"Dan Logcher" wrote in message
...
James Silverton wrote:

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 :-)

I believe you are correct. Chow Foon is fried flat noodles. Chow Fahn
is fried rice.

--
Dan


Now you've got me interested! I found an entry for chow mein on
http://zhongwen.com/

In addition to the characters and transliteration, chaomian is given for
"fried noodles" or "chow mein". Part of chao is derived from the character
for "fire" so it certainly fits.

Jim.