Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family [Paperback]

Elegantly presented and delightful is Janice Wong’s Chow, with the subtitle of From Canada to China: Memories of Food + Family. It comes from Vancouver’s Whitecap Books, which specialises in food culture, and has become very good at it. Wong is a sharp observer both in and out of the kitchen, and a writer of real charm. Her memoir is about growing up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, during the 1960s, where her father Dennis ran a pair of restaurants, one Western, the other Cantonese. On the evidence of the book’s recipes, Wong senior was an excellent chef. He was also an interesting and decent human being, and Ms. Wong is a faithful daughter, sticking strictly to his written recipes and passing on the ones she merely remembers.
Her fastidiousness pays off. Chow is an utterly authentic memoir, and the recipes are excellent-including one for Dungeness crab in black bean sauce I happened to have been looking for since I first had it at Vancouver’s On On, which is where Wong hints that it came from.
Brian Fawcett (Books in Canada)

In crafting Chow, Wong pays homage to both her rich Chinese heritage and her colourful family in one stroke. (Canadian Living 200703)

Elegantly presented and... delightful.... Chow is an utterly authentic memoir, and the recipes are excellent. (Brian Fawcett Books In Canada )

A cookbook and a fascinating glimpse into Canadian history.

Born a two-pound preemie in 1917, Dennis Wong may have begun his love of food after spending the first months of his life keeping warm in his mother's cooking oven.

Miraculously surviving his tenuous beginning, Dennis went on to pursue an ambitious culinary career, opening two Chinese-Canadian cafés in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, to introduce countless adventurous Canadian diners to Chinese food.

In Chow, Dennis's daughter Janice Wong tells her father's tale through heart-rending stories and traditional Chinese village recipes.

A collection of more than 50 simple family fare dishes, Chow contains early photographs, immigration documents, 1940s restaurant menus, and handwritten recipes that trace the history of some of Canada's first ethnic restaurants. Written with refreshing sincerity, Chow is both a terrific cookbook and a detailed record of an intriguing chapter in Canadian history.

It includes recipes for:

• Dungeness Crab with Black Bean Sauce
• Steamed Chicken with Rice, Sausage and Mushrooms
• Asparagus, Mushrooms and Pork
• Chinese Barbecue Duck
• Peking Doilies
• Wong's Chocolate Chip Cookies.

(20061201)

Janice Wong is a visual artist whose work has received numerous awards. The daughter of a restaurateur, she was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.