NPR

Chop Suey: A Classic Chinese-American Dish Takes On A Mexican Flair

Jocko Fajardo grew up in Arizona eating Mexican food. But his go-to comfort dish is a Chinese-American classic with a little Mexican thrown in. He tells us how the dish came to his family.
Joaquin "Jocko" Fajardo makes a spicy Mexican version of chop suey, a classic American Chinese dish. He tells us how his great-aunt learned to make the dish from the Asian employees at her Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles.

Joaquin "Jocko" Fajardo, 39, grew up in Tempe, Ariz., in a large family. Mexican food was an integral part of his upbringing. And yet, the dish that reminds him of home and family is a distinctly Chinese dish, or more accurately, Chinese-American dish: chop suey.

Chop suey actually came to his family through a Mexican restaurant owned by his great-grandmother and great-aunt. Back in the 1960s, the two women owned a restaurant in Los Angeles. Next door to their Mexican restaurant was a Chinese restaurant. "It

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