When Chinese immigrants came to the United States, those who cooked for a living adapted the recipes they knew to match what local ingredients they could find and the palates of the folks they were feeding. How popular North American-Chinese dishes such as chop suey and chow mien were created. That was also the case for egg foo young, which evolved into being like a Chinese-style omelette that was either folded or shaped into a pancake-like shape. Mixed in to the beaten eggs used to make it, either before or during cooking, were other ingredients. When egg foo young was first being made, those other ingredients were basically whatever the cook had on hand, perhaps it was mushrooms, cabbage and some form of protein, such as ham or chicken.