A wok toss of meat, cabbage, celery, bean sprouts and gravy over rice or crisp noodles. In San Luis Obispo the dish is living history, cooked at Mee Heng Low on Palm Street since 1927.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Chop suey is the great dish of Chinese-American railroad towns, and San Luis Obispo's version has a precise address: 815 Palm Street, where Mee Heng Low has cooked it since 1927 in what was once a dense Chinatown block anchored by the 1874 Ah Louis Store. Three families have run the noodle house across a century; the Kwongs, in charge since 2009, still wok the old menu of chop suey, chow mein and bao while the neighbourhood around them became parking lots and offices.
Common allergens: Gluten, Soy
Tip from the editors. The vegetables should keep their crunch; cook the gravy only until it turns glossy, not gluey.
Mee Heng Low Noodle House has woked chop suey on Palm Street since 1927, the surviving heart of San Luis Obispo's forgotten Chinatown block.
Why locals love it: The last kitchen of SLO's vanished Chinatown hides in plain sight on Palm Street, passed daily by visitors bound for the Mission.
Tip: The Kwong family took over in 2009, the third to run the house since 1927; the Ah Louis Store faces it across Palm Street.
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