Dishing up Chow for TV and Radio

RADIO

CBC | On The Coast |
Interview with Priya Ramu, October, 2005

CBC | Early Edition | Pacific Palate | Chinese Food In Canada
This week my guest was Janice Wong, author of Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family. It's published by Whitecap Books at $24.95. Interview with Don Genova, 6min:33 | October 18, 2005

CBC | Sounds Like Canada
Janice Wong uses food in her new book to take us on a journey through her family's history. Her cookbook, "Chow", is a collection of her father's recipes. The son of Chinese immigrants in Victoria, her father went on to open two Chinese restaurants in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Janice tells her family's story to Shelagh. 22min:48 | October 21, 2005
LISTEN to a podcast of this interview [podcast date August 30, 2006, "Asian Food Fest"]

CFUN | Best of Food and Wine
Kasey Wilson and Anthony Grismondi interview Janice Wong about her new book "Chow", 11min:26 | October 22, 2005

CBC | BC Almanac | Food For Thought | Chinese Food in Canada
My guest today was Janice Wong, author of Chow, From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family. It's published by Whitecap Books. It's the fascinating story of Janice's family as they became part of Canadian cultural history by operating a Chinese food restaurant in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Part of the book includes recipes handed down to Janice and her siblings by her father. Interview with Don Genova, 6min:29 | October 26, 2005

CBC | North By Northwest
Chow is a new book of recipes and family stories from artist Janice Wong. (Whitecap Books) Her father ran a restaurant in Prince Albert Saskatchewan for many years and Janice was just back there for a book launch.
LISTEN to part 1
LISTEN to part 2
Interview with Sheryl Mackay, 18min:12 | November 13, 2005

CBC | Saskatchewan | Noon Edition
"Chow" is one of two cookbooks up for discussion as CBC Saskatchewan covers food and history for the 2005 Homecoming.
Interview with Rosalie Woloski, 10min:09 | December 29, 2005

CBC | Fresh Air | Toronto
Fresh Air's Jeff Goodes talks with Janice Wong about her book "Chow." 19min:24 | January 25, 2006

CBC | Freestyle | Vancouver
Hosts Cameron Phillips and Kelly Ryan chat with Janice Wong. 8min.14 | February 10, 2006

CFRB | John Donobie Show | Toronto
John Donobie interviews Janice Wong about her new book Chow: From China to Canada. 3min.39 | March 17, 2006

102.7 FM | Co-op Radio | Vancouver
Interview with Joyce Lam and Grace Kim | November 24, 2006

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TELEVISION

CityTV | Vancouver | CityCooks with host Simi Sara | October 18, 2005

CTV | Prince Albert | Interview with Don Mitchell | November 8, 2005

Shaw Studio4 | Vancouver | Interview with Fanny Keifer | January 27, 2006

CityTV | Toronto | Breakfast Television with Kevin Frankish | January 31, 2006

Rogers Cable | Toronto | Fine Print interview with host Caroline Weaver

CBC | "Lotusland Saskatchewan" Documentary by Costa Maragos | November 29, 2006

CBC National | "Back to the Lotus" Documentary by Costa Maragos | December 22, 2006

CBC | "Generations - The Chan Legacy" | Documentary by Halya Kuchmij | airing July 2007 on CBC NEWSWORLD

Fairchild Television | Edmonton | Interview for Edmonton Literary Festival | October 23, 2009



CHOW Behind the Scenes: VIEW PHOTOGRAPHS
from various events


FIND COPIES OF CHOW at a library near you.

Readings + Events

Dr. Poy, Janice Wong, Judy Fong Bates, Senator Poy, Don Montgomery
Reading at the Vancouver Public Library, ExplorAsian Festival,
May 16, 2006


Larry Wong, Stephen Wong, Todd Wong and Janice Wong
Panel Discussion, CHOW Reading, Vancouver Public Library,
January 18, 2006


BC Chapter of NAAAP hosts tea, food tasting and CHOW reading,
Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver,
January 22, 2006
photo: NAAAP BC


NAAAP CHOW Reading Q + A
photo: NAAAP


Chef Stephen Wong and CHOW : Chinese New Years traditions
and recipes for Granville Island Year of the Dog celebrations,
Vancouver, January 28, 2006


Audrey Osborne and her mom Nettie, February, 2006.
Nettie made weekend visits to the Lotus in the 1960s.


