KIRBY: Major shortcoming of New England: Chow mein doesn’t have noodles in it. I need to re-learn AmeriChinese food vocabulary.
OJ: It would be awesome if the noodle-less chow mein wasn’t stir fried, either!
While the simplified Chow Mein (ç‚’é¢) I guess is just “fried plate” or something, 炒麵 is definitely “fried noodle.” As I understand it, the goo you get on the East Coast is meant to have crispy fried noodle on the top of it. Without that part… that’s some “unclear on the concept” right there.
The standard has already been set, and on the East Coast even: in 1920 Sinclair Lewis wrote in his book “Main Street”:
Before they were quite tired of the concert Carol led them in a dancing procession to the dining-room, to blue bowls of chow mein, with Lichee nuts and ginger preserved in syrup.
None of them save that city-rounder Harry Haydock had heard of any Chinese dish except chop sooey. With agreeable doubt they ventured through the bamboo shoots into the golden fried noodles of the chow mein; and Dave Dyer did a not very humorous Chinese dance with Nat Hicks; and there was hubbub and contentment.
…which you can see argues for the East Coast version of the dish, with the crispy fried noodles. Apparently this is the Hong Kong style.
Irregardlessly [ 🙂 ] if you order Chow Mein in CA you’re going to get slick floppy fried noodles.