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Our thanks to our old bud, Larry Wong, for the following piece.
We wish we could have joined in the big dining soirée a few weeks back … but alas, the UGLY Chinese Canadian was out of town.
Foo’s Ho Ho is Back
By Larry Wong
For many years, the executive and directors of the museum meet every second Thursday of the month at Foo’s Ho Ho in Vancouver’s Chinatown for their dinner meeting.
The original Foo’s restaurant was opened in 1968 at 72 East Pender Street, next to the Chinese Cultural Centre. The owners were Steven and Susan Louie.
In 1998, James Sam and his partner, Joanne relocated the Foo’s to a vacant restaurant called Ho Ho at the corner of Pender and Columbia Streets. The Ho Ho stood empty for six years. During those years it was the backdrop of a Chinese setting for the tv series, The X-Files.
The Ho Ho had a neon sign that was a landmark. It was a bowl of rice with a pair chopstick with steam rising 3 ½ stories. The sign however, was deteriorating and the repair cost was beyond Sam’s means.
James and Joanne renamed the Ho Ho by adding Foo’s at the front.
James came to Canada as a teen and worked in kitchens including the W.K. Gardens, Marco Polo and the Best Wun Tun House.
Joanne was a Vietnamese refugee with a Chinese background. She is the shopper for Foo’s Ho Ho as well as being the server and a cook.
Joanne Sam being interviewed by Margaret Gallagher
CBC Radio August 19, 2009
Photo courtesy of Larry Wong and the CCHS
In recent years, Foo’s Ho Ho became the only restaurant in Vancouver serving Chinese village cooking. When the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C. held their AGM at Foo’s, dishes such as steamed ground pork pie, egg fu yung and boneless chicken stuffed with sticky rice were enjoyed by all.
Large groups of friends meet monthly for lunches. Other groups such as school reunions also take over the upstairs of Foo’s Ho Ho.
Regulars such as the Chinese veterans’ Pacific Unit 280 and the Chinese Military Museum Society hold their monthly dinner meetings. They would enjoy dishes such as bitter melon with lap yoke and the occasional casserole of cole yoke.
Sam became ill in early 2009 and passed away in July. The restaurant was closed temporary and by late August operating only a few days a week, leaving Joanne as the cook in the back and a server at the front.
A Friends of Foo’s Ho Ho was organized by Jim Wong-Chu with the intention of attracting old and new customers.
The museum will continue to support Foo’s Ho Ho not only because they are members but because a family loss is a shared one. For many, Foo’s Ho Ho is still the only place in Chinatown to enjoy village style food as children of immigrants.
Foo’s Ho Ho may the last of its kind in Canada but it is one of the reminders of who are and where we come from.
Heart warming story. Will definitely go there when I’m in Chinatown. I notice that FHH has no current reviews and photos on this site.
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/14/180655/restaurant/Strathcona/Foos-Ho-Ho-Vancouver
Visited Wontonking. Quality still good and reasonably priced. Very few customers and mostly EI, Middle-easterners, and even Africans.
Although the Chinese population in GV has doubled, there are new eateries operated by mainland Chinese with specialties from norther and central regions. Their quality is inconsistent and pricey.
Don’t know how to say it. Pls delete it if you find it offensive. Hon’s are out. Tough business.
Underground economy is doing well. Catering for pre-natal and post-natal mothers is lucrative starting @$3200/month x2 or x3 months. Enterprising individual can make up to $10k a month; and bought a house in Highgate.
Thanks to Harper’s government for making the system more efficient and increasing the number of immigrants; the new ruling of children of Canadians born outside Canada.
Thanks for your candid thoughts Happy. Yes, you are correct… the new ruling class are the spoiled kids of new found wealth from a few of the Asian countries. Not all of them are bad, and not all of them greedy – but with the ones that we’ve encountered, their hearts are not with Canada.
Canada should look after those who helped build her into what it is today – a nation of caring, generous and respectful citizens.
I find it difficult to meet a newly annointed Canadian, who may have “purchased” their Canadian citizenship then go on about representing our nation with the values and ethic system developed and fine tuned from their original places of origin.
I view a TV program the other night, documenting the abuses onto new immigrant and/or migrant workers by “Canadian companies”. Perhaps some attention should be focused onto some of these “Canadian companies” who are nothing more than just recent Canadian citizens who are applying their old homeland values system of exploitation and racism onto their own kind.
These topics are all difficult to explore publicly, as it’s very politically incorrect… and no political party has the guts nor balls to fix our broken immigration system.
I‘m not in the business of selling papers, hence it does not matter with me if Conservatives are not doing enough for Africa’s poor and homeless or China’s earthquake victims, because Igies, Jack & Olivia will bring Harper in line. Whether the funds stay offshore or return to Canada in the form of “foreign corrupt officials”, Canadian taxpayers are hooked.
:p
[...] Sam had formerly worked at WK Gardens, Marco Polo and Best Wun Tun House. After Sam’s passing, Chef Joanne, Sam’s wife and disciple directs the kitchen staff. The uniqueness of this cuisine is its lack of [...]