A dish is prepared in a wok at a restaurant in Toronto.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Jason Wang is the co-editor of Creative Resilience and COVID-19: Figuring the Everyday in a Pandemic, as well as the forthcoming Writing COVID-19 Lives.

For nearly a century, a ritual has become so entrenched into the Jewish experience in North America that it has become shorthand: Every Christmas, while much of the country gathers around a roast or a turkey, Jewish families gather around a Lazy Susan for ginger beef and egg rolls. The clatter of porcelain in a brightly lit dining room is the quintessential soundtrack for this beloved tradition.

This bond was forged in the heat of urban necessity. In the mid-20th century, Chinese restaurants often functioned as rare neutral zones in cities divided by rigid social hierarchies. For Jewish immigrants, these spaces offered a dual sanctuary: Chinese cuisine’s typically dairy-free menus happened to also be kosher – or at least kosher in appearance, with pork that was minced or hidden – and a social environment free of antisemitic gatekeeping allowed people to eat with dignity. In the geography of the outsider, the Chinese restaurant was a safe place where no one looked twice at a family that didn’t belong in a cathedral or a country club.

We asked for your favourite holiday food memories. You delivered

© The Globe and Mail