Many people know this old building as the old "Canterbury Public Library" building
For me, this was and always will be: "The Original Home of 'Jade Garden' - Dim Sum Chinese Restaurant" (although apparently, they may have been in one other location before this one IIRC)
I was inspired to write this little oral history down for posterity when stumbling across the photo below earlier today (complete with the caption that showed below it). It was one of the first times I'd come across a decent photo of the place, so thought it was a good chance to write this down.
Canterbury Public Library 19 December 1981. Exterior of the former Canterbury Public Library building on the corner of Cambridge Terrace and Hereford Street. Christchurch Star archive photo
* Jade Garden used to be at the very end of the hallway once you walked in there (via that set of doors you see the center). The outside of the restaurant had an indoor pavillion-like thing, made of white-painted wood + glass, with a little fish pond around the base, and mostly used as a bit of storeroom IIRC.
** This central-city location was before moving into the shop on Lincoln Rd in Addington, that later became "North & South Gourmet" when the owners retired. North & South Gourmet then stayed there in that spot until about December 2022, when the landlord apparently jacked up the rent + demanded a 15 year lease period, and they ended up shutting down (at which point, the shop along with the rest of the mall underwent a massive renovation... I haven't been to the replacement restaurant yet, and don't intend to! :P) Anyway, they'd been operating there inbetween for many years, through many trials, including:
1) A 1 yr period where they were out of action pending a complete rebuild due to an early morning fire on Saturday March 28 one year (about 1 week after the "big fish" that had been a fixture since the Jade Garden days died + was replaced with a bunch of goldfish);
2) A change of ownership a few years later, leading to the founding of Maxine's Palace across the road... and
3) COVID Lockdowns - We went there for minimal-contact takeaways quite a bit back then
** That Addington shop is where the "Addington Mall Fish Supply" was in the "Discovery Wall" image floating around when you search for that mall - right beside the sign at the entrance to the carpark, opposite a pub + a Dominos Pizza Takeaway. Heck, the first time we were there, they were actually still moving stuff into the kitchen even, so they could only do some simple things like BBQ Pork on Rice, or Soy Sauce Noodles IIRC
Anyway, back to the focus of today's story - The former Canterbury Public Library Chambers restaurant:
* IIRC, this original central-city restaurant is where I used to have:
1) 2-3 plates of egg tarts (back when I didn't like very much else). These were what I now refer to as the "good" classic ones that I use as my benchmark: Flaky Pastry, a nice Warm Yellow (not orange, not pale yellow, not greyish yellow... just, standard yellow), and a smooth soft + moist sweet filling
2) Char Leong (their's was the 2nd place I had it at IIRC (the first being Shangri-La on Kilmore opposite the Park Royal). Their version with a tendency to make the breadsticks small + dark + very crunchy, with a bunch of spring onion + hoisin sauce on top IIRC.
3) They also had a really nice "Combination Ho Fun with Gravy" - That specific flavor is something I do often crave but increasingly can't find anywhere. (The closest I can sometimes get now is what they serve at Madam Kwong if you specifically order it (off menu)... and minus all the red peppers they shove in there)
There were also probably many other goodies I can't remember, but those were my 3 personal biggies at the time
As for the rest of the building:
* For many years, there was a large two-story high central area with a glass wall (with medium/dark wood pillars, holding up panes of glass with this thin black-wire mesh to strengthen it against break-ins), and on the other side, a bunch of Westpac / Trustbank teller desks with red carpet (and IIRC some chandeliers) - that was always shut, cos Saturday / Weekends!
* At some point though (maybe around 98/99), Westpac moved out (or maybe they'd been moved out for quite a while, as it always seemed abandoned), but eventually a wedding dress company took over that side space. One of the first things they did was they put up a solid white wall with a tiny door (and IIRC some of that patterned / embroidered wallpaper). Blegh...
Even worse, was that they then aggressively started blocking off carparks outside + enforcing that even when they had no clients, which was really annoying for all of us Asian folk trying to go to a busy restaurant for lunch on the weekends! (A similar problem also played out when Asha in Riccarton had a Mad Butcher open up right next door)
Note: Maybe the seeds were planted back then... or maybe it was the increasing inability to be able to access The Sign of Takahe up on the hill, or Mona Vale's Homestead... But just as with all those nice venues that went into being wedding event venues, you can see why I've come to rather passionately hate such places: First they start getting booked for weedings (or maybe the owners just go after that market directly); Then they increasingly close themselves off to the public (until it becomes permanent); Then they become really quite snooty about it all, while giving off what they think is an "elegant + lux" look! 😜 Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck!!!! 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
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Additional details I missed above for space + narrative:
* Jade Garden used to serve tea in these unique angular yet round metal teapots
* The kitchen (facing the central police station) had two large doors with large round windows
* The egg tarts would be spread out on 1-2 tables by the entrance, beside the cash register. (IIRC, Foo San would have them facing the front door as you went in, with all the tables in the room / conjoined shop to the left)
* Inside, there was rather plain decor - i.e It was just white paint over the walls and pillars holding up the low ceiling, and warm dim lighting from light fixtures on the walls
* The only thing I didn't like about that building was that under the thick greyish-blue carpet, there would be random "panels" that would creak in horrid + unpredictable ways.
(Yes, that's one thing I don't like to this day: Stepping foot in carpeted old buildings where the floorboards randomly creak underfoot, but you can't see what's underneath the carpet to avoid those!)
* Oh, IIRC, the rest of that corridor had fancy dark wooden paneling, and I think the lobby had marble flooring + a pair of heavy wood + brass doors. Or maybe I hallucinate now...
* One time we had lunch with a friend of Dad's who had a kid around my age (JJ?) - The two things I remember about that meeting were:
a) That's probably one of the few times we had lunch with anyone else there
b) I learned for the first time that day that there were kids out there who used to fanatically rewatch certain shows. Like, every day. Hundreds of times... from VHS tapes (!!!). In JJ's case: "The Lion King".
(It's only now, in the modern streaming era that this is much more common, and I too admit that all of my favourite stuff I've watched through at least 3-4 times each in general, with rewatches every few years when the mood strikes; though most of these I keep copies of privately so I can still always access them)
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