My coworker introduced me to this meal. When she first told me about it, I thought she was crazy. The mixture of ingredients just didn’t sound right. After she told me that a friend introduced it to her and many of her friends have tried it and loved it, then it piqued my interest and I knew I had to give it a shot.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a believer. The concoction is unbelievably delicious! What is a Chinese Sundae and what makes it so yummy? It’s rice (think ice cream), chicken gravy (think hot fudge sauce), chow mein noodles (think nuts) and mandarin oranges, celery, coconut, tomatoes, cheese, pineapple, almonds (think all the extra toppings). Did I build the picture for you? Doesn’t it sound weird!?
This is a fun meal to serve for friends. You just set out the ingredients and everyone gets to make their own “sundaes.” This way, no one has to pretend to eat something they don’t like! And, it’s even more fun to see your guests’ unsure reaction to what you’re serving…then their surprised reaction to how good it really tastes!
The recipe below doesn’t give measurements of all ingredients. It’s really just an estimate of how much you think you and your guests will use up. I also use mostly canned items for this recipe…one of the very few. Last time I served 6 of us with leftovers for Ben and I to eat a few nights later.
We call these Hawaiian Haystacks, but I like your name much better. I am going to offically rename them Chinese Sundae’s. It will be a hit with the kids.
BOTH the names sound so amazing! LOL. I would LOVE it, and appropriately so since it’s part of my heritage! *beams* I will definitely be making it soon and letting you know!
And thank you for stopping by my blog! I almost missed your comment as it went to my spam section!
My family has made this dinner for New Year’s Eve for many a year. I think the original recipe came through church groups. Ours is very similar but with a whole chicken cooked and shredded and the gravy/sauce made with Campbell’s cream of chicken soup made with the stock of the cooked chicken. We also add a stemmed maraschino cherry to the top. We served it traditionally with hot Chinese tea and would serve a scoop of orange sherbert with a fortune cookie on top. I love the taste of everything together, although at first it does not sound like it would be a great combination. We’ve had many converts who once having sampled it at our house go on to make it for others at theirs.