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.
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.