Canada Wins Chinese Gold
As most everyone is aware, earlier this month, Conde Nast Traveler named Vancouver as having the best Chinese food in the world. On the eve of Chinese New Year, I thought I’d share the article with you, as published by the Magazine. The below is the photo and article in its original entirety.
Kung Hei Fat Choi from all of us at Edible BC!
CANADA WINS CHINESE GOLD
by Mark Schatzker | Published February 2010 |
Vancouver may be hosting the WInter Olympics, but it also seems to triumph in dumpling devouring. Over 38 meals in 12 restaurants, our indefatigable writer beholds the thrill of noodle pulling. (Warning: Don’t read this on an empty stomach)
Forget about dumpling hunting in San Francisco. Cancel that pilgrimage to Flushing, Queens, for fish ball soup. If it’s Chinese food you’re after, pack your chopsticks for Vancouver—and say a silent thanks to geopolitics as your plane lands. It was 1997’s repatriation of Hong Kong that began the mass influx of Chinese to British Columbia’s lower mainland, a migration which continues to this day, fueled in part by Canada’s immigrant-friendly policies. Today, almost one in five of Vancouver’s two million residents is ethnically Chinese.
Combine those demographics with the city’s legendary seafood and you have the recipe for an outsize number of extremely good Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Szechuan restaurants. According to local Chinese food critic and writer Stephanie Yuen—who was born in Hong Kong and has eaten extensively there, in mainland China, and in Taiwan—Vancouver is home to the best Chinese food in the world. Period. Perhaps that explains why visitors from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have started showing up in Vancouver just to eat the food they so love. Maybe it’s time you did likewise.
Best Seafood
The Golden Dungeness Crab at Ken’s Chinese Restaurant gets top honors here. The sweetness of the crab’s delicate flesh comes through loud and clear, thanks to a lightly spiced egg-white sauce that takes hours to make. You’ll find Golden Dungeness Crab prepared this way in other restaurants, but it was invented right here by Ken himself, and no one does it better (1097 Kingsway; 604-873-6338; $11 per pound).
Best Dumpling
The award goes to the Xiao Long Bao at Lin Chinese Cuisine and Tea House (see Best Noodle Dish ), where diners can watch as the dough for Shanghai-style soup dumplings is rolled out and packed with ground pork. The secret to Lin’s win is the inclusion of tiny cubes of jellied pork stock—they melt in the steamer and give each bite a mouth-bursting pop of savory juiciness ($5$7). For a genteel, high-end dim sum feast, head to Sun Sui Wah (3888 Main St.; 604-872-8822; dumplings, $3$6) or Kirin Restaurant (201 City Square Mall, 555 W. 12th Ave.; 604-879-8038; dumplings, $4$6).
Best Only in Vancouver
We have a tie—both dishes from Yan’s Garden Chinese Restaurant (see Best Chinese Dessert ): the Sautéed Geoduck with Stir-Fried Mushrooms—a sweet giant burrowing clam paired with king oyster mushrooms and asparagus ($20)—and the 3 Red Chili Pepper Steamed Eel, a European and Asian delicacy that’s at its briny best right here ($17).
Best Noodle Dish
The Preserved Vegetable and Pork Soup at Lin Chinese Cuisine and Tea House wins this category. The supple noodles are made in-house and arrive floating in a homemade chicken broth adulterated with pork bone for extra umami. Pair it with a light green tea called sau mei (1537 W. Broadway; 604-733-9696; $6). Need a fried noodle fix? Skip the chow mein and get the 5 Vermicelli with Pork, Chicken, and Shrimp at Ken’s Chinese Restaurant (see Best Seafood ). According to Stephanie Yuen, this dish has serious wok energy —you’ll understand once you try it ($9).
Best Breakfast
For a savory start to the day, visit the Congee Noodle House (see Best Soup ) and order the Congee with Shredded Pork and Preserved Egg. Congee is a hearty rice gruel, and the serving is mammoth, so if you plan on having an appetite at lunch, put down the spoon when you’re halfway through the bowl ($5).
Best Chinese Dessert
The Chinese are not known for their desserts, but the stir-fried 2 Golden Pumpkin with Honeyed Walnut at Yan’s Garden Chinese Restaurant will make you wonder whether they’ve been getting a bum rap all these years. As with many Asian sweets, the dish will initially strike you as simplistic, but by the third bite you’ll be in love with its crispy exterior, which hides a nutty, gently spicy interior that verges on nougat (9948 Lougheed Hwy., Burnaby; 604-421-8823; $11).