CHOW evening at Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks,
Vancouver, October, 26, 2005


Chef Adrienne O'Callaghan + CHOW at Barbara-Jo's
Books to Cooks, Vancouver, October 26, 2005


Larry Wong, Alicia Schlag, Todd Wong, Janice Wong,
Otto Lejeune, CHOW reading and panel discussion,
West Vancouver Public Library, October 18, 2005


Simi Sara and the crew at CityCooks, CityTV CHOW taping,
Vancouver, October 24, 2005


Chef Adrienne O'Callaghan and the crew at CityCooks,
CityTV CHOW taping, Vancouver, October 24, 2005

"Warm and wonderful anecdotes,"says Vancouver Province

Her Family's History Written at the Table
A family's history is often written--usually by hand--in sauce-stained, time-bleached recipes.
We usually feel best when we eat dishes made from such recipes. That's why comfort foods, especially those we remember from childhood, are always so appealing.
Janice Wong is a noted Vancouver visual artist and she is also the daughter of Dennis Wong, a man whose story she tells so lovingly and so well in her book, Chow (Whitecap, $24.95). In the 1950s, Dennis opened the first two ethnic restaurants in Prince Albert, Sask., where Janice was born, bringing the wonderful Cantonese village food of China to Canadians eager for the taste of something new.
The book, originally written by Wong as a gift to the family, is full of warm and wonderful anecdotes, archival and family photos and, best of all, family recipes that have stood the test of time.

-Renee Blackstone, Food Editor, Vancouver Province, January 22, 2006

"Food lovers and people interested in Chinese Canadian history will soon be able to satisfy their appetites," says Ricepaper Magazine

Chow by Janice Wong, Whitecap Books, 2005
Chinese cafés and the stories surrounding them have long been part of the landscape in Western Canada. However, until now, no book has combined Chinese café recipes with the richness of personal history. Food lovers and people interested in Chinese Canadian history will soon be able to satisfy their appetites by reading Janice Wong's Chow, published by Whitecap Books. An award-winning visual artist, Wong initially created her book as a present for her siblings and mother. The book celebrates the history of her family and her father's recipes. It contains personal history, interspersed with recipes used at two of the Chinese cafés her father owned in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Wong's parents, Mary and Dennis Wong, moved out to the prairies in the 1940s and opened a café called Wings in Prince Albert. The book combines the history of a Chinese Canadian family with classic culinary favourites. Also included is a glossary of technical terms for those unfamiliar with Chinese cooking. The story and recipes are complemented by pictures from the Wong and Mar family collections.

-Alexis Kienlen, Ricepaper, Winter, 2006

"A fascinating glimpse into Chinese-Canadian culinary history," says Prairie Books Now

Chow Down
Cookbook a Fascinating Glimpse into Chinese-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 "oven."

Miraculously surviving his tenuous beginning, Dennis went on to pursue a culinary career, opening two Chinese-Canadian cafés in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and running them for several decades.
In Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family, his daughter Janice Wong tells her father's tale through heart-rending stories and traditional Chinese village recipes.

"Chow mixes memories, photographs, documents and menus from the 1940s to evocative effect," says Georgia Straight

Now, That's Good Readin'
I've only one question for Janice Wong, author of Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family (Whitecap Books, $24.95). What took you so long? Placing Chinese food in a historical context and locations we can relate to, Wong does a commendable job of bringing a past era to life, including the folks who immigrated to the West from the 1800s up to the 1970s. Originally written as a gift to her family, Chow mixes memories, photographs, documents and menus from the 1940s to evocative effect. Wong describes her 60 family recipes, all transcribed from her father's handwritten notes, as "village-style food." Try Dungeness crab with dow see (black-bean sauce), chicken rice, or steamed wole fish, and you re-create what Wong calls "the first wave of Asian food to reach North America."

-Angela Murrills, Georgia Straight, October 13, 2005

"A fascinating look at 20th-century Chinese-Canadian history," says Vancouver Sun

Vancouver visual artist Janice Wong originally put together a scrapbook of recipes and family memories as a gift to her family. Then some clever soul persuaded her to send it to a publisher. Okay, it was me. But sometimes I do know what I'm talking about. This is a fascinating look at 20th-century Chinese-Canadian history, as seen through the lives of Wong's parents, first in B.C. and later in Saskatchewan, where her father was the proprietor of two Chinese-Canadian cafés. The book is full of recipes, supplemented by a very useful glossary. Because of Wong's highly developed esthetic sense, it's also beautiful and would make a fantastic gift for either the cookbook or the memoir-lover on your list.

-Sara O'Leary, Vancouver Sun, December 10, 2005
photograph: Dennis Wong, Lotus Café, Prince Albert, Sask. 1960s

"An unaffected and absolutely charming cookbook." -George Fetherling

Looking at China Between The Lines
Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family by Janice Wong (Whitecap, $24.95, paper) is an unaffected and absolutely charming cookbook by a visual artist whose family in Prince Albert, Sask., ran that staple institution of every Prairie town, the "Chinese café" — two of them in fact.

