Chinese What?

[akirlu]

Christine at work was just relating tales of a friend who's a picky eater. She'd been out at dinner with him and they'd wound up at an Italian place because Mr. Picky wouldn't eat such exotics as Chinese, or sushi, or Mexican. But it was apparently not a white-bread Italian place. It was Mr. Picky's first experience of restaurants serving olive bread. After very gingerly and suspiciously trying a little piece, he declared that this was the first time he'd ever tasted an olive. "How could anyone get to adulthood without ever tasting an olive?!? But he's French-Canadian," she explained. On the first family expedition to a Chinese restaurant, Mr. Picky's younger brother had apparently been very excited until he saw the menu: "Where's the Chinese pie? There's no Chinese pie," cried that outraged youth.

And here's me, thinking I'm fairly a fairly cosmopolitan sort, but clearly no better off than Mr. Picky. I had never even heard of Chinese pie.

Lo, friends, for your edification and horror, courtesy of Google:

Chinese Pie

1 to 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup diced bell pepper, green and red if possible
3/4 cup diced onion
1 package dry brown gravy mix
4 to 6 medium red or round white potatoes, diced, about 4 cups
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 15 ounce can whole kernel corn, drained or 2 cups frozen
1 15 ounce can creamed corn
salt and pepper to taste

Brown ground beef with diced peppers and onion. Drain well. Place ground beef mixture in crockpot. Toss diced potato with melted butter to coat and add to crockpot; add whole kernel corn and creamed corn. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serves 4 to 6.

Alternately, so that you can at least maybe see where the "pie" comes in:

Pâté Chinois (Chinese Pie):

Sometimes known as shepherd's pie, is a simple dish made from layered minced meat on the bottom, corn (either kernel corn or creamed corn) and mashed potatoes on top. While Quebecers do not use ketchup as frequently as their southern American neighbours, Chinese Pie is most often topped with some of it just before eating.

Personally, I think the Chinese should sue Quebec for libel.

Comments

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Uaou. That's the most egregious use of the descriptor "Chinese" I've ever seen.

[damienw]

A well-made shepherds' pie, not entirely dissimilar to this thing you have described, was a staple of my parents' diet, and could indeed be a tasty thing on a winter's night. With tomato sauce, even. In fact I still sometimes make them, come to think about it.

But I would never call it "chinese", and I'd never expect to find it in a restaurant. Unless it was an extremely upscale restaurant in Britain, and was being served "wittily". But then I'd only be reading about it.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like shepherd's pie. My mum used to make it when I was a kid (she'd been an au pair in England in the late '50s, so she had a number of fairly British items in her repertoire, including fried tomatoes for breakfast, and the ability to make a decent cup of tea). I've even been known to eat it with ketchup on top. And I've certainly eaten it in restaurants, or rather, Anglo-American pubs. But yeah, it's that "Chinese pie", or worse "Pâté Chinois" business against which the spirit simply revolts.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Edification? Check.
Horror? Check. Check. Check.

it goes with American chop suey--

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

another popular Franglais dish, which has nothing to do with chop suey which itself is a western adaptation of traditional Chinese cooking, but at least usually has authentic asian elements.

American chop suey is usually (as it was served in my school) made of elbow macaroni covered in tomato sauce with some ground beef mixed in and then baked.

What the rest of the country calls a noodle casserole, generally, only blander.

[shudder]

Re: it goes with American chop suey--

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Weird. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with a macaroni/spaghetti/noodle casserole, if done well. But I truly do not get this apparent Franglais thing for taking an obviously North American casserole dish and blaming it on the Chinese. Very odd.

seriously, i'm afraid they think it's exotic

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

and that's why they give it exotic names.

Yeah - tomato sauce. Food all mixed up and cooked together, not separate on the plate.

Foreign and exotic.

I mean, this is an ethnic group whose idea of a classic dish is fries with melted cheese on, to go with the baked beans out of a can.

"French Cuisine" !-- Franco-American cuisine.

Re: seriously, i'm afraid they think it's exotic

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I suppose Chef Boyardee should have been a clue.

Uncovered at last! The real reason the Acadians were booted out of French Canada. It was their scary, complex cuisine.

What worries me now is what would happen if these Franco-Canadians should ever collide with Minnesotans. I envision food so uninteresting as to be fatally boring. The kill radius potential is unimaginable.

Mmmm. . .hotdish

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Spagetti-tuna hotdish
Velveeta-hamburger hotdish
Ketcgup surprise hotdish
Turkey weiner doodah hotdish

One dish to rule them all. One dish confined them
One dish to combine them all & on the table bind them

Re: it goes with American chop suey--

[maryread.livejournal.com]

Noodles and ground beef and tomato sauce? in this neck of the woods that's Goulash. No particular ethnic derivation. Maybe you could put some paprika in...

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

There was never any Chinese pie (or shepherd's pie) in my family, but I'm flashing on a memory of taking my aunt from Nashville to a good Chinese restaurant. She wanted to stick with chow mein and sweet-and-sour pork.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Must admit, I've never seen Sweetcorn or corn of any kind added to a Shepherd's Pie. My mother would, in a fit of madness occasionally add Baked Beans.

However, putting my predantic hat on. This is, of course, Cottage Pie, being made with Beef. A Shepherd's Pie is made with Lamb.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, mince is mince. Yes, you're right, but as we know, Bob, being right counts for very little in these United States.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, and by the way? Baked beans in shepherd's pie or cottage pie is Just Wrong. Very Wrong.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

This is the same principle whereby Montreal's Rue LaChine is nowhere near any Chinatown historical or current, but points in the direction of what was at the time supposed to be a land route to China.

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's called Chinese Pie because, in the original Shepard's Pie version, the "crust" (layer of mashed potatoes) is on the top instead of on the bottom. And we all know that they do everything upside down in China because it's directly below us on the other side of the earth. No, really. Take this shovel and go out back. I bet you can dig all the way through.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It's scarin' me, but I think you may be onto something.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

I think if I went to a chinese restaurant and they were serving shepherds pie, I'd be totally put off.

There's a restaurant with a huge sign off of one of the freeways out here: "The Chateau: Fine Italian Dining". Uh.......yeah. Pass.