"RLK" dashes_ wrote in message
...
Could someone enlighten me please. I know, I know I should know I'm AA but
I
need some facts. The inevitable joke about cats being served up as a
Chinese
meal came up recently at another newsgroup. When I objected to it being
inappropriate as a joke, I was told the word "chow" meant food and that I
"should know that". As to why I was told this, I'm not sure if it was a
derogatory definition referring to dog meat.

Well -- I know that dog is served in Vietnam (e.g. in Corinne Trang's
cookbook), but honestly does the word "chow" have its roots in dog or
cat??
I thought it to mean "stir fry" or "cook in a wok". I don't mean to get
any
group mad at another but I'd like to find out from someone who's a bit
more
knowledgeable on this subject.


I always understood that Chow Mein was a respectable Chinese dish, if a
casual one, using fried parboiled noodles. I don't know the formal
definition of "chow" but "mein" refers to noodles like in Lo Mein etc. so
"chow" probably means something like "fried". I don't think the dish was
invented in California like Chop Suey :-)


--
James V. Silverton
Potomac, Maryland, USA