Chinese puzzle solved

There was a Chinese restaurant in Canberra as early as the 1950s. After Neil Manton's quest to track down the first Chinese eatery in Canberra (Food and Wine, June 19), readers told us of a place called Lee's. Mary Boardman remembers the Manuka restaurant as Ri-Lee's, a play, she says, on the Irishman owner's last name, Riley. She had arrived in Canberra from Cambridge in 1956, when she says the food scene was pretty grim, and the restaurant was there within a year or two. She remembers it with bitterness; she ate there one night and was very sick the next day.

Peter Rimington remembers a Lee's Inn in Manuka, already open when he arrived in Canberra in 1960. He recalls having to take your own saucepans for takeaway. Everybody had a Band-Aid on the lid with their name on it, he says. He also remembers Mrs Happy's in Queanbeyan, where they served “special Chinese tea” late at night – teacup and saucers and teapot full of whiskey.

Penny Jurkiewicz says her husband Wal Jurkiewicz arrived in Canberra with his parents from Cowra Camp about 1951, and remembers Happy's being the city's first Chinese. It was at the top of Lonsdale Street, where there is now a petrol station, and Wal Jurkiewicz remembers his father bringing home takeaways after work. She points out that Mee Sing in the Lyneham shops has been there since at least 1976 when she visited.

We've been sent an advertisement from June 1956, where the Gloucester restaurant announces that “for those who appreciate genuine Chinese food” it now has a Chinese chef.

So there's an answer for Manton: We've been eating Chinese for close to 60 years.