Pictures from Tartan Day Eve – at Doolin's Irish Pub
The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team joined the Tartan Day Eve ceremonies at Doolin's Irish Pub on April 5th. It was a special kind of kilts night. The team also took part in a kilt fashion show, and scotch tasting. We also watched the Vancouver Canucks lose to Colorado.
Kadoya Sushi on Davie St. Try the specialty rolls
I went to Kadoya for the first time on Friday night, March 23… and I LIKED it!
On the walls are many compliments to the restaurant, staff and the food. It is entertaining just reading all of the different place mat sized drawings and compliments. There is even a sign up on both sides of the restaurant stating if you are allergic to something, please tell the serving staff.
The specialty sushi rolls are REALLY SPECIAL. They are truly creations of culinary art. They are named Rainbow (each piece a different colour), Cinderalla, Snow White, Queenie, Princess, Canuck. They are large, eight pieces and cost $7.95. They almost fill you if you are going for dinner.
My girlfriend and I shared the Dinner for Two which included 1 Specialty Roll, Miso Soup, vegetable and prawn tempura, terriyaki beef (or chicken), + special rice. It was a lot of food for $30, and we felt it was a good deal.
The service seemed friendly. Our party of 5 included 1 Japanese student, 2 Caucasian-Canadians, 1 Swiss born Canadian, and myself a multi-generational Chinese-Canadian. We thought our waitress had a mandarin Chinese accent. Our Swiss-Canadian friend goes to the restaurant regularly with his Japanese friend. It was the first for the rest of us. We all definitely enjoyed ourselves, and plan on returning.
Chow Time: Janice Wong featured in Canadian Living Magazine
Janice Wong is featured in this month's Canadian Living
magazine (March 2007). The article is titled Chow Time: Celebrate
Chinese New Year with traditional home-style recipes compliments of the
Wong family.
Janice is my second-cousin, once removed. Her father and my
maternal grandmother are cousins. Her grandmother Rose, was the younger
sister to my great-grandmother Kate (Chan) Lee. We may both be
Wongs now… but we are both descended from Rev. Chan Yu Tan – one of the first Chinese ministers ordained in Canada.
After the death of Janice's father Dennis (whom many people say I look
like), she made up a memory book of pictures, stories and recipes as a
gift to her brother and sisters and mother. It was also a gift to
her nieces and nephews so that they would know more about their
grandfather. One of Janice's friends saw the book, and suggested
that she send it to a publisher.
Earlier this Wednesday, Janice me told the story about how her memory
book full of her father's recipes from his Prince Albert SK restaurant
made the journey to become a published award winning book. She
was guest speaker for our writing workshop, taught by author/editor
Brandy Lien Worral, produced for the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia.
She passed her original gift book around. I was amazed to finally
see it, after having become involved in some of the book's promotional
events from it's October 2005 book launch to being on panel discussions
at the West Vancouver Public Library and Vancouver Public
Library. I gazed at the pictures to see pictures of her father
Dennis as a child, and grown up with his brothers and sisters, cousins
– all relatives that I knew as I grew up.
Janice and me, at her studio during the East Side Culture Crawl
read the story:
Eastside Culture Crawl: Visits to Janice Wong studio at 1000 Parker
Here is the script from Canadian Living Magazine:
–Canadian Living Magazine, Food, p. 163, March 2007
The
article includes recipes for Chinese Barbequed Duck, Dungeness Crab
with Dow See, Pineapple Chicken and Peanut Butter Cookies
http://www.janicewongstudio.com
What to expect at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2007 Dinner
The Arrival
Arrive Early: The doors will open by
5:15 pm. All seating is reserved, and all tables are placed in the
order that they were ordered (except for special circumstances such as
a major sponsor hint hint). We find this is the most fair, and it
encourages people to buy their tickets earlier to ensure a table closer
to the stage. We expect a rush just prior to the posted 5:30pm
reception
time. This is the time to go to the bar and get your dram of
Glenfiddich or pint of McEwan's Lager – specially ordered for tonight's
dinner. Ohhh…. but we might be having a special sponsor for drinks. We're working on it.
The premium
tables will have two bottles of wine on each table. This is the
reward for purchasing tables closer to the stage and paying $10 more
each. This also means that you don't have to stand in line for your first drink.
