This New England Sandwich Is A Delicious Take On A Chinese Takeout Favorite

When you think of sandwiches from Massachusetts, your mind perhaps goes to a lobster roll dripping with mayo and minced celery (which is technically Connecticut-style, as opposed to Maine's version with drawn butter). The coastal town of Fall River and its surrounding South Coast area, however, are hiding a hyper-regional sandwich that's too delicious to overlook. The chow mein sandwich is a peculiar dish to the uninitiated, being too sloppy to eat with your hands and not particularly akin to other Chinese-American dishes at restaurants where you can find it on the menu. By itself, chow mein is a beloved Chinese delivery option that tastes great without landing too often on the list of unhealthy dishes that you should think twice about ordering.

A Fall River chow mein sandwich, however, is a unique beast made of very distinct flat, deep-fried chow mein noodles smothered in brown gravy and piled like an overflowing haystack atop the bottom half of a hamburger bun. Meat and stir-fried vegetables can be loaded on top as well. The crown of the hamburger bun is placed on top of this sea of food, which is more than a little ridiculous because the only way to possibly eat this sandwich is with a fork. Still, even if you wish to quibble over whether or not you can eat it like other sandwiches, it's pretty tasty. The gravy softens the noodles just a bit, but they retain plenty of crunch. The bun becomes delightfully moist and soft under the weight of all the dense, wet filling. They're filling, too; some of these sandwiches are so enormous that they can be split between two people.

The chow mein sandwich was invented in Fall River in the late 19th century, where it was developed by Chinese immigrants who came into town after working on the railroads. Many opened restaurants and sought a dish that combined their cultural foods with a relatability that would appeal to the working-class European immigrants who were their target customers. So, they did the most American thing possible: they mashed culinary traditions together. Restaurateurs scooped chow mein and gravy, which had the bonus of being cheap and easy to make, on a hamburger bun. Like Elvis Presley's peanut butter and banana sandwich, the chow mein sando seems a little quirky, but it's actually classic comfort food: hot, filling, and unfussy.

Today, celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, who was born locally, is possibly the most famous fan of the chow mein sandwich. Living outside southeastern Massachusetts, however, doesn't mean that you can't partake. The noodles are the hardest item to source, but the Oriental Chow Mein Company in Fall River is happy to deliver its product nationwide. Meanwhile, just about any brown gravy will do. The protein of choice doesn't matter, whether it's white meat chicken, pork, shrimp, or ground beef. We really like the latter for making the sandwich easiest to eat. Traditionally, stir-fried celery, onion, and bean sprouts are the veg components. There's no particular art to the assembly, as, no matter how you put it together, the sandwich is going to look like a hot mess. Yet it will taste like a little mouthful of heaven.