Chinese food isn’t fried rice and chow mein – or is it? The stories behind Chinese-Canadian cuisine and the people who sell it

The food may not be authentically Chinese, but it’s the only kind many Canadians have eaten – and in some places the restaurants that serve them are closing

A writer travelled across Canada, visiting as many of them as she could, to learn the backstories of the people who run them and the origins of popular dishes

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Ling Lee's, a Chinese-Canadian restaurant in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, serves dishes that cater to the local population – even if they aren’t authentically Chinese – like many other similar establishments across the country. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:37am, 24 Dec 2019Updated: 5:54pm, 27 Dec 2019

Chop suey, chow mein, egg foo yong, deep-fried lemon chicken, spring rolls, and stir-fried beef and broccoli. These are all dishes typically found on the menu of a Chinese-Canadian restaurant.

They may not be authentically Chinese, but they are culturally distinct. Vancouver-born journalist Ann Hui, 36, took an interest in the culinary curiosities after learning that many immigrant restaurants in Canada’s Chinatowns were closing down or being repurposed as non-Chinese restaurants or bars.

When Hui, a reporter for Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, dug deeper, she discovered there were many such restaurants across the country. In some cases, they were the only restaurant in town.

That inspired Hui to embark on an 18-day, 9,000km road trip in 2016 to visit as many Chinese-Canadian restaurants as she could, from Victoria in British Columbia on the west coast all the way to St John’s in Newfoundland on the east coast, to discover the owners’ backstories and try the food.

Ann Hui went on a road trip in 2016 to visit as many Chinese-Canadian restaurants as she could. Photo: Amanda Palmer

Hui wrote about her adventures in a two-part series for the national newspaper.

The response she received was so overwhelming that she parlayed the stories into a book called Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants, which was released early this year.