whats the difference between chow mein and lo mein?

Question

And whats the name of the crunchy pan fried noodles? Not the ones that come from a can but the ones with the brown sauce and vegtables on top?

Answer 1

To "chow" in Chinese is to fry. Mein is the word for noodle. Chow Mein means fried noodle. Lo Mein is steamed noodle, although most is made from dried noodles and is actually boiled. Those crispy things are just a convienence because a real chinese chow mein does not stay crispy very long.

Answer 2

Chow mein basically means fried noodles. It's best cooked as a dry dish with a bit of sesame oil, soya sauce and oyster sauce.

Lo mein on the other hand is best served with a gravy.

And the crunchy ones are called sang mein.

Answer 3

Lo mein is a Chinese dish based on stir-fried wheat noodles. It often contains vegetables and some type of meat or seafood, usually beef, chicken, pork, or shrimp. Lo mein is soft noodles while its counterpart chow mein is mainly composed of crispy noodles or stir-fried firm noodles.

the crunchy pan fried noodles are chow mein shaghai style.

Answer 4

I am a former chef and the second fellow is right, plus lo mein is generally steamed and or boiled not fried with the meats not deep/shallow fried for Cantonese Chow Mein.

Lo Mein is also used as a soup noodle, in dim sum places, and is a southern chinese staple. the thick Shanghi nooles are from the Shanghi/Canton area, the flatter wheat noodles are from Beijing as there diet is more a wheat based noodle, steamed breads as apose to the south's rice based diet, and then there is the rice noodle connudrum, they are used all over china, and are thin, thick served in sheets at dimsum palces or dried in Thai cooking.

Answer 5

chow mein and lo mein is just a thickness of noodle

Answer 6

lol...thats funny......chow mein is a crispy noodle where as lo mein is a soft noodle...its that simple

Answer 7

Lots of good info at this website:

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/chinesedishfaqs/f/lomeinchowmein.htm