If you grew up in Canada- particularly small-town Canada- it's likely you've come across the iconic sight of a tiny little restaurant nestled in a town of roughly 5000, with the wonton font sign that reads "Chinese and Canadian food" serving up ginger beef, general tso's chicken and chow mein under the glow of orange paper lanterns. It's a part of Canadian culture that, as it turns out, has some fascinating history behind it. Ann Hui's Chop Suey Nation looks into that history through two main storylines: one consists of her and her husband doing a Cross-Country road trip from B.C. to Fogo Island, Newfoundland, stopping at small-town Chinese restaurants along the way. The owner follows her father growing up in China, preparing food for a group of boys, eventually moving to Canada and opening a restaurant in British Columbia. Along the way, it also touches on aspects of Chinese-Canadian history like the exclusionary head tax and the "paper sons," something I, as a Canadian, had never heard of. I love reading about food history, but Chop Suey Nation is the first book I've read that closely examines my own country's culinary culture, though I'd still recommend it to non-Canadians interested in the subject. It does what every good story about food history should, telling the story of a people through the food they eat and how it has adapted over time.
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