Best soup
We beg you, resist the urge to order wonton again and instead head to Loon’s Noodle House for an edifying bowl of 4 Salted and Fresh Pork in a Hot Pot. This is sturdy northern peasant fare at its best, featuring big, soft hunks of Chinese ham in chicken broth, and pasta-like knots of tofu skin (4853 Main St.; 604-879-7879; $13). If you absolutely must have wonton soup, Congee Noodle House has the best in town (141 Broadway E.; 604-879-8221; $6).
Single best culinary reason to fly to Vancouver
The Guizhou-style Tilapia with Cilantro and Chili Sauce at S&W Pepper House. This locals-only Szechuan spot is the birthplace of a dish that is as mouth-numbingly hot as it is awesome (6820 No. 3 Rd., Richmond; 604-304-0118; $17).
Best Asian Mall
In nearby Richmond is the Yaohan Centre—think of it as a suburban reinterpretation of Hong Kong (without the jet lag!). Every evening, watch as throngs of Chinese mothers who can’t be bothered to break out the wok pick up takeout for the whole fam. Do as they do and order the Curried Beef Brisket at Curry House ($8) and the Mini Hot Pot at Z’s ($5), and finish with a $2 bowl of Bean Sprout Chow Mein at Wah Yuen Noodle House (3700 No. 3 Rd.; 604-231-0601).
A Chinese Dine-Around Extravaganza – by Stephanie Yuen
The arrival of 2010 literally meant I’d be celebrating my silver anniversary as a food writer. Not sure if doing the same thing for 25 years is an indication of how much I like my job, but I do admit there have been many breathtaking moments when food takes centre stage. As we say goodbye to 2009, allow me to take this opportunity to share with you one of those moments – a Chinese restaurant dine-around which wrapped up 2009 in marvels.
The dine-around took place in Richmond, 3 restaurants and 5 eateries were featured, all are the 2010 winners of ‘Diners Choice Awards’, the publicly voted award system of Edgewater Casino Chinese Restaurant Awards.
We kicked off the evening at Northern Delicacy, a Northern Chinese restaurant inside Aberdeen Centre with Sumac Ridge’s Stella Jay and an enviable platter of BBQ goodies delivered to the restaurant by the chef-owner Eric Leung of BBQ Master. BC Brut with Chinese BBQs was definitely a first to many of the guests, but they did pair wonderfully.
Next came the appetizers. Northern Chinese restaurants traditionally start a meal with 4, 6 or 8 cold and/or hot small plates. That evening, we had 4 of each including: Chicken Fenpi Salad, Jelly Pork; Xiao Long Bao and my favourite – Deep-fried Crab & Tofu Eggroll, What a parade of food to begin a meal!
The plate of crimson pig trotters is a dimsum special at Empire Chinese Cuisine
Empire Chinese Cuisine on Alexander Road around the corner was the second restaurant. Besides a myriad of dimsum, a plate of Crimson pig trotters was served. The trotters were cut into pieces, boiled, marinated in 5-spiced soy, red tofu paste (where the crimson colour landed) & wine sauce, hung-dried, steamed and then deep-fried. It’s a lot of work but the texture and flavour was sensational.
A few doors down Empire is Northern Dynasty, winner of the Best Fine Dining Restaurant Award and our last stop of the evening. Alaska King Crab done in 4-ways: Legs halved and steamed with chopped garlic; arms lightly fried with salt and pepper; shell stuffed with fried-rice and baked in Portugese curry sauce; and Hand-pulled noodle stir-fried in crab jus.
Before a platter of 2 desserts: Lychee and Wolfeberry jelly cake and Coconut Sponge Pudding was delivered, Pastry Chef of the Canadian Culinary Team Micky Zhao, Executive Chef of St. Germain Bakery came in with sweet surprises: A chocolate box filled with hand-crafted truffles and dainty pastries for us to take home.
A display of award winning Pastry Chef Micky Zhao's culinary delicacies
Everyone greeted Chef Zhao with Wows and Ahs. To wrap up this scrumptious repast was another dessert course: A bowl of diced pumpkin and sago sweet crème soup. Every body around the table thought there was no way we could finish this soup, but boy, did we think wrong! This soft-golden colour soup was not just heavenly delicious but somehow had a settling effect so instead of feeling absolutely full, we felt relaxed!
