“🔥😻 Soba’s Corner: A Chinese-Canadian Cooking Show 😻” is an ongoing video series that unpacks distinct Chinese-Canadian dishes from specific provinces. Posted on YouTube and disguised as a typical how-to cooking show, another conversation and narrative are hidden in the Canadian English closed captions and the “recipe” linked in the description box.

Food, like art, is not neutral. Looking at cuisines as windows through which to study perceptions of tradition and authenticity, I draw viewers in with the familiar to confront the uncomfortable histories embedded in the everyday.

Artist Bio:

🔮 Snack Witch Joni Cheung 🍡 is a grateful, uninvited guest born—and knows she wants to die—on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh peoples. They are currently working on the stolen lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka peoples, to become a Certified Sculpture Witch with a MFA from Concordia University. A wicked #magicalgirl ✨ eating art + making snacks⁠, their interdisciplinary, sculptural practice investigates the relationship between objects↔place↔identity, navigating discourses of transnationalism, migration, and diasporas, always with humour, and sometimes with food. 😉

Image ID:

Soba, a large calico (orange, white, brown and black) cat, awakens in their avocado cat bed. In the background is a close-up image of Alberta Ginger Beef. In the foreground is the text “Ginger Beef From Albertaaa” in light blue, Comic Sans font; an image of the “I <3 Alberta Beef” Bumper Sticker; and a pink dream cloud with an image of a person wearing a cat apron, holding up a piece of ginger beef with green chopsticks, is layered on top.

Documentation by Polina Teif.