Overseas Chinese Cuisine

Introduction

Food carried abroad by Chinese emigrants and still regarded as Chinese, with dishes abroad of clear Chinese origin.

Overseas Chinese cuisine means food rooted in the cooking of Chinese emigrants that is still known as Chinese abroad, together with dishes of clearly Chinese origin found in other countries. Chinese traders were in Southeast Asia by the 16th century, labourers went to many places from the 19th century and many later opened restaurants, and the dishes were often adjusted to local conditions. Nyonya food grew from the marriages of Chinese immigrants who reached the Malay Archipelago between the 15th and 17th centuries, mostly Hokkien or Teochew, with local women; it is a Chinese-rooted fusion food, and pork, soy sauce, duck and salted vegetables are central to many of its dishes. Chop suey appeared in the United States in the 1880s, many early restaurants were chop suey houses, and accounts of its origin differ. The national cuisines of other countries fall outside this category.