The story
Borrowed from Taishanese 蘑菇雞片／蘑菇鸡片 (mo³ gu¹ gai¹ pen^(1*), literally “sliced chicken with button mushrooms”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
moo goo gai pan
Today it means: An Americanized version of a certain Cantonese dish, usually a simple stir-fried dish consisting of sliced or cubed chicken with white button mushrooms and other vegetables such as snow peas, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and Chinese cabbage. Full definition →