Only one of these menu cards is dated, but they are of a similar style and were probably issued around the same time. The first was used on the Empress of Russia in December 1919. Though it doesn’t say so, it looks like a dinner menu.
Click image to view and download a PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
The menu lists 21 numbered items. “Tunny fish,” an old name for tuna, is one of the hors d’oeuvres. The fish course is Fraser River salmon. There are four entrées, and the “joint” (though not called that) is roast quail. Four different desserts are items 15 through 18, then item 20 is simply “dessert.”
The bottom of the menu advises that “Members of the Henry McRae Oriental Expedition will entertain in the Lounge at 9 p.m., this Evening.” Henry McRae was a Canadian film pioneer who had been in China filming a twelve-part action serial called The Dragon’s Net. McRae is credited with such cinematic innovations as the first wind machines, double exposures, and night shooting. Unfortunately, The Dragon’s Net, which sounds like an Indiana Jones movie, is considered lost, but we can imagine that the “entertainment” might have been background scenes shot for the movie.
Click image to view and download a PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
Today’s second menu was used on the Empress of Asia. Like the previous menu, it was designed to allow diners to tear off the top and mail it as a postcard. Unfortunately, someone has glued the menu to another sheet of paper, so the postal imprint on the back is no longer visible. It probably looked much like the one for the Hotel Vancouver.
The waterfall in the photo, which the menu calls Echo Falls, is today called Bow Falls. Unfortunately, the black-and-white photo does not do it justice.
The menu has 23 numbered items as well as a few that aren’t numbered. Though it doesn’t say so, it was clearly a dinner menu. After hors d’oeuvres and soup, the fish course was mullet or salmon; then an entrée of fillet mignon, frogs, or poultry; followed by a joint of roast sirloin, mutton, duck, or suckling pig with potatoes and vegetables; then a roast hare; followed by a choice of five sweets; then a savory of roast woodcock; and finally dessert or cheese with coffee. At least the first-class passengers on this ship did not go hungry.