-George Fetherling, The New Brunswick Reader, Saint John Telegraph-Journal, November 5, 2005

Chow Events Schedule

CHOW Behind the Scenes: VIEW PHOTOGRAPHS
from various events

Reading | Mission Public Library
Mission, March 3, 2010

Reading | Burnaby Public Library
Burnaby, November 5, 2009

3 Readings | Edmonton LitFest
Edmonton, October 23-25, 2009

Reading + Documentary Screening | Sylvia Hotel Book Club
Sylvia Hotel, Vancouver, August 16, 2007

Reading | World Cultures Month | Fraser Valley Regional Libraries,
Yarrow, March 13, Ladner, March 15, Langley, March 20, 2007

Guest Speaker | Food + Family writing workshop
Chinese Canadian Historical Society writing workshops,
February 21 + 24, 2007

Book launch + Reading | Victoria Lionesses, Victoria BC,
February 10, 2007

Chow + Ricepaper Magazine at Word on The Street
Word on The Street, Vancouver, BC, Sept. 24, 2006

Reading | New Moon Festival of Asian Arts and Culture, Gibsons, BC,
Sept. 23, 2006

Culinary Book Awards Dinner | Cuisine Canada Conference,
Winnipeg MB, Sept. 16, 2006, [Cuisine Canada and the Univerity of Guelph]

Signing | Taste of Guelph, Taste of Winnipeg, Delta Hotel, Winnipeg MB, Sept. 15, 2006 [hosted by The University of Guelph]

Janice Wong + Judy Fong Bates | Reading - Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver BC, May 16, 2006
[co-presented by the 2006 ExplorAsian Festival]

Reading + filming | J.M. Cuelenaere Public Library, Prince Albert, SK, May 9, 2006

Reading | Chinese New Year Celebrations, Granville Island, Vancouver BC, January 28, 2006 [co-presented by South China Seas]

Chow @ Cookshop | City Square, Vancouver, BC, January 26, 2006

Book launch + Reading | NAAAP Vancouver,
Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver BC, January 22, 2006

Reading | Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver BC, January 18, 2006

Book launch + Reading | J.M. Cuelenaere Public Library,
Prince Albert, SK, November 8, 2005

Book launch + Reading | Chinese Canadian History Fair,
Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, Malaspina College, Nanaimo, BC, November 5, 2005

Chow @ Barbara Jo's Books to Cooks | Vancouver, BC,
October 26, 2005

Janice Wong + Paul Yee [Chow + Chinatowns] Book launch | Vancouver Museum, Vancouver BC, October 25, 2005
[co-presented by the Chinese Canadian Historical Society]

Book launch + Reading | West Vancouver Memorial Library,
October 18, 2005

Book launch - Whitecap Books | Sylvia Hotel Diningroom,
October 12, 2005

"A wonderful blend of family stories and recipes,"says Jasmine Magazine

Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food + Family (Whitecap Books, $24.95) by Janice Wong is part scapbook, part cookbook, a wonderful blend of family stories and recipes that Wong's father prepared in his Chinese-Canadian restaurants in Prince Albert, Sask.
Wong provides insight on what it was like to be Canadian-born Chinese in the early 1900s, a perspective that is, sadly, rarely retold. She retraces her family's history in Canada with handwritten notes and personal photos. Chow is a loving homage to her heritage and the recipes are delicious, too!

-Lisa An, Jasmine Magazine, Winter 2006


Great-grandfather Mah's Head Tax Exemption Certificate, 1909

"A tale of treasured culinary tradition,"says Nanaimo Harbour City Star

Janice Wong, author of the much-celebrated Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food + Family, will be in Nanaimo Nov. 5 to launch her new book at the Chinese Canadian Historical Society's History Fair, hosted by Malaspina University-College.
This poignant book--both a cookbook and a memoir--was first developed as a gift from Wong to her family.
It is a tale of treasured culinary tradition played out in a wonderful collection of recipes, archival photos and other documents relating to Chinese-Canadian immigration, restaurant culture and family life since Wong's great-grandparents first arrived in the late 1800s.
Much of the book's historical content is related to Nanaimo's legendary Chinatown, where Wong's mother was born.
The reading takes place at 11 a.m., Building 356, Room 109, Malaspina University-College.

-Nanaimo Harbour City Star, November, 2005


Pine Street, Nanaimo Chinatown