Chow, from China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

Only those readers who have reached middle age will remember a time when
towns of several thousand (county seats, for example) lacked at least
one fine-dining establishment, modelled on big-city culinary boutiques.
As late as the 1970s, the best (and on Sundays, often the only open)
restaurant in town was the Chinese café, whose main menu offered an
assortment of “Canadian” dishes (such as hot roast beef and pork
sandwiches) often topped by a cap of unctuous gravy. The more
adventurous proprietors offered an addendum of “Cantonese-style”
dishes modified to mollify the Canadian palate.

In Chow, Janice Wong offers a certain perspective on the milieu
occupied by these Chinese restaurateurs. While her experience may not
have been entirely typical (as a result of her parent’s decision, she
never actually worked in the family restaurants as a child, and she was
part of a nuclear family when most establishments were run by single
males), she was a keen observer, careful investigator, and an engaging
raconteur. She presents her parents, Dennis Wong, born in Victoria,
B.C., in 1917, and Mary Mar, born in Nanaimo in 1922, along with their
ancestors, friends, and relations. The book alternates narratives of
emigration from and return to Guangdong province, migration from coastal
British Columbia to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and the place of
“chow” in Chinese-Canadian society (the stories illustrated by
almost 200 photographs from family albums), with selections from the 61
recipes written out by her father at the request of his children. Many
of the recipes illustrate the way in which the peasant dishes of
Guangdong were adapted for service in western Canada.

Chow is a superb example of the way in which food (recipes) may be set
into the context of culture, offering intellectual enlightenment and
culinary adventure as well as sustenance. It comes with a most useful
glossary of ingredients, and is highly recommended for cooks who care
about context.