If you’re interested in dim sum and live in Montréal, you appreciate the legend of Kam Fung. Maybe you’ve eaten in the cavernous St-Urbain dining room (or its Brossard counterpart). Maybe you’ve just stood in line and longed for a table.
Either experience is sufficient to grasp just how absurd—and yet fitting—it is, that now dim sum has been dragged into 2014 Québec election politics. Yes, those doughy pillows of shrimp, eel, mushroom, beef, pork (or mostly anything else that grows, swims or walks…) are the latest casualty to the province’s rapidly-degenerating discourse on language and identity.
Thankfully, it’s all been dressed with a healthy does of ethnic-food sarcasm.
It all started yesterday when outspoken Journal de Montréal columnist Sophie Durocher took to Twitter after a dim sum lunch.
Dimsum hier dans Q. chinois: unilingues anglais. J’appelle dans 1 resto indien rue Jarry: unilingue anglais. Pas de problème Mr Couillard. — sophie durocher (@sophiedurocher) 31 Mars 2014
The initial response seemed unsurprising, coming from one of Durocher’s followers…
@sophiedurocher Appel pas dans un LA belle Province car tu va te faire répondre en Grec !!!!! — Stefan Benoit (@stefanbenoit) 31 Mars 2014
But Montréal Gazette food critic Lesley Chesterman’s appraisal was a bit more scathing.
.@phcouillard how dare you belittle Qc language issues?! For Pete’s sake, @sophiedurocher can’t order Chinese or Indian take-out in French! — Lesley Chesterman (@lesleychestrman) 1 Avril 2014
Definition of 1st world problems: a BILINGUAL Mtl journalist complaining that she can’t get served in French in a dim sum restaurant #petty — Lesley Chesterman (@lesleychestrman) 2 Avril 2014
Chesterman’s tweets, it would appear, triggered a string of jabs at Durocher and, at times, the Parti québecois itself.
@lesleychestrman She should try the cafeteria at McGill. I hear the Middle Eastern food is fantastic. — CanadaOne (@HappyFoodieMTL) 1 Avril 2014
@HappyFoodieMTL @lesleychestrman what’s the french for ha gow? — David (@1waffler) 1 Avril 2014
Disapproval of Durocher’s complaint was not limited to English, either:
@sophiedurocher @lesleychestrman Veuillez s’il vous plaît nous rappeler, comment dis t’on “samosa” en français? — Foodie Date Night (@FoodieDateNight) 1 Avril 2014
Then the whole thing started to echo the last few party debates themselves:
@sophiedurocher @lesleychestrman unilingual immigrants. LOL. They knew English and one, two languages before arriving. Kids learn French 1/2 — Danielle (@DanieMontreal) 1 Avril 2014
@sophiedurocher simple c est leur commerce c est privé et il ont leur marché et clients. ou est le problème madame la marquise — C.S. Archambault (@CSArchambault) 1 Avril 2014
Just like a TVA debate, there was mild mudslinging:
@sophiedurocher peut-être on peut expulser touts les restos ethniques puis tu peux avoir la poutine tranquillement — Rani Cruz (@ranic) 2 Avril 2014
@sophiedurocher @lesleychestrman pas mal certain que t’es mieux d’essayer la poutine a paulo et suzanne #poutine #dimsum #lahmajoun #arouch — G Money (@expozhabs) 1 Avril 2014
A reader once called to complain about how the local Subway always played English music. I’m thinking it might have been @sophiedurocher. — Toula Drimonis (@ToulasTake) 1 Avril 2014
And even humour:
@sophiedurocher I would shop elsewhere and not look for government to fix my dinner dates, but that’s just me. — Dan Delmar (@delmarhasissues) 31 Mars 2014
@lesleychestrman @phcouillard @sophiedurocher Me semble que c’est pour ça qu’ils mettent des numéros sur leurs menus? — Matthew Nowakowski (@kowskimatt) 2 Avril 2014
It seems that Charte-fuelled tensions of language and identity have officially peaked. Whether it’s Couillard or Marois who ends up at the helm, we can only hope for strong leadership.
But maybe politicians are just exacerbating the issues and the solution to Durocher’s quandary is really quite simple:
@sophiedurocher try Lebanese next time — DR (@ReemsMTL) 1 Avril 2014
