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Table scraps

War and Peace menu a classic

I put on the best fake smile I could muster.

“Sure I would love to go,” I grinned outside and grimaced inside at my friend’s suggestion of grabbing dinner at a Canadian/Chinese/Japanese restaurant in Pemberton.

Past horrors of similar establishments where menus read longer than War and Peace flashed before me along with visions of plates with food that all looked strangely the same, despite your server swearing one dish was fried chicken and the other was chop suey. My nature of perpetual war was on going.

Raw macaroni with no-name ketchup seemed like a happier alternative at the time, but my 6’6 foot giant of a friend disagreed. He was hungry.

So the three of us set off for a night on the town in Pemberton at the Canadian/Chinese/Japanese restaurant where three countries manage to squeeze themselves into one kitchen.

I soon learned this cultural mouthful actually has an official title: The Centennial Café.

The building is as eclectic as the menu. The outside is a beautiful wooden structure, a shiny edition of something you might see in a western film. But inside, suddenly you are in the stereotypical Chinese restaurant you might find anywhere in the city. The décor is simple, clean and Asian inspired.

There was only one table occupied, so we treated ourselves to a window seat looking out on the town.

War and Peace was handed out to the three of us and I skimmed for the Coles Notes version to get dinner underway. I flipped by the dozen daily specials and Canadian fare, past the Japanese plates and Chinese individual dishes and finally rested on the Chinese dinner combo specials in the back.

I will never again judge a book by its cover, or should I say girth.

War and Peace was not considered a novel because it broke so many of the novelistic conventions of its time. The same could apply to the Centennial Café where its multi-chaptered menu leaves you wondering where does it store all of the ingredients to make so many dishes?

The menu almost dares you to order at complete opposite ends of the spectrum to see if the kitchen is good to their word.

The kitchen was obviously well versed on Leo Tolstoy or at least on an excerpt from On Civil Disobedience . Tolstoy wrote, “a man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.”

The server and kitchen happily accommodated my pseudo-vegetarian request for a Chinese food combo. The chicken fried rice and chow mein was amended to more green-thinking by substituting the meat with vegetables, the capital “V” kind.

Forget those nightmares of frozen carrots, beans and peas that most Canadian/Chinese/Japanese restaurants reap. Sliced grilled zucchini gave away the fresh garden adorning the non-greasy noodles and rice.

Flavours were simple, satisfying and if you could ever call Chinese food healthy, this was one of those rare times.

The deep-fried prawns were perfectly battered; not too heavy, crisp and not fishy.

Get past the plastic pouches of plum sauce to golden crisp fresh spring rolls. Again, vegetables could be easily identified inside the roll and they were delivered smoking hot.

The portions were so generous, even my 6’6 foot friend was satisfied. I stole a tasty bite of his black bean, green bean and tofu dish with rice – again the kitchen was happy to amend the original beef dish to tofu.

I passed on my other friend’s offering of sweet and sour pork and chicken cashew. He was enjoying it so much I didn’t want to interrupt him.

Our fortune cookie omen of “Good fortune is coming your way” manifested itself with our cheque’s arrival. Three generous meals, an order of spring rolls, Chinese tea and a beer came to $42 dollars.

Families with kids or friends who can never make up their mind obviously took advantage of the wide-variety of choice with the restaurant filling up later on in the evening.

I don’t think I am brave enough to order a steak, but Canadian, Japanese, Chinese restaurants are no longer a daunting read. The Centennial Café is a classic and maybe in the world of 20-odd-item menus and fusion this and that, like Tolstoy, they are just ahead of their time surviving in a restaurant-limited town.

The Centennial Café is located at 7439 Frontier Street in Pemberton just off Highway 99, a 25-minute drive north of Whistler. Phone 604-894-6433.