Welcome to Litsy!

This morning I whipped up my favourite breakfast and started CHOP SUEY NATION. If the first couple chapters are anything to go by, it‘s gonna be good.

My December #Bookspin list:

1. Thin Places
2. Warlight
3. Endurance
4. City of Illusions
5. Five Little Indians
6. The List
7. How the One-Armed Sister
8. A Great Reckoning
9. The Known World
10. Redhead by the Side of the Road
11. Heir to the Glimmering World
12. The Innocents
13. The Mountains Sing
14. Everything Inside
15. The Dutch House
16. Sigh, Gone
17. H is for Hawk
18. Truth and Beauty
19. The Henna Artist
20. Prairie Ostrich

Audio. I quite enjoyed this. I was particularly interested in the chat with the owner of the Silver Inn Restaurant in Calgary (where I live). This s where “ginger beef” was invented. (I hadn‘t realized that ginger beef is specifically a Western Canadian dish!) There were other interesting stories, too. I have to admit it took a while to get “into” her father‘s story – I found it more interesting after he arrived in Canada. Cont in comments...

Loved this book...insights into many of the ways “Chinese food” has been defined in Canada through the author exploring diverse experiences of restauranteurs, mostly in small towns,on a cross-country trip. This is interesting enough, but greatly deepened by Hui‘s own story of engaging with her aging parents and learning things she had never known about her restaurant-owning family‘s history in China and Canada.

#Bookspin
#Nonfiction2021 #Family

They concocted new dishes they thought might appeal to Western audiences. They borrowed from the recipes and flavours they remembered back home but added healthy doses of ketchup, sugar, and soy sauce to appeal to Western tastes.Thus was born “chop suey,” or “scraps.”The one consistent ingredient was bean sprouts: bean sprouts could be grown anywhere so long as there was water. As long as you have water, and a bucket, you can grow bean sprouts.

I've got a fresh collection of Tim Hortons references on my blog. Sample timbit tidbits of Canadian literature: https://lindypratch.blogspot.com/2021/05/tim-hortons-again.html

I finished six books in February, and bailed on two more. Taking the month off from Americans was a fun challenge, and I read authors from Ethiopia, China, Canada, and the UK. I'd recommend any of the ones I finished if they sound like something you'd enjoy, but I think my personal favourite was Chop Suey Nation. #MonthlyWrapUp #FebruaryWrapUp

"Just weeks earlier, I had been so dismissive of this food as "fake Chinese." Now I realized I had been completely wrong."

I can't stop thinking about this quote reframing the idea of "authenticity" in Chinese-North American food. This is really the takeaway message of the whole book.

Why is there a Chinese restaurant in every small town in Canada, and why is the food they serve so different from what you would get in China? Ann Hui took a road trip across the country, interviewing restaurant owners and eating their food. Then afterward she discovered that her own parents had owned one of those restaurants. This is the story of her father, and Chinese people in Canada, and the food they serve to survive.

Journalist Ann Hui spent 18 days travelling 9,625 km across Canada, stopping at small town Chinese restaurants along the way. The stories of these restaurateurs alternate with a storyline about Hui‘s own parents. Family secrets are tied to Canada‘s shameful historic policies regarding immigrants from China. Another element is dealing with guilt & living up to expectations of immigrant parents. Author narrates the engaging #audiobook. 🇨🇦

I spied a snowman on a zoom call during my #audiowalk today.

Today I learned that the oldest Chinese restaurant in the US is the Pekin Noodle Parlor in Butte, Montana. #NFN2020

I found this really interesting, and Hui‘s own family story added another layer to the telling. And now I want Chinese food 😅🤪

I really wanted this book to be a stellar read. And while it was good, I don‘t think it was great. Part of its problem is that Hui really doesn‘t give us much about the restaurants across Canada that she visits. Where this book is great is when Hui is telling her father‘s story. The book isn‘t bad but parts of it could use more meat as it were. Read Nov 8-9 & rated it 3.5 ⭐️

I have been interested in this book since I read about it in Reader‘s Digest. Glad I got my hands on it during my holiday in Victoria; which is where Hui starts her journey. On a more personal note, I had hit a reading slump in October and was MIA for most of the month. Planning to get caught up in the next few days or so.

Based on a Globe & Mail article examining how small town Chinese food restaurants came to be ( and be so similar) across Canada. The book flips between the author‘s trip across the country for research and uncovering her own family‘s story. It‘s a wonderful story and a thoroughly enjoyable read

My hibiscus is LOVING the hot weather we‘ve been having ( I‘m going to need to weed again 🤦🏻‍♀️)

Brunch reading

A few years ago, Ann Hui set out to write an article for the Globe and Mail about the "Chop Suey Chinese" restaurants so ubiquitous in small towns across Canada. In the process she discovered her own father's story of life in rural China and immigrating to Canada, and the original article was expanded to become this book. It's a quick read, and a wonderful story of family, immigration, hardship, hard work, and ingenuity. ?

Captures something I've noticed about some Chinese restaurants anywhere (not in China) - adapting to the local scene. Liked this overall, 4/5 (we need something between Pick and So-So for ratings).

Article the author wrote which is the basis for the book: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/chop-suey-nation/article30539...

#Canada #nonfiction #food #family #immigrantstories #librarylove #library #nonfiction2019 #weekendreads

5/5🌟 This is such an interesting look at Chinese-Canadian restaurant history in Canada. But also the perils and determination of people facing immigration. I tried to make this book last as long as I could but it is too readable. So much about food but the bigger picture of family, and culture. A truly facinating and poignant read!
#bookreview #bookstagram #memoir