In the Pandemic, ‘Gain Wah’ Keeps Dishing Out Chinatown Classics
By Christopher Cheung and Joshua Berson, TheTyee.ca, , July 13 2020
You can’t have Chinatown without Chinese food. In Vancouver’s historic neighbourhood, there’s the tourist, looking for a bite of culture. There are politicians like Justin Trudeau, looking for a place to campaign. There’s the immigrant senior, looking for familiar food. There’s the resident from the Downtown Eastside, looking for something hot, affordable and a place to sit. But in a pandemic, how are Chinatown’s eateries faring? In this series, we’ll bring you inside the doors of three longtime favourites.
“Son, you know what? You need some skills.”
“What skills?”
“If you know how to cook, you’ll get a job. There are restaurants all over the world.”
The advice from his father would eventually lead Andrew Leung to run Gain Wah in Vancouver’s Chinatown, and for a lot longer than he thought he would. When Leung bought the restaurant from a friend in 1989, he told his wife he’d try it for eight, maybe 10 years. Read more…
After running Gain Wah for 31 years, Andrew Leung is still dishing out all the familiar favourites in Vancouver’s Chinatown
Photo Credit: Joshua Berson
