Foremost, Alberta
…….
We discovered Wong’s back in 2007 on our way to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park. Clean as a whistle, Wong’s Golden has a retro feel and serves classic Canadian chinese food – we’re talkin’ chow mein, chop suey and egg rolls. The menu declares “Chinese, Western & Pizza Cuisine”.
Owner Lilly Wong has a winning smile and a kind heart. She and her family immigrated to Canada in the 1990s. Today one of her kids is studying at the University of Lethbridge and the other is in high school. When I tell her we were first in her restaurant back in ’07, she gives us both a big hug.
Just as we order, a rancher comes in with his son for a cup of coffee. He tells us that 340 miles to the east in Saskatchewan, it’s ten below and there’s three feet of snow! Not in Foremost though. It’s a beautiful, sunny spring day here.
A discussion by local seniors at the table next to us breaks out…
“The young girls are wearing their thongs to school already.”
says one.
“You mean flip-flops. They don’t say thongs anymore. That’s something else.”
says another.
Later outside, one of the local seniors tells us that she used to love to dance at Wong’s Garden when it was a dance hall and movie theatre. You hear a lot of stories like this in small town Canada.
We’re happy that Lilly and her family have kept this Foremost landmark going, and we hope she’s here to greet us with a smile when we return.
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I\’ve got great memories at stopping at Chinese/Canadian eateries in so many prairie towns on childhood road trips. I do remember calling rubber sandals \’thongs\’ back then, too. Must have been a prairie thing! Thanks for the memories. Lilly\’s sounds an address to remember.
For us, it was Chow’s in Dorval, QC back in the day when Butterfly Shrimp and Pineaple Chicken was the height of Asian cuisine, when rice was either Uncle Ben’s, or Minute Rice. And no need to buy soya sauce, just ransack the kitchen utility drawer for the the leftover packs they always threw in for free. How times change, we now by our rice in 50 lb bags, and our shoyu is always Kikoman and comes in a gallon can. Thanks for the memories
It’s still not uncommon to see a Chinese restaurant in a small Canadian town serving up the ol favourites!