Over the centuries, variations of chǎomiàn were developed in many regions of China; there are several methods of frying the noodles and a range of toppings can be used.

Chaomian was introduced from China into the United States by Chinese immigrants who came from the Guangdong provinces in the California gold rush era, bringing their Cantonese style of cooking.

[1] In American Chinese cuisine, it is a stir-fried dish consisting of noodles, meat (chicken being most common but pork, beef, shrimp or tofu sometimes being substituted), onions and celery.

Steamed chow mein can have many different kinds of vegetables in the finished dish, most commonly including onions and celery but sometimes carrots, cabbage and mung bean sprouts as well.

When ordering "chow mein" in some restaurants in Chicago, a diner might receive "chop suey poured over crunchy fried noodles".

[15] Jeremy Iggers of the Star Tribune describes "Minnesota-style chow mein" as "a green slurry of celery and ground pork topped with ribbons of gray processed chicken".

[16] Bay Area journalist William Wong made a similar comment about what is sold as chow mein in places like Minnesota.

[21][22] Food historians and cultural anthropologists have noted that chow mein and other dishes served in Chinese American restaurants located away from areas without any significant Asian American population tend to be very different from what is served in China and are heavily modified to fit the taste preference of the local dominant population.

The creator of canned chow mein, who founded the food manufacturer Chun King, admits to using Italian spices to make his product more acceptable to Americans whose ancestors came from Europe.

[25][27][28][29] To keep cost down, Paulucci replaced expensive water chestnuts with lower-cost celery stalks that were originally destined for cattle feed.

Cantonese style chow mein contains deep-fried crunchy golden egg noodles, green peppers, pea pods, bok choy, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, shrimp, Chinese roast pork (char siu), chicken, and beef, and is served in a thick sauce.

The Japanese Canadian community also have their own version of chow mein that might include dried seaweed and pickle ginger and could be served in a bun.

[52][53] These chow mein dishes are cooked in a similar manner, with green beans, carrots, peas, onions and sometimes other vegetables.

In Panama, chow mein is prepared with a mixture of onions, peppers, celery and carrots with pork or chicken and stir fried with noodles.

Catering to vegetarian diets, there is an Indian variant, vegetable chow mein, which consists of noodles with cabbage, bamboo shoots, pea pods, green peppers, and carrots.

[64] The Pakistani version includes carrots, cabbage, peppers, spring onions, chilies, and ginger garlic paste.

It goes popular with the name of I fu mie or Mi Siram, literally means drenched noodle, in Indonesian Chinese cuisine.

In Indonesia, i fu mie is usually served with thick egg sauce with cauliflower, broccoli, mushroom, kekkian or prawn cake, and chicken.

[67] It was likely introduced in Mauritius by Chinese immigrants who mostly came from the Southeast part of China (mostly from the Cantonese regions) at the end of the 19th century.

[69] It was mainly eaten by the Chinese community who settled in Mauritius and eventually evolved in a distinctively Mauritian dish diverging from the original recipe.