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Similar to its more popular Chinese-American relative, chop suey, egg foo young has become a symbol of inauthenticity, recognized as greasy, quick, and easy. Isabelle Chin Chang, a Chinese American woman herself, explores the bounds of authenticity in her book, “What's cooking at Changs': The key to cooking Chinese”. “Chop suey is not an authentic Chinese dish.” Chang writes, “It was invented by a Cantonese in California 90 years ago. Nor are those brittle fried noodles real chow mein. A good cook can make them taste similar to Chinese food, but they are not Chinese dishes (34-35).”
Despite calling chop suey not a Chinese dish, Chang acknowledges that many of the recipes in her book have been “Americanized” in some way, stating, “Being an American myself, I couldn’t help but modify cooking methods and tone down ingredients to suit most American palates.” Similar to chefs who had created dishes like chop suey and egg foo young, Chang has learnt to Americanize Chinese food as well, begging the question, at what point is it no longer a Chinese dish?
Though egg foo young is recognized as inauthentic today, Chang still includes it in her book, even tracing it back as a course in “old Chinese custom”. Martin Yan, in his book "The Yan Can Cook Book", also agrees with Chang, calling egg foo young "A traditional but unique dish". But where Chang and Yan seems to find chop suey as inauthentic versus egg foo young as authentic, many others disagree today.
In TikTok
Some users, in response to posts about the debate, had mentioned that their dislike for British Chinese cuisine had nothing to do with authenticity, but with the unusual ingredients and aesthetic of the food. While not all users agreed that Chinese American food's superiority had anything to do with authenticity, many could agree that British Chinese cuisine's predominantly brown appearance, the overuse of staples such as "curry sauce", and a lack of veggies proved Chinese American food to be overtly superior in comparison.
But in looking at Chang's "complaints" regarding inauthentic Chinese American dishes, her comments seem very similar to those of TikTok commenters. Complaints from commenters seem to stem from how British Chinese dishes are seemingly foreign in America and entirely different from Chinese American cuisine, which inherently becomes an issue of authenticity. It is not authentic to how American TikTokers expect Chinese food to be, and therefore must be bad. These seemingly semantic definitions of authenticity become important when thinking, why does something seem worse just because it is inauthentic or something we're not used to?
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