Spezzatino Magazine: Diasporic Dining:Family, History, and Comfort Food

According to the philosopher Rosi Braidotti, travel and memory blur space and time. When traveling, she observes, we are always preoccupied with time (either hurrying or waiting); we exist in a kind of “in-between” moment and place; and we pass through spaces that are both ever-changing and timeless: the airport lounges, train stations, and bus terminals whose physical environments are constantly refreshed with moving bodies yet always seem to remain exactly the same.

Sequential Tart says: A scrumptious and warm book

I love food memoirs, and finding one about my local food culture delights me. The Chinese food scene in Canada is plentiful and vibrant, and although many people would assume that this is due to more recent influxes of immigrants, Janice Wong's book recounts her parents' early lives in Canada and the Chinese history that is often overlooked by Canadian scholars.

Erudit Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Culture: Chow offers a glimpse into the past

My Saskatchewan mother-in-law often ate at Prince Albert’s Lotus Café in the 1960s. She remembers the restaurant as not only the place to go for a good meal at a reasonable price with lemon meringue pie ‘to die for,’ as she described it, but also for re-entry into civilization on her way home from a teaching post even further north. But to the owner, Dennis Wong, Prince Albert must have felt a far cry from his previous home in Vancouver, and farther still from the remote Guangdong province of his ancestors.

Monday Magazine: Stopping for Chow:food as the meeting place between cultures

Memories and meals with Janice Wong
"Towards the end of his life," Vancouver artist Janice Wong tells me,
"my father suffered a number of strokes and lost his speech. It was very difficult for him to communicate." When he died in 1999, she tried to capture something of what her father had gone through.

Canadian Living Magazine: Chow Time

It was through an artist's eyes, and with an artist's deft touch, that Vancouver native Janice Wong delved into her family's rich history—which straddled the Canadian West in the 1920s, as well as the political quagmire that was China in the 1930s—to share their fascinating story in the pages of CHOW, From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family (Whitecap, 2005, $24.95).

In this multilayered book, for which Wong was awarded the 2006 Cuisine Canada Culinary Book Award for Canadian Food Culture, the artist-author weaves together a charming—and revealing—blend of photographs, memories, artifacts, family lore, and of course, recipes.

In crafting CHOW, Wong pays homage to both her rich Chinese heritage and her colourful family in one stroke. Her father's Lotus Café in Prince Albert, Sask.—one of Dennis Wong's two restaurants—was an institution, and it's this man who inspired many of the recipes that fill the pages of CHOW.

-Canadian Living Magazine, Food, p. 163, March 2007

The article includes recipes for Chinese Barbequed Duck, Dungeness Crab with Dow See, Pineapple Chicken and Peanut Butter Cookies

"Chow is an utterly authentic memoir,"says Books in Canada

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

"An affectionate bridge...an important glimpse and microhistory into a time that has since disappeared," says Victoria's Monday magazine

Playing Chopsticks
Chinese food must rank as one of the world’s most popular foods. Excluding the Chinese themselves—who naturally would agree—cities like Paris have more than 1,500 Chinese restaurants. Paris?

Janice Wong knows of this love affair with Chinese cooking. Her father Dennis, born in Victoria, moved his young family to Saskatchewan, opening his first Chinese eatery in Prince Albert. Wong writes that Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food & Family is both a cookbook and the 80-year-old story of two Chinese-Canadian families (her father’s and her mother’s) who lived and worked in B.C. and Saskatchewan from the early 1900s on.

"Food and family go together,"says Vancouver Province newspaper

Food and Family Go Together
BC author blends memories and 'village food'
When Janice Wong began scribbling down her family's history for her nieces and nephews, she thought of it as a "short and lively intiation into the young lives of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents."
She had no idea her efforts would eventually lead to national fame—and a top book award.
Wong, whose parents were both born on the West Coast—her dad in Victoria and her mother in Nanaimo—took home the "gold" in the food culture category at last week's Cuisine Canada and The University of Guelph's Canadian Culinary Book Awards.

"People respond to sincerity."says Prince Albert Daily Herald

Wong wins book award

People respond to sincerity.

When Janice Wong put down stories and recipes from her father's landmark Prince Albert restaurant, the Lotus Café, she never expected the response.

When the book came out, she was beset by interviews, others' personal anecdotes and now a national culinary book award.

Wong's book, Chow: from China to Canada: memories of food and family (Whitecap books 2006), won gold in Cuisine Canada and The University of Guelph's Canadian Food Culture category for books that best illustrate Canada's rich culinary
heritage and food culture.

"A warm, nostalgic book that belongs on the history shelf as a rich slice of Canadiana," says Edmonton Journal

A Feast of Food Books
Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family by Janice Wong, Whitecap Books, 190 pp., $24.95

Chow is a fascinating combination of food and history: Chinese food, Chinese-in-Canada history.

Using recipes and a wealth of black-and-white snapshots, Wong draws an evocative portrait of her family as they journeyed from China to Canada and gradually became absorbed into the multicultural fabric of coastal B.C. and the Saskatchewan Prairies.

"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

"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

"A charming collection of stories, photographs and sumptuous recipes," says TV Week

Gung Hay Fat Choy!
It's the Chinese Lunar New Year beginning on January 29, and time to celebrate. We're fortunate to have a wonderful Chinese-Canadian community in B.C. offering a tantalizing array of foods and ways to honour the occasion.

We caught up with Janice Wong, artist and author of Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food + Family (Whitecap, 2005). The book, originally a gift to her family, is a charming collection of stories, photographs and sumptuous recipes.

Growing up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Wong recalls receiving treats along with the shipments of Chinese groceries from Vancouver to supply her father's restaurants.

"Book combines love of family and food with a respect for tradition and history," says Kelowna Capital News

Gung Hey Fat Choy
However you spell it in English, Jan. 29 is the first day of the Chinese New Year, so Happy New Year.

On the lunar calendar used by the Chinese, it is the year 4704, and it's the year of the dog. People born in dog years are believed to be loyal, kind and generous. As part of the celebrations, which are a highlight of the year, children are given "lucky money" in little red envelopes, and, naturally, food plays a big part in the celebrations, which go on for 15 days, until the full moon brightens the night sky on February 13.

With food in mind, consider picking up a good book on Chinese cooking. A new book called Chow, published by Whitecap, is one worth considering, simply for a few excellent recipes and the stories.
Written by Janice Wong, this nicely illustrated book combines her love of family and food with a respect for tradition and history.