What Keeps Us Going – My Recent Dining Experience – by Stephanie Yuen
My Food & Travel writer friend Mark from Toronto was in town for two and a half days. “I’m going to take you on a dining tour of Metro Vancouver” I told him on the phone. And we did just that on the last day, a 9-hour day of experiencing the best Chinese cuisine in town. Oh, don’t get me wrong, this kind of eating day only happens once in a blue moon.
We visited 8 places, ordered 2 dishes per location, went to a dessert house in Richmond before we waved goodbye at the airport. Starting from Lin’s Chinese Cuisine’s award wining Xiao Long Bao, to fighting with Ken’s Golden Spicy Crab; from nibbling on a $28 plate of 12 pieces Suckling Pig, to seducing our sweet teeth with a bowl of Yam in Ginger Soup, this is one exceptional day full of explosive flavours that Mark and I will cherish for a long time.
As one can imagine, throughout the day we had to stop eating half-ways simply because we must pace ourselves, knowing that more dishes were waiting in other restaurants. But neither one of us wanted to put down our chopsticks at Yen’s Garden.
My dining experience at Yen’s has always been good, once again, driving the distance from Broadway Vancouver to North Road & Lougheed where Yen’s located proved to be a smart move. Geoduck sautéed with King Mushrooms came first. Sliced paper thin, the tender and silky smooth clam was simply sensational, complimented nicely with the sliced mushrooms that shared almost the same kind of tender texture, sweet soy was the key seasoning here. Fresh Eel steamed in Lotus Leaf arrived with a soft crown of aroma.
The eel was cut into thick slices, lined on a bed of lotus leaf and steamed inside a bamboo basket. Chopped chili pepper and a trace of wine along with the exotic earthy eel flavour put us in focus – enjoying each slice of eel in silence, half were gone before the manager returned to fill our tea pot.
I don’t know about my eating partner Mark, but I broke my own record of indulging and sweeping clean two plates in 20 minutes, and this was only the second location of the 8 restaurants scheduled for the day. Brilliant culinary skills, intriguing fine food and good company, they are the reasons why we love doing what we do, and still finds ourselves in cloud 9 from time to time.
What: BC Geoduck and Ontario Eel
Where: Yen’s Garden Restaurant
9948 lougheed Highway, Burnaby 604-421-8823
Still Wondering What Dimsum is? – by Stephanie Yuen
Cantonese dimsum is more refined
I was asked to talk about dimsum in a TV interview recently and interesting questions were raised.
“Dimsum means dumplings?”
“Dimsum refers to appetizers?”
“That’s what Chinese eat, right?”
Pardon me, but I thought food lovers in Metro Vancouver know dimsum quite well already! In the contrary and to my surprise, quite a few hands were up when the emcees asked “Who has never had dimsum?” in a recent food event.
Ah, voices in the audience were whispering, “How could you not have dimsum when you live in Vancouver?”
Well, reasons there might be many, but let me clear the air here and now.
Dimsum, translates into ‘Heart’s delight’, refers to a wide range of small portions of cold or hot dishes cooked in many different ways.
History told us it started when small plates of peasant food were served along with tea in tea houses along major routes in rural areas for travelers, merchants and even local farmers as a rest point. But the refined version of dimsum never took form until the chefs who cooked in the Forbidden City were released back to their hometown. These chefs used to come up with charming and delicate morsels to please the emperor, the queen, the royal members and the VIPs, their culinary creativity and skills were considered the best in the country. They urbanized the style of cooking and elevated small plates to ‘dimsum’ when they brought their culinary craftsmanship back home with them.
cold meat jello is a popular Northern dimsum dish
The word ‘Dimsum’ has somehow become a modern day culinary term which means a style of eating, often enjoyed in the morning or at lunch time.
The vast geographic landscapes of China induce climatic and agricultural variation, granting different regional produce and dietary habits. Northern Chinese rely on wheat and grains and as a result, noodles, buns and dumplings are the main staples. In the warmer Southern regions, rice is the daily meal. Dimsum is one good example showcasing culinary differences between Northern and Southern regions.
Southern (Cantonese) dimsum served on carts in restaurants is called ‘Yumcha’ (drink tea). This is often mistaken to be the only form of dimsum available. As a matