Don’t go to the Double Happiness Chinese restaurant on Bend’s east side and ask for chop suey. It’s simply not on the menu.

There are many tales about the origin of chop suey, but most of them point to this dish — which translated means “assorted pieces” or “miscellaneous leftovers” — as having originated when East met West in the Western United States sometime in the late 19th century. A common story is that cooks in mining camps or rail towns, faced with preparing something other than entrails for European-bred palates, threw together and sauteed whatever vegetables and meats were available.

The bottom line is that chop suey is not a traditional Chinese dish. Thus a restaurant that prides itself in the varied Hunan, Szechuan, Shanghai, Mongolian and Cantonese cuisines of China may not feel compelled to extend its menu to something so American.

What diners will find at Double Happiness is a choice of such dishes as Hunan chicken, Peking shrimp, Mandarin beef, Yu Hsiang pork and Ma Po tofu, all of them quickly and simply prepared by owner-chef Fun Wai Ng and his nephew, Sun Yi. Food is consistently fresh, tasty and as traditional as possible.

Ng came to the United States from China in 1992. He bought Eddie’s Canton, then the lone Chinese restaurant in downtown Bend, in 2005 and relocated the business to the Tuscan Square mall off U.S. Highway 20 two years later. Long-time manager Harry Wong, born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong, has spent his career in the restaurant business since immigrating to the United States in 1972.

Red and gold

It’s appropriate that red and gold, the colors that represent joy and prosperity (“double happiness”) in Chinese culture, sustain the decor theme in this spacious and comfortably furnished restaurant. Double Happiness has lacquered tabletops and rosewood trim that give the casual dining room an elegant feel. Diners are greeted by a gold “laughing Buddha” at the entrance and a Plexiglas wall rendering of pandas in a bamboo forest. Framed embroideries hang on the walls.

For diners who don’t appreciate the range of Chinese regional cuisines, Double Happiness is a great place for an introduction. The menu ranges across Mandarin (hearty and spicy), Hunanese (hearty and sweet), Szechuan (spicy and sweet) and Cantonese (milder flavors, rich in seafood and vegetables), to name several.

These are all available on the lunch menu, which offers nearly two dozen choices beginning at $6.95, including soup and steamed rice.

I began a solo midday meal with a cup of traditional egg flower soup. Made with minimal corn starch, and — like everything at this restaurant — free of monosodium glutamate, the broth included a nice mix of peas, carrots, celery, water chestnuts and a little pork, along with a drop of egg that streamed through the potage.

I chose house lo mein for my lunch entree (my mein course?). Celery, onions, carrots and other vegetables were stirred into the noodles along with a variety of meats. There was so much here, I boxed half of the food up and kept it for lunch the next day.

Lo mein, by the way, are round rice noodles. This dish is also available with fried rice or with chow fun, which are flat egg noodles.

Dinner for two

When my dining companion and I had dinner at Double Happiness, we began with one of her favorite dishes: crab puffs. A mix of crab meat and cream cheese is wrapped into wonton-style pastries and deep-fried until crispy. Here, the filling is ample and the dough is properly cooked.

Then we had three main dishes accompanied by steamed rice.

Mu shu pork is a Chinese restaurant classic, a dish served with paper-thin crepes for wrapping a meat-and-vegetable mix with tangy hoisin plum sauce. I find the filling is just as flavorful without the crepe.

I had mixed feelings about our beef dish, served with green beans in black-bean sauce. The sliced beef was chewy and even a bit gristly. The beans, however, were fresh and cooked al dente. And the dark, mild sauce featured bits of black beans.

The restaurant’s trademark Double Happiness dish coupled shrimp and chicken, sauteed with fresh vegetables and served on a sizzling platter. While the shrimp were a little overcooked, the good-sized slices of chicken breast meat were tender and nicely seasoned.

Fortune cookies, of course, finished the meal.

The man who really makes Double Happiness work is the soft-spoken Wong, who was a restaurateur in Southern California and Arizona before moving to Bend in 1998. He seems to delight in assisting patrons with their meal selections.

“My specialty is knowing what flavor each customer wants, and having the kitchen make the right dishes for them,” Wong said. “If you understand the customer, you can give them the best food.”

— Reporter: janderson@bendbulletin.com