The least angry of birds

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As you may have heard, we're giving away a copy of Andrew Coe's Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States. We spoke to the author about what drove him to write about Chinese food and our relationship, as Americans, to the cuisine.

The dish that the book gets its title from is hardly still served anywhere in the various Chinatowns of New York. Why did it become so popular in the first place?

Chop suey perfectly fit the tastes of Americans from the 1890s on. First of all, the dish was filling and cheap--you could buy a bowl for 30 cents. It was flavorsome, satisfying Americans' tastes for rich meat and vegetable stews. Chop suey was exotic.

The United States was then stepping out from the shadow of England, beginning to exert its might around the world. At the same time, foreign immigrants were pouring into this country. Nothing could show that you were up-to-the-minute and worldly-wise like stepping out to the local Chinese restaurant for a late-night bowl of chop suey. And it was safe. Catering to their customers, Chinese chefs removed everything weird and imported from the dish, changing it from an earthy stir-fry to a bland, soggy, and overcooked stew.

When early Americans first tried Chinese food, they were disgusted, but still kept trying it. What do you think that says about us?

We've always been fascinated with weird food; witness all the television shows about culinary adventurers trekking once again to Thailand to eat insects. Between 1784 and 1885 or so, Americans liked to try Chinese food, just for the experience, but none of them admits to actually getting a taste for it. But then in 1880s New York City, something happened and we fell in love with Chinese food.

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Andrew Coe's new book, Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States, chronicles the relationship Americans have to the cuisine of the Middle Kingdom, from the bastardized versions of Chinese dishes to our struggle to master chopsticks.

The book is out in July and you, lucky Fork in the Road readers, get first dibs! We'll be giving away three copies of Chop Suey to you just for telling us your favorite Chinese food joint in the city.

Enter to win by emailing food@villagevoice.com. Contest deadline is July 10 at noon. Winners will be chosen at random.

Andrew Coe's new book, Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States, chronicles the relationship Americans have to the cuisine of the Middle Kingdom, from the bastardized versions of Chinese dishes to our struggle to master chopsticks.

The book is out in July and you, lucky Fork in the Road readers, get first dibs! We'll be giving away three copies of Chop Suey to you just for telling us your favorite Chinese food joint in the city.

Enter to win by emailing food@villagevoice.com. Contest deadline is July 10 at noon. Winners will be chosen at random.

Our Three-dollar Throwdown is well underway. Vote for your favorite in an email to Sarah DiGregorio or submit your own recipe to stiffen up the competition. You'd be surprised what you can do with 3 bucks.

View our own entries here and here and here.

In case you missed it, we here at Fork in the Road have been amusing ourselves with the challenge to end all challenges, the ultimate cheap-off, a friendly contest to devise the best $3 meal: The Three-dollar Throwdown. This is my entry.

But first, a bit of background. Sarah is a trained cook; Robert is a veteran food critic, which places me squarely in the role of underdog. I live on the verge of Chinatown--a block I've seen referred to as Little Chitaly--so I did my shopping close to home. And, while I can assure you that it is possible to buy three mini baby bok choy and a handful of dried shrimp, it may earn you a few grunts of disapproval.

Shrimp & Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry

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(To the tune of the Subway $5 Footlong song): Three... Three-dollar... Three-dollar Throwdown.

You've always known us as proficient penny pinchers. Over a boozy meeting last week, we decided to put our thriftiness to the test. Welcome to the Three-dollar Throwdown, wherein we at Fork in the Road compete against ourselves and our readers to create the tastiest, most inventive and most satisfying meal... all for just $3.

The rules:

1. You must buy all ingredients whole. (i.e., If your recipe calls for flour, you must buy the whole bag... unless you can find a place that sells loose flour! Also, you can't buy half an onion.)
2. You must spend no more than a total of $3 on all ingredients required for your recipe not counting salt, pepper and oil.
3. You must submit your recipe by 1pm Tuesday, April 14... that's exactly 24 hours from now!

To participate, please send your entries to Sarah DiGregorio at sdigregorio@villavoice.com. The winner will be picked based on user feedback and general consensus.

Ladies and gentleman, we have a winner in our music+wine pairing contest. Mr. Gilad Goren of the Upper West Side won us over with a pairing both apt and amusing:

Vampire Weekend + this season's Beaujolais. Just like the band, the wine is refreshing and enjoyable, but you get sick of it quickly following over-saturation and hype.

Goren wins a Vinofile Membership and a blind tasting at City Winery (155 Varick Street). Congrats!

It's your final chance to enter our music+wine pairing contest and win a free Vinofile Membership at City Winery (a $50 value!) and a blind wine tasting. Email your pairing idea or ideas to nybites@gmail.com by noon tomorrow for a chance to win.

Can't make, or afford, tomorrow's chef's tasting and book launch for Jan Bartelsman's Dining in New York benefiting Citymeals-on-Wheels? Even if you're not attending, you can still buy raffle tickets to support the charity, and perhaps win a foodie prize for yourself. Yes, this is precisely what Obama was talking about when he was paraphrasing JFK.

Okay, maybe not quite, but it is for a good cause. Go here to purchase tickets until noon tomorrow by emailing or faxing in your order form. The full list of the raffle prizes, which include meals at Nobu and Bouley, is after the jump.  More >>