6 ms·

Chop Suey Nation: Road trip uncovers the lives behind Chinese-Canadian food

95 points by DiabloD3 10y ago

devoply 10y ago
Funny. Live in Alberta, and am now going to go to all of these places in the summer. Sounds like a great adventure.
- hluska 10y ago
  Oddly, I live in Saskatchewan and was just seriously considering doing the same thing. Have a happy New Year!
jrehor 10y ago
In that vein, I recommend "The Search for General Ts'o", a documentary about Chinese food in America. It's quite funny and launched me on a quest for the best General Ts'o recipe. I won't spoil the joy of the hunt for you but I assure you, it's out of this world. http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com
- koolba 10y ago
  What's the best recipe? I'm a huge fan of General Ts'o chicken so always on the look out for a good one!
  - kobeya 10y ago
    Chef Peng's is the original, and vastly different from what they serve in the USA...
    - santaclaus 10y ago
      It has come full circle. My coworker from Shanghai was telling me how the last time he went home, one of the hottest restaurants on the scene's signature dish was (American style) General Tso's. I kind of love the cultural apparatuses that have resulted in a dish traveling from Taiwan to NYC to the greater United States to mainland China.
      - vinay427 10y ago
        This reminds me of how Americano coffee (IIRC an Italian innovation to imitate American-style coffee) is now served in some coffeeshops in the US, in addition to the original American-style filter coffee.
hackuser 10y ago
For those interested in more, here is a revealing, hard-to-put-down story in the New Yorker on a similar topic: The Kitchen Network: America's underground Chinese restaurant workers. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/cooka%C2%80%C2%99s-tale http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/cooka%C2%80%C2%...
helloworld 10y ago
What an extraordinary work ethic: Like any other day, she said, she’d work [on her 55th birthday]. In 15 years, the restaurant has only been closed five times: Once when she was sick and the other times to visit her children. Otherwise, it’s open 365 days a year. Like any other day, she’d close around midnight, prepare her own dinner, watch some television and go to bed.
contingencies 10y ago
Here in Sydney (Australia) I've heard there are quite a few online WeChat-based food delivery businesses catering to Chinese urbanites. Once you have their WeChat you can order stuff, they deliver, and you pay via WeChat or in cash. No need for expensive local government licensing, good food, longer hours, cheaper prices.
- wluu 10y ago
  Interesting, and not altogether a big surprise given how much WeChat allows you to do the same over in China (in addition to a ton of other things). It's no big surprise that tech moves with the movement of people who use it.
spatten 10y ago
If you'd like to hear more on this, they had a long talk with the author of this piece in episode 7 (titled "The Only One") of Colour Code, a podcast also from the Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/colour-code-podcast-race-in-canada/article31494658/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/colour-code-pod...
PappaPatat 10y ago
Being from Amsterdam (Where the Chinese formed one of the largest overseas Chinese populations in continental Europe) I grew up with Chinese food on Friday. Every Friday, and even on particular festive days. For my job I travel a lot and in every place I get to stay longer then a day or two I search for a Chinese food place. What it has thought me, is that 1: there is Chinese food -everywhere- 2: Every country has its "own Chinese food". Besides the names there is often very little the same. Since I did a stint for a large Chinese tech company that has no stock market listing, I think I have seen the entrepreneurial spirit makes all these restaurants possible as hinted by in the article with the "Restaurants are just a vehicle for the family". Back to the food: not McDonalds represents a global food chain for me, it's the "Huang Feng Zhu" group that does. And an impressively creative job to boot.

95 points by DiabloD3 10y ago

devoply 10y ago

Funny. Live in Alberta, and am now going to go to all of these places in the summer. Sounds like a great adventure.

hluska 10y ago
Oddly, I live in Saskatchewan and was just seriously considering doing the same thing. Have a happy New Year!

jrehor 10y ago

In that vein, I recommend "The Search for General Ts'o", a documentary about Chinese food in America. It's quite funny and launched me on a quest for the best General Ts'o recipe. I won't spoil the joy of the hunt for you but I assure you, it's out of this world. http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com

koolba 10y ago
What's the best recipe? I'm a huge fan of General Ts'o chicken so always on the look out for a good one!
- kobeya 10y ago
  Chef Peng's is the original, and vastly different from what they serve in the USA...
  - santaclaus 10y ago
    It has come full circle. My coworker from Shanghai was telling me how the last time he went home, one of the hottest restaurants on the scene's signature dish was (American style) General Tso's. I kind of love the cultural apparatuses that have resulted in a dish traveling from Taiwan to NYC to the greater United States to mainland China.
    - vinay427 10y ago
      This reminds me of how Americano coffee (IIRC an Italian innovation to imitate American-style coffee) is now served in some coffeeshops in the US, in addition to the original American-style filter coffee.

hackuser 10y ago

For those interested in more, here is a revealing, hard-to-put-down story in the New Yorker on a similar topic: The Kitchen Network: America's underground Chinese restaurant workers. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/cooka%C2%80%C2%99s-tale http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/cooka%C2%80%C2%...

helloworld 10y ago

What an extraordinary work ethic: Like any other day, she said, she’d work [on her 55th birthday]. In 15 years, the restaurant has only been closed five times: Once when she was sick and the other times to visit her children. Otherwise, it’s open 365 days a year. Like any other day, she’d close around midnight, prepare her own dinner, watch some television and go to bed.

contingencies 10y ago

Here in Sydney (Australia) I've heard there are quite a few online WeChat-based food delivery businesses catering to Chinese urbanites. Once you have their WeChat you can order stuff, they deliver, and you pay via WeChat or in cash. No need for expensive local government licensing, good food, longer hours, cheaper prices.

wluu 10y ago
Interesting, and not altogether a big surprise given how much WeChat allows you to do the same over in China (in addition to a ton of other things). It's no big surprise that tech moves with the movement of people who use it.

spatten 10y ago

If you'd like to hear more on this, they had a long talk with the author of this piece in episode 7 (titled "The Only One") of Colour Code, a podcast also from the Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/colour-code-podcast-race-in-canada/article31494658/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/colour-code-pod...

PappaPatat 10y ago

Being from Amsterdam (Where the Chinese formed one of the largest overseas Chinese populations in continental Europe) I grew up with Chinese food on Friday. Every Friday, and even on particular festive days. For my job I travel a lot and in every place I get to stay longer then a day or two I search for a Chinese food place. What it has thought me, is that 1: there is Chinese food -everywhere- 2: Every country has its "own Chinese food". Besides the names there is often very little the same. Since I did a stint for a large Chinese tech company that has no stock market listing, I think I have seen the entrepreneurial spirit makes all these restaurants possible as hinted by in the article with the "Restaurants are just a vehicle for the family". Back to the food: not McDonalds represents a global food chain for me, it's the "Huang Feng Zhu" group that does. And an impressively creative job to boot.