What's the difference between lo mein and chow mein?

Answer 1

How are Lo Mein and Chow Mein Prepared?

The main difference between lo mein and chow mein lies in what happens to the noodles before they are combined with the other ingredients. In chow mein, the noodles are fried separately. Usually, the fried noodles are combined with the meat, vegetables and other ingredients in the wok at the end of cooking.

Noodles destined for a dish of lo mein skip this separate frying stage. In fact, the noodles may not undergo any further cooking at all: it is common to serve the parboiled noodles in individual bowls at the table and pour the other ingredients over top. Alternately, the noodles may be quickly tossed with the sauce and other ingredients in the wok before serving.

Since the real star of any lo mein dish is the sauce, it's not surprising that Lo Mein recipes often use more sauce than chow mein recipes. Frequently, the sauce is thickened with a cornstarch and water mixture before being combined with other ingredients.

Answer 2

Whether the restaunts do this or not, but chow mein is stir fried noodles cooked with stuff (meat, bean sprouts, celery etc).

Chow means to stir-fry
Mein is noodle.

Lo Mein is typically plain pan fried noodles with the other ingredients poured over the top of it. The topping is a little more saucier than chow mein.

Lo means mix (or to mix).
Mein is noodle.

The implication is that the diner will mix the noodles and the other ingredients themselves.

Answer 3

Below is the answer that I posted 7 months ago to a similar question, and hope it may help you define the difference between them.

Any kind of noodles could be chow mein or lo mein. In Cantonese (a Chinese dialect we use in Hong Kong and Guangzhou region in China)

Lo = mix / stir with

chow = stir fry

During the cooking process, we boil the noodles (mein) till soft but chewy, drained, then go forward to the following step "lo" (mix) or "chow" (fry) the noodles with other ingredients.

We (Cantonese) mix the noodles with green onions & ginger with some sesame oil + oyster sauce, as green onion & ginger lo mein. Sometimes we put spicy meat sauce on the noodle (just like how you prepare speghetti), as meat sauce lo mein. These two kinds are typical lo mein. (It could be cucumber slices + sweet pickles slices + ham slices cold lo mein when served in summer)

Chow mein refers to the fried noodles with vegetables / meat / seafood, there are 2 different types of chow mein, wet chow mein is we fry the noodle with more sauce (usually we cover the sauce on top of the deep fried crispy noodles), dry chow mein is without sauce on top (i.e. we fry the noodles together with other ingredients in the wok and the noodles would not be crispy too).

This Cantonese style of cooking (deep fried noodles covered with brown sauce + prawns / chicken / vegetables etc. on top) is popular in western countries and the restaurants use Cantonese thin egg noodles for "mein". The fried noodles in Shanghainese or Pekingnes cuisines are not crispy at all because they use different kinds of noodles - wheat noodles (those thick like Japanese Udon).

But when we refer to Singapore fried noodle in Cantonese, we call it Singapore Chow Mai Fun. It is dry frying noodles with curry powder + shredded char siu (roast port) + bean spourts + onions slices + yellow chives + ham slices + chredded eggs, a very significant dish from Singapore.

Answer 4

Lo main is more like a soup
Chow main are fried

Answer 5

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Lo = soft, Chow = crunchy.