This dining car menu celebrates Canadian fish & game, or the hunters of same. The front cover, shown below, shows someone catching what looks like a smallmouth bass. The back cover shows two hunters, one aiming at a rocky mountain goat. This could be a subtle dig at the Great Northern, Canadian Pacific’s great rival until the Canadian National managed to get itself organized. Neither of the illustrations are signed, I suspect because they aren’t good enough that an artist would want to take credit for them.
Click image to download a 3.5-MB PDF of this menu.
The menu is undated, but based on the lamb chop index it is from somewhere between 1924 and 1927 (CP frequently changed the price of lamb chops on its menus). Based on the design, particularly the decoration around the edges of the interior pages, I would say it is from 1924 or 1925.
The menu has non-alcoholic beverages on the left and a la carte evening meal on the right. A table d’hôte card was probably inserted into the menu.
I wasn’t familiar with chow chow, seen here for 15¢. This is from the Wikipedia article:
“Its ingredients vary considerably, depending on whether it is the “Northern” (primarily Pennsylvanian) or “Southern” variety, as well as separate (and likely the original) Canadian variety, prevalent in the Maritimes. The former is made from a combination of vegetables, mainly green and red tomatoes, onions, carrots, beans of various types, asparagus, cauliflower and peas. The latter is entirely or almost entirely green tomatoes or cabbage. These ingredients are pickled in a canning jar. After preserving, chow-chow is served cold, often as a condiment or relish.”