Text 37139, 53 rader
Skriven 2010-04-25 23:10:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: The Lucky Key
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I had some left over pork chops, bean sprouts and lots of celery so
I made up a batch of old fashioned (1960s style) Canadian-Chinese
chop suey and it got me to reminiscing about how Chinese food has
evolved and grown in sophistication and variety in North America
over 40 years.

Growing up in the country I was totally unaware of the existence of
Chinese food in the 50s. We moved to Ottawa in 1962 and Dad's
employer ordered Chinese takeout for the staff Christmas party and he
liked it. So we ventured out as a family shortly thereafter to try
it. Ottawa had just a handful of Chinese restaurants at the time,
all of them serving up that quaint and curious stuff called
Chinese-Canadian: six kinds of chop suey (beef, pork, chicken,
shrimp, vegetable and "special"), six kinds of chow mein (the same
again) and exotic stuff like Beef and Broccoli in Oyster Sauce (a
favourite of mine for a long time), sticky sweet spareribs and
Pineapple Chicken (sic) Ball. No garlic, no much ginger, and nothing
weird that would scare a middle class white Canadian. As we had no
clue what was what on the menu we ordered the #1 dinner for 6
combination. The name of the place was the Lucky Key.

As a teenager I would go drinking in Quebec where they didn't card
and then hit the Lucky Key afterwards as it was one of the few
places that stayed open all night. Eventually I got to know the
whole menu... it was all faux-Cantonese typical of the era.

By the 70's I stopped going there as it wasn't cool any more and the
Ottawa restaurant scene was starting to emerge from the dark ages
and there were lots of new places and cuisines to try.

The last time I was in Ottawa I drove by and noticed they were still
in business. So I just had to go in. The place hadn't changed! Same
decor, same menu, even the same waiters who were all pushing 80 or
more by then and who still didn't speak English very well. It was
like be sucked into a time warp. Naturally I ignored the more
interesting pages of the menu and ordered a #1 combination plate for
1. It had Lucky Key special chow mein, sticky ribs and pineapple
chicken balls. (And it was awful, not magical at all... but I
finished it off happily and wallowed in the memories.)




Cheers

YK Jim


... Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

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