Jack Knox: In ‘fake’ Chinese food, we find real family stories - most popular restaurant dishes in america

In the summer of 2009, she stayed in the Times for an internship. reporter Xu 'an threw a grenade in the swimming pool.
She wrote that Victoria's Chinatown is not so much a place where Chinese people can live their daily lives as a "national entertainment" for tourists ".
This view did not give her a general welcome.
Ten years later, the issue of authenticity is still the core of Hui Writing.
At the very least, this is at the heart of her new book, the country of Chop Suey.
Chop Suey Nation follows Hui, now a global Mail food writer, driving from Victoria to Fogo Island, a small outpost at the top of Newfoundland, to learn about Canada's small-
Chinese restaurants in town and people who run them.
It was a fascinating journey, starting with a starting point not just geographically: As she grew up in the Lower Mainland, the Hui nationality continually reinforced the "fake" Chinese food --
All Canadians are familiar with Miscellaneous dishes, but no one is familiar with them in China --
Be looked down.
Chicken balls, spring rolls, fried rice. Deep-
Fried dishes seasoned with salt and thick sweet sauce.
During her 2016 road trip, she found a lot of this and the regional differences.
At the end of the country, we eat beef with ginger, the root of which dates back to Calgary in 1970.
In Glenden, Alta.
A Vietnamese woman sells "Chinese pierogis" to Ukrainian customers ".
In Timmins, Ont.
The side of Chinese food comes with toast.
In Newfoundland, chow mein is made with sliced cabbage because it is difficult to find egg noodles when the dish is just there.
The last example shows that this is a common challenge for newcomers to open Canada's first Chinese restaurant: the lack of traditional ingredients.
"They basically created a gourmet dish out of thin air," Hui said on a phone call in Toronto . ".
"This is the food created by these early Chinese immigrants --mostly men —
No trained training of chef
"In the face of systemic racism in some industries, they open restaurants because these jobs are something they can create for themselves, with limited English and no formal training.
This is a foothold in Canada.
It shows endurance and perseverance.
The state of Chop Suey found its heart here.
The restaurant provides less food than the people who run them.
No, it's not just the story of the past.
Miscellaneous restaurants in Canada are booming.
"I thought these restaurants would disappear," Hui said . "
This is not the case.
Many were taken over by the founder's children and grandchildren, others were taken over not only by newcomers from China, but also by newcomers from other parts of Asia.
Similarly, many Thai, Vietnamese and sushi stores are run by Chinese immigrants.
This is not the food they share, but the story behind it --
Parents with a lonely chain of Ironto-the-
The kitchen exists while fighting for a better life for their children.
"This is not the purpose of their coming, but who came," Hui wrote . ".
It's all about family.
Learn about her own family background
Her father revealed that sometimes reluctantly, because the cancer that eventually killed him made progress in Hui's writing --was a surprise.
It was not until she began to study her books that she discovered that an abertsford restaurant, once owned by her parents, sold Miscellaneous dishes in addition to Western dishes.
The concept of "authentic" and "fake" food seems strange now.
The idea is absurd, Hui says, that it only serves certain dishes, or that in a country, not to mention a region, there is any suitable way to prepare the dishes.
She didn't say it, but she found a metaphor: Canadians without "real.
Everything is developing.
Canada today may not be like Canada in your childhood, but your version is not like the one of your parents.
As for her 2009 assessment of Victoria's Chinatown, Hui recalled that she had retreated from these affectations, Hello Kitty travel trinkets, and the little pagodas in the phone booth, the street sign displays English characters in the "wonton" font, and the Chinese character is the "absurd phonetic approximation" of the English font ".
"However, what Hui sees in a 2016 return is a community in which merchants add what they need to add to their products in order for Chinatown to survive.
"Now I can see that business owners in Victoria are just pragmatic and selling what they can maintain their operations," she wrote . ".
Today is the Chinese New Year, it is a good opportunity to celebrate those who endure, it is also a good opportunity for those who continue to stick to the love of their families.