"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