

 

[CarolPa]

I never ate the school lunch. My son bought 2 lunches every day. He loved it. There is an elderly woman across the street from us and she was the head lunch lady at the high school for years. Her family ate leftovers from the school lunch for dinner all those years! Her husband worked with my husband and he took some of the school lunch leftovers to work for lunch. Saved them tons of money.

I wonder if she always made extra so there would be leftovers for her to take home.

 

[Kayelle]

The first fish I ever ate was fish sticks from the cafeteria in 6th grade

We had just moved from a walk-home-for-lunch state. A restaurant at school seemed cool and exotic!

Btw... I have trader joes fish sticks in the toaster oven as I type.

I pick them often Jenny...just another thing that TJ's does extremely well.

 

[Whiskadoodle]

I think it's time for a "favorite school lunch" thread. Again?

 

[Addie]

I've never understood the affinity for mac & cheese, to me it tastes like glue. School scalloped potatoes have always been really good, though, in elementary school and in all the schools I've worked at. The hot dogs were always boiled, and kind of rubbery. I don't recall Indian pudding or salmon croquettes.

Indian Pudding is a New England dish. Nasty stuff made with molasses, corn meal and raisins. A Julia Child favorite dish. They serve it at one of the restaurants , Durgin's Park at Fanuiel Hall. A tourist trap in Boston.

 

[Dawgluver]

Indian Pudding is a New England dish. Nasty stuff made with molasses, corn meal and raisins. A Julia Child favorite dish. They serve it at one of the restaurants , Durgin's Park at Fanuiel Hall. A tourist trap in Boston.

Sounds disgusting, Addie! Our lunch ladies made a decent rice pudding with raisins, and a nice crust if you were lucky. Think I'd rather have that.

 

[Addie]

The first fish I ever ate was fish sticks from the cafeteria in 6th grade

We had just moved from a walk-home-for-lunch state. A restaurant at school seemed cool and exotic!
Btw... I have trader joes fish sticks in the toaster oven as I type.

That is so funny!

When most of the schools in Boston were built, they went home for lunch. Then it changed and the kids had to brown bag it as the schools had no cafeterias. The newer schools from 1950 had cafeterias built in. And some of the larger schools had class rooms taken and turned into a cafeteria. The school I went to during Jr. H. was originally the H.S. So it already had a cafeteria. And it wasn't cool to eat the cafeteria food. Most of us brown bagged it.

 

[Addie]

Sounds disgusting, Addie! Our lunch ladies made a decent rice pudding with raisins, and a nice crust if you were lucky. Think I'd rather have that.

It is disgusting!!! The first time I ever had it I put one mouthful in and immediately puked all over the kid sitting next to me. I couldn't even swallow it.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Indian Pudding is a New England dish. Nasty stuff made with molasses, corn meal and raisins. A Julia Child favorite dish. They serve it at one of the restaurants , Durgin's Park at Fanuiel Hall. A tourist trap in Boston.

Some of us like it Addie. Properly done, it can be very flavorful and the texture is right. Haven't eaten at Durgin Park since the 1970s, so maybe they do a shortcut version from their original, not that I remember what it was like. But there is a restaurant in West Brookfield that had an amazing Indian Pudding. Haven't been there recently, but when we went soon after we moved here it was every bit as yummy as when we first discovered the restaurant back in the 1970s when we went camping in Sturbridge. Now we live near there! Hmm, might have to plan the budget for a trip out to Salem Cross sometime this summer.

 

[Somebunny]

Never heard of American Chop Suey, until I read about it here, but I remembered goulash from my youth. I was visiting my mom yesterday and remembered to ask her about it, she was a little confused about what was in it, but it defiantly contained elbow macaroni and some kind of tomato. Either sauce, or stewed or soup. She seemed to think other things left over from the fridge might have gone in to it) They called it goulash or slumgullion (they are pretty much interchangeable in her book) what could be confusing her is that her "spaghetti" was made with pretty much the same ingredients with the addition of ground beef. Lol!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Slumgullion! AKA "Slop" in our house. That's a word I haven't heard in ages. What my Mom made by that name was fried ground meat, plus some red "sauce", discs of carrots, and pre-cooked wide noodles. Combine in a big fry pan, cover, and cook until the carrots are tender. Mom probably used tomato soup, which Himself doesn't really like, so I think I'll try it with tomato sauce.

 

[Somebunny]

Ha! That's the one CG! Mom said grandma probably used tomato soup too, but mom usually used tomatoes or sauce. I guess most of our generation probably ate a lot of the same fare.except maybe those with strong ethnic backgrounds. (I'm a Heinz 57)lol!

 

[Addie]

Some of us like it Addie. Properly done, it can be very flavorful and the texture is right. Haven't eaten at Durgin Park since the 1970s, so maybe they do a shortcut version from their original, not that I remember what it was like. But there is a restaurant in West Brookfield that had an amazing Indian Pudding. Haven't been there recently, but when we went soon after we moved here it was every bit as yummy as when we first discovered the restaurant back in the 1970s when we went camping in Sturbridge. Now we live near there! Hmm, might have to plan the budget for a trip out to Salem Cross sometime this summer.

To each there own.

 

[Andy M.]

I had forgotten slumgullion was another name for this dish or a version of it. Amazing it took until the 92nd post for it to come up.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I had forgotten slumgullion was another name for this dish or a version of it. Amazing it took until the 92nd post for it to come up.

My Czech Grandmother was the only one to call it that, as kids we kept telling her it was Goulash.

 

[taxlady]

Ha! That's the one CG! Mom said grandma probably used tomato soup too, but mom usually used tomatoes or sauce. I guess most of our generation probably ate a lot of the same fare.except maybe those with strong ethnic backgrounds. (I'm a Heinz 57)lol!

That explains it. I never had anything like that except at camp. My parents were fairly FOB from Scandinavia when I was born. I got pyttipanna and biksemad.

 

[Zhizara]

Slummuligan! Oh, my! That is a great name for the American Chop Suey. I think it's a good name.

Don't get me wrong, I lke it (ACS), I just hate that it seems to malign real chop suey which I like and that I think deserves to keep it's own name.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Slummuligan! Oh, my! That is a great name for the American Chop Suey. I think it's a good name.

Don't get me wrong, I lke it (ACS), I just hate that it seems to malign real chop suey which I like and that I think deserves to keep it's own name.

But ACS is within the spirit fo the original dish. It means quite simply - leftovers. American Chop suey, slumgullian, Chop suey, all represent the same thing, even if the actual dishes are different.

To me, only goulash and gulyas are something completely different. The dish that we Americans regulary call goulash, doesn't even remotely resemble, in fact, or spirit, the European stew from which the name originated.

And don't even get me started on things like bruschetta. In the U.S., we have such a wide range of ethnicities that live here, each bringing unique flavors to our culinary salad, that original names and recipes get lost in the fusion. I'm all about people giving up ethnic traditions that create tensions. But I think that the great parts of each should be cherished, and preserved so that they can be shared with all.

Whoa! Slow down the horses. I'm straying off course here. It must be time for me to shut my mouth, or put mittens on my typing fingers.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North