Proud owner of a chow chow checking in. The proper name of the breed is chow chow, not just chow.
Anyway, the English word chow (as in food) comes from the pidgen Chinese word for food (more specifically a type of relish) which was chowchow. This was shortened to chow and then later expanded to mean stuff or good from China. So a chow chow dog was a Chinese dog.
When China was ruled by emperors, that particular breed could only be owned by royalty. They mainly used them as guard dogs, not for food. After the revolution, the people were against all things royal and killed virtually all of the chow chow dogs. Some of them may have been barbequed at that point but that wasn’t the main reason they were killed.
I have read that all of the chow chows that now exist are from a very small population of dogs that were given to a British couple as a gift from the Emporers (or perhaps smuggled) before the revolution.
As for the bamboo thing, this is the first I have heard of it.