Summary Of Code-Switching In Fred Wah's Diamond Grill

I will examine the function of food as signifier of ethnic identity and the culinary code-switching that occurs in Fred Wah’s Diamond Grill. My analysis will be between two different types of food items in Diamond Grill: the sugary sodas and ice cream that Fred makes in the restaurant and the Chinese rice soup which his Grandfather eats and which Fred eventually begins to make. This comparison reveals interplay between the cultural memory of the nation his grandfather immigrated from and the North American identity that Fred is creating in Canada. Negotiating between these two culinary identities becomes a form of culinary code-switching, to modify Mary Louise Pratt’s terminology.

Wah cites Pratt’s definition of code-switching in a footnote as a practice “in which speakers switch spontaneously and fluidly between two languages” (qtd. in Wah 78). However, there are differences between Pratt’s formulation of

Going out of us. Gone now, from him, to him, to me” (Wah 74). Intergenerational change and immigration to Canada at first conveys the loss of both culinary identification and cultural identity. But one food practice that is immediately passed on comes from his father’s instructions on the maintenance of the soda fountain: “The soda fountain has to sparkle, Freddy, my dad warns. It’s your job to keep it neat, clean, and ready—real pizzazz, ya understand?” (Wah 41) Utilizing American colloquialisms, Fred’s father establishes a place for Fred to create confections and the cultural identity they connote. Fred notes, “The soda fountain becomes my territory” (Wah 41). By means of his territory, Fred has the ability to formulate his own cultural identity that assimilates Canadian culture — he is able to improvise his soda and ice-cream confections, creating “the Grey Cup Special”, a mélange of nuts, chocolate, fruit and