![]() I could taste the inspiration for the “Western” dishes and am in awe of how, with extremely limited and unfamiliar ingredients available all those years ago, these creative Chinese immigrants were able to recreate a semblance of those dishes that have become as intrinsically ‘Prairie’ as beef and potatoes.” The Lingnan Restaurant in Edmonton is one of the last remaining Palaces of the Exotic, still serving the kind of westernized Cantonese dishes Edmontonians came to love in the 1960s.įor Louise Consterdine, an immigrant from England, take-out Chinese was her introduction to life in a new country. During travels to Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya and Hong Kong, I’ve eaten the original versions of dishes like Kung Pao Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Shanghai Noodles and Pork Dumplings. “My parents still eat and love the ‘Western’ Chinese food you get at restaurants like the Lingnan (they’ve been going there for 30 years). Their menu was my introduction to Asian cuisine, a passion for which grew exponentially in 1984 when I moved to Thailand,” she wrote. Pineapple chicken balls, sweet & sour pork, chop suey, egg rolls, fried rice – many good memories of lovely people and delicious food. “Chin’s Cafe in Vegreville and Eddie Fong’s in Vermilion were my family’s go-to restaurant for special occasions. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. And I also believe this experience was where my mother learned to prepare some Oriental dishes-which she did very well-along with her expertise in making varenyky (perogies) & holubtsiy (cabbage rolls).” The Windsor Cafe, in Beaverlodge, was a fairly typical small-town Chinese restaurant.Įlaine Wilson – who is now a professional chef and cooking teacher – had her own story about how growing up with the prairie version of Chinese cuisine launched her passion for adventurous eating. The elder fellow would sit with us for a time-he introduced me to sesame seed. Because we were some of the ‘regulars’ they knew us. The other really wonderful memory for me was the elder man-he couldn’t speak English and my English was heavily accented-my first language is Ukrainian. “Anyway, this place is where I became familiar with Chinese food. The table was what I believe was arbourite and the seats of the chairs were vinyl.” The tables had chrome legs as did the chairs. One of my memories of that time was going into Millet on a Saturday for groceries, then we’d stop at a restaurant which to my recollection was run by a Chinese family. “My father was a teacher at Pipestone School where I was enrolled in the elementary grades (2 & 3). “Back in the ‘50’s our family lived at Pipestone, between Pigeon Lake and Millet,” she wrote. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.It’s the same as those things that nobody makes as good as your Mom did.Ī bit more objectively, this is good Chinese food in a nice atmosphere - it’s renovated inside, and far nicer than when I was a kid. ![]() So my excellent rating is based on a common thing - people enjoy food that’s familiar, especially from childhood. The chicken balls were meaty, not a ball of batter with a small nugget of chicken in the middle, and the rice was tasty as well. The chow mein has a sauce that’s slightly different than most as well. It’s difficult to say exactly what makes their ribs distinctive, but they have less breading than most, and are cooked slightly darker than most, making them incredibly flavourful. Even on a typical dinner for 1 (fried rice, chicken chow mein, pineapple chicken, and dry spare ribs) Chinese restaurants vary slightly in their food, and it was uncanny how the dry ribs were exactly as I remember them to be, as was the chow mein, which is usually the item that I don’t take more than a couple of bites of In this case, I cleaned my plate. A visit for lunch was like meeting an old friend. ![]() I grew up in Lethbridge and since this restaurant operated in this location since the 1940’s, it’s the place where our family had Chinese food through my growing up years. Up front: this review will seem a little biased.
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