Buy Your Raffle Tickets:
We have some great door
and raffle prizes lined up. Lots of books (being the writers we
are), gift certificates and theatre tickets + other surprises.
Please buy
raffle tickets… this is how we generate our fundraising. We
purposely keep our admission costs low to $60 for advance regular seats
so that they are affordable and the dinner can be attended by more
people. Children's tickets are subsidized so that we can include
them in the audience and be an inclusive family for the evening.
This dinner is the primary fundraising event for
Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team. Since 2001, we have also given funds to Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, publishers of RicePaper Magazine.
The Gung Haggis team continues to promote multiculturalism through
dragon boat paddling events, and puts a dragon boat float each year in
the Vancouver St. Patrick's Day Parade. Rice Paper Magazine
highlights creative Asian Canadians – especially in the arts and
culture.
Last year, we added the Save Kogawa House committee as a beneficiary for the event, because I felt it was
important to save Joy Kogawa's childhood home from demolition. I
have been working on the committee, and I am pleased that The Land
Conservancy has stepped in to partner with us to save Kogawa House
and turn it into a National literary landmark and treasure for all
Canadians. Now that the house is saved, more money is still
needed to restore it to the 1942 qualities when Joy and her family were
forced to leave it, as well as create an endowment for future
programming.
Please support our missions of supporting and developing emerging writers,
organizing reading events, and to spread multiculturalism through
dragon boat racing – or come join our teams!
The FOOD
This year haggis dim sum appetizers will
be on a long buffet table – available at 5:30 pm. This is going
to be culinarily exciting. We have featured deep-fried haggis won
ton since 2004. In 2005 we introduced haggis spring rolls.
On City Cooks with host Simi Sara, we also introduced haggis stuffed tofu.
6:30 pm Dinner event begins. People
are seated, and the Piping in of the musicians and
hosts begins. We will lead a singalong of Scotland the Brave and give
a good welcome to our guests, only then will the dinner courses
appear. You want to eat, you have to sing for your supper! (which should appear by 6:45 pm).
From then on… a new dish will appear every 10 to 15 minutes –
quickly followed by one of our co-hosts introducing a poet or musical
performer. Serving 50 tables within 5 minutes, might not work
completely, so please be patient. We will encourage our guests
and especially the waiters to be quiet while the performers are on stage.
Then for the 5 minute intermissions, everybody can talk and make noise
before they have to be quiet for the performers again.
This year's
dinner show will emphasize the show over the dinner. In past
years, we have always tried to alternate food dishes with
performances. But with the high quality of artists, we need to
highlight them… so this year… the show takes priority!
The Performances
Expect the unexpected: I
don't want to give anything away right now as I
prefer the evening to unfold with a sense of surprise and
wonderment. But let it be known that we have an incredible
array of talent for the evening.
Priya
Ramu, CBC Radio host for “On The Coast” will be co-host with me for the
evening. We have already created a mini-kilt for Priya and she is
looking forward to the event.
We welcome the return of Silk Road Music and Heather Pawsey to the Gung Haggis program. Qiu
Xia and Andre bring their musical fusion performed on pipa and
classical guitar. Opera soprano Heather Pawsey will perform in
Mandarin and a special suprise…
Joe
McDonald and his celtic-fusion band Brave Waves is again our “house
band.” We always delight in having Joe and his bagpipes. This
year Joe and the band will deliver a Canadian surprise with a
multicultural twist.
Author
Lensey Namioka, author of the young adult novel “Half and Half” will
introduce us to the trials of Fiona Cheng growing up half-Scottish and
half-Chinese in Seattle. Her brother is red-headed and prefers
martial arts to highland dancing, and she really really would love to
wear his kilt and dance – but her parents and her grandparents would
prefer her to wear a chinese dress to go with her black hair.
No
Luck Club – the instrumental hip hop band, recently returned from a
cross-Canada tour will be providing “ambient groove music” during our
reception. But I think they might even get in on our version of
“The Haggis Rap.”
Our non-traditional reading of the “Address to the
Haggis” is always a crowd pleaser. But
this year, audience members will be reading a different Burns poem to
tie their tongues around the gaelic tinged words. Will it be “A
Man's A Man for All That,” “To a Mouse,” My Luv is Like a Red Red Rose,” or maybe even “Tam O-Shanter?”
I
hand-pick members of the
audience to join us on stage to read a verse. Past participants
have included former federal Multicultural Secretary of State Raymond
Chow, Qayqayt
(New Westminster) First Nations Chief Rhonda Larrabee, , a
descendent of Robert the
Bruce, a doctor from White Horse, a UBC student from Scotland, somebody
doing a vocal impression of Sean Connery. Last year we invited
Faye Leung, Kelly Ip, Jim Harris (then national leader of the Green
Party) and NDP federal candidates Ian Waddell and Mary-Woo Sims – both
dressed in their Scottish and Chinese finest.
Who will it be for 2007? We leave it up until the evening to decide.
The evening will wrap up somewhere between 9:00 and
9:30 pm, then we will socialize further until 10pm. People will
leave with smiles on their faces and say to
each other, “Very Canadian,” “Only in Vancouver could something
like this happen,” or “I'm telling my friends.”
Gung Haggis Fat Choy paddlers enjoy the winter
Gung Haggis paddlers trade paddles for snowshoes, skis and snow boards – photo Todd Wong
We
have a great bunch of people on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. Many people have really
built some good friendships. Everything we continue to do, somehow seems
to revolve around or include eating.
In December we met 3 times. On
Friday, December 15th, some of us met to see the new James Bond
movie. Afterwards we then met up with more team members at the Bacchus Lounge
at the Wedgewood Hotel. This is a fabulous piano bar, and we were
almost right next to the piano, which featured a very enjoyable pianist
who sounded like Harry Connick Jr. When we first walked in, he
was singing “Fly Me to the Moon” – one of the special songs that I
share with my girlfriend. Perfect timing!
We had 12 people (enough to paddle a dragon boat)
crowded around a table in the dining room – right next to a couple
having a romantic dinner. Not to worry – the couple was very
nice, and offered up their table to us. And it turned out that
the fellow was a film maker who had been researching dragon
boats. I quickly told him that our team had been featured on CBC
Newsworld last year, French public broadcasting program Thalassa the
year before, and CBC French Telvision this year!
The Bacchus
Lounge was a great place to celebrate some of our team members'
birthdays. Christine and Daming in December, and Wendy's upcoming
birthday on January 1st. We ordered 2 appetizer platters and 2
pizzas. All were very good! Yum Yum!
Wendy and Jen ham it up while Jonas helps Dan with his snowboard – photo Todd Wong
The next day, some of us tried out snowboarding for the first time on Grouse Mountain.
Jonas had offered to teach beginners. I was the only skier, but
was also able to help the neophyte boarders too. During an eating
break, I tried out Jen's board and boots. I fell lots, and it
took me 3 tries before I could get to the top of the Paradise beginner
hill rope tow. It had been 12 1/2 years since my only other snow
board try. Now I remember why I have stuck to skies. It's
easier, and I can still do my old free-style tricks.
Some of our
team members went snow shoeing instead. We decided this would be
a great way for people not interested in skiing or boarding to join us
for a winter activity day. Saturday, January 6th is our planned
snow shoeing day. While on Grouse we also went for a sleigh ride
– pulled by a snow tractor. It's a fun way to see some of the
sights on Grouse Mountain, especially for tourists.
On the winter sleigh ride with Jen, Tzhe, Todd, Wendy and Jonas – photo – Todd
Winter Solstice, December 22nd
The
gazebo features panels telling the story of the Moon Goddess and her
Jade Rabbit, created by Jamie, the new Marketing coordinator for the
Gardens – photo Stephen Mirowski
We met at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden to take part in the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival which is part of the city wide festivities organized by the Secret Lantern Society.
It is very magical to see both the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park and Gardens lit
up by lanterns. There is also live music played in the Park
gazebo, and the new Hall of One Hundred Rivers.
Leaves that fell
off the tree in Autumn were saved, made into lanterns, then placed back
on the original tree theat they first fell off of. – photo
Stephen Mirowski.
A highlight for me was meeting the new marketing coordinator for
the Gardens, Jaime, who lived 10 years in Beijing and speaks fluent
Mandarin. He even has Scottish heritage, and his wife is
Chinese. Imagine that! We had a great chat about Gung
Haggis Fat Choy, and look forward to finding a special role for him!
A paper lantern
crane is lit up, next to blue LED lights in the courtyard of the Hall
of One Hundred Rivers – photo Stephen Mirowski.
After
taking pictures, sipping tea, walking amongst the lanterns, we then
spent lots of time (and money) checking out the wonderful items in the
gift shop managed by my friend Alexis. Alexis first came to the
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner back in 2002 and LOVED it! It was
9:40pm and we headed up Pender St. in Chinatown, making our way to
Hon's Won Ton House. More food! Duck, Shanghai noodles,
Fried Rice, vegetables and pot stickers… yum, yum, yum. It's
true, our dragon boat team identity and culture is rooted in
food. I don't know of another dragon boat team with a food word
in it's name.
Vancouver Sun 2002:
Toddish McWong marks Bard's birthday – the newsclipping
Here's the story that the Vancouver Sun's Pete McMartin wrote about me
in January 2002. I just sent it to Toronto to be included for the
CBC Generations documentary.
It was a fun interview, and we went to the Vancouver Sun for the photo
shoot. My friend Sonia Baker co-hosted the 2002 dinner with
me. Neither Scottish nor Chinese, Sonia was actually born in
Holland. If you watched the movie “The Mummy,” you heard Sonia's
voice… she voiced the Mummy. “Errrrrgggghhhh!!!!”
2002 was the first year the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner attracted major
media attention. I did an interview with Bill Richardson for CBC
Radio's flagship afternoon show “Richardson's Roundup,” for which Sonia
and I read the Jim Wong-Chu poem “Recipe for Tea.” It is a poem written
for two voices and describes how tea travelled from China to
Scotland.
VTV (which was became City TV) sent a reporter and cameraman to the
dinner at the Spicy Court Restaurant. Highlights of the
newscast included hearing the entire restaurant chanting “We want
haggis,” as well as seeing and hearing a verse of Robbie Burns “Address
to a Haggis,” read with a Chinese accent by Raymond Chan, who was inbetween member of parliament stints at the time.
Just over two hundred people attended that 2002 dinner in the
midst of a snow storm, an increase over the previous year's dinner of
one hundred attendees. The following year we moved the dinner to
Flamingo Restaurant on Fraser Street, where we hosted 390 people.
Now we host 450 to 550 people at Floata Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown.
I'll try to find a better photo scan for this news story.
West Coast Thanksgiving dinner: Sockeye Salmon with Cranberry Salsa
What is a West Coast Thanksgiving? What foods are part of our local harvest and culture?
My girlfriend and I cooked a dinner for my parents. We invited
our dragon boat friend and team member who moved to Vancouver from
Thunder Bay, Ontario. Turkey was familiar to him, but not a fully
dressed salmon for Thanksgiving dinner.
The salmon was caught up north near Haida Gwaii, and flash frozen. I bought it from a boat at Steveston's
“Fisherman's Wharf.” Go see Tony, on the Blue ?? and tell him Todd sent you.
We shredded cranberries to make a fresh salsa with local BC hot house
red and yellow peppers. I added in frozen blueberries and
raspberries for sweetness. Mixed in with jalapeno pepper, red
onion and cilantro, we continued to tweak it. This is a great appetizer served with chips for munching.
First course was a butternut squash soup. Okay… it came from a
boxed soup – but it was still pretty good. We didn't have enough
time to make a soup from scratch. My mother makes a great
butternut squash soup. And once a made a fantastic ginger pumpkin
soup.
Seasoned wild rice complimented
the yams, baked with orange juice and brown sugar. Green beans
were sauteed with white mushrooms. Brussel sprouts were
steamed
with Chinese ginger. My girlfriend Deb's family always has the
seasoned wild rice for their Christmas dinners. Often she will
add bacon and mushrooms, but for this dinner we kept things
simple. My favorite mushrooms to cook are portabellos – but none
today.
The sockeye salmon was fileted, then “flash broiled” for about 2
minutes, to allow me to pull the spine off the remaining fish.
The cranberry salsa spread on top, allowing the fruit juices, to soak
into the salmon, then broiled for 7 minutes. yum yum yum.
delicious. with a bit of crunch from the red peppers.
We each shared something we were grateful for.
A west coast Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a stunning sunset over
English Bay, from our home in the highlands of North Vancouver.
Perfect with pumpkin pie and ice cream for dessert.
Janice Chow – my wonderful artist/family historian / cook book cousin sends me this great news!
I'm happy to announce that CHOW received the gold award in the Cuisine Canada + University of Guelph's Culinary Book Awards,
Canadian Food Culture category…the category that celebrates books that “best illustrate Canada's rich culinary heritage and food culture.”
If you're in Vancouver on Sunday Sept. 24th, you can catch me at the Ricepaper magazine booth (2 – 6 pm) at Word On The Street,
Vancouver's Annual Book and Magazine Fair, on the street, Vancouver Public Library main branch.
If you're in Gibsons on Saturday Sept. 23rd, I'm reading at the first annual New Moon Festival of Asian Art and Culture.
All the best,
Janice
A North Vancouver weekend – what to do? Explore Lonsdale Quay!
It was a North Vancouver weekend that had started on Thursday night with dinner at West Vancouver's Beach House restaurant, which I first remembered as Pepe's back in the late 1970's. Cultural entertainment was provided at The Silk Purse, with Romanza (formerly the Canadian / or Maple Leaf Tenors).
Friday was much more laid back… starting with pizza for lunch from Little Caesar's from Edgemont Village. They had customer appreciation day with any size, and unlimited toppings for $9.99. Edgemont Village is a nice little neighborhood shopping area. My favorite places to visit are: Village VQA Wines, 32 Books, Vancouver Kids Books. There is a very cosy small town feel to this little jewel of a shopping area. There are quaint shops and eclectic shops such as horse and riding tack shop. I often drop into Paws and Claws to pick up food or toys for my kitty cat. And then coffee at Delaney's… or that really cute restaurant around the corner, across from the Capilano branch library.
On Saturday, we went over to Lynn Valley to pick up my new order of contact lenses at Westlynn optical. Owner Debbie Fisher is always very helpful, and the store was extremely helpful when I once phoned them from San Francisco trying to get my prescription because I had accidently ripped the only lenses that I had with me, while on a dragon boat road trip. Last year, they even gave me a sample of blue contact lenses – that was fun! Westlynn Bakery always has a special for each day. Their blueberry and pumpkin pies are delicious. We bought their carrot cake.
Next down to Lonsdale where my girlfriend had to check out the Echoes store where they sell and trade china sets and place settings. We next parked on Esplanade and walked down to Lonsdale Quay – playing “tourist in your own town”. We visted Celtic Connections which had lots of books on Scottish tartans and weddings. I didn't know that there was a proper dress code for kilted weddings before! I wanted to buy the tin whistle – maybe that will be the first step for me to learn to play bagpipes. Deb was delighted to discover there was a Cheshire Cheese Inn – with a menu full of British food dishes such strange sounding dishes such as “bangers and mash”, “toad in the hole” as well as “shepherd's pie.” This might be a place to bring the Gung Haggis Fat Choy for a traditional British /Scottish meal, since we often go to eat Chinese/Japanese/Cambodian after Tuesday night practices. It was interesting to find these two British cultural specialty stores – but nothing Persian at Lonsdale Quay, although there were plenty of Japanese and other Asian restaurants in the food court.
We looked through the stores on the 2nd level, and strolled through the market section. I spent some time looking at cookbooks, as well as the fresh seafoods, as I contemplated what to cook for dinner. It was a delight to discover a brand new Mark Anthony wine story that specialized in Mission Hill wines, as well as Okanagan Cider. We had a lovely chat during a wine tasting with the manager, sampling the Mission Hill Reisling. A special surprise was that Mission Hill had just released their premium 2003 Occulus Wine and was on sale for $49, instead of $60. Okay, I picked up a bottle – I still have the 1999 Occulus I picked up in 2002 – still waiting for a special occasion.
Fresh herb fettucini from Duso's was perfect for the evening meal. It is light and flavourful – definitely a treat from dried pasta. I was sorry not to see my high school friend Susan there.. as she married Duso – and I sometimes see her there behind the counter with a big big smile for me! Anyways… dinner was pan-fried prawns in a sweet Thai chili sauce, encrusted with black sesame seeds, served on top of a bed of herb fettucini with ginger soy marinated beef slices, accompanied by stir fried zuccini, carrots and portabello mushroom. A mix of Asian, and Italian cooking sensations… Marvelous! More things in life should revolve around food and wine.
Fundraiser for Kogawa House and
Gung Haggis Fat Choy Kogawa House dragon boat team
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/GungHaggisdragonboatteaminformation2007