Has it occurred to you, Sandy my sweetness, that your family has some sort of unrecognised Asian food issue?
Chop suey? Chinese dish?
Perhaps you should dig deep in your memory for a time when you were denied a won ton or bean sprout?

Can I weigh in here? To me goulash (meat cooked with onions) American chopped suey (elbow macaroni with hamburger) and shepards' pie (hamburg, corn, and mashed potatoes) are three completely different things. It's funny how all these different names and ideas developed for (in some cases) similar dishes.

Well, Aven got in ahead of me and solved your puzzle. I grew up in Montreal where the francophone contingent, as well as some of us anglos, called it Pâté Chinois. To me it has always (and *will* always!) be Shepherd's pie. My mum used to make the most wonderful SP- lots of gravy. What a surprise when, while trying to figure out what to feed a toddler for dinner, she told me how easy it is to make! Who knew?! And being his mother's son, the little guy loved it.
Thanks for the chuckle reading all about the different names for the same dish. Cheers!

Ok, update: Pate Chinois (that should have a circumflex accent on the "a" and an acute accent on the "e") is actually a Quebecois (and New England) name for Shepherd's Pie. It comes from (apparently -- this is taken from a CBC webpage, and may be apocryphal) the fact that Shepherd's Pie was a local dish in a town called "China" in Maine, a region from which many of the French-Canadians now living in Quebec emigrated. So it has nothing to do with actual Chinese cuisine... which certainly would be surprising!

I think that Pate Chinois is just the most charming thing! How cute that she translated it to Chinese Pie!

i live in quebec, but an english, so i call the shepherd's pie, but the french call it pate chinois

Growing up in a French-Canadian area in Maine, my family always used to call it Chinese pie. I never understood why, but Aven's explanation makes sense. We also ate American Chop Suey, just as you described it yesterday. Thanks for the posts about these food names, it makes me laugh!

thanks for the link to the game. of course, now I'll get nothing done - but at least you'll know where to find me online!

Hey, Sandy! What's COOKIN'?!Shepherd's Pie it is! Oh, too funny. One day my husband was working as Acting Judge in the courthouse where I worked for many years. He said something about Shepherd's Pie, and the court clerks were all incredulous: NORMA makes SHEPHERD'S PIE?! They somehow had this impression that every single meal coming out of my kitchen was gourmet, and they refused to believe that I would make something so pedestrian. (I had them well fooled, didn't I?) They quizzed me the next time I came to work and I confirmed that, yes, I was guilty of making Shepherd's Pie on the odd occasion. Haven't made it for well over a decade now, but I used to. I used to make a vegetarian version, too. Comfort food, comfort food. (Chinese Dish?! Hee!)

Oh, Aven! You have solved a life long puzzle for me! Thank you! My mother is french speaking, so this makes sense! She never explained it, though.
I'll still call it shepard's pie! :)

In French, Shepherd's Pie (which I also know as ground beef (or lamb, hence the shepherds), onions, and gravy, with or without corn (not traditional in England, but yummy), topped with mashed potatoes), is called Pate Chinois (or Chinese Pastry/Pie). I don't know why -- but that must be related to your mom's name for it. (This is one of the joys of living in bilingual Canada -- you can't help knowing the French names for everything you eat or buy!).

Chinese dish? She must have been playing with your head. Week two of low carb eating - I WOULD GIVE MY ELDEST CHILD FOR SHEPARDS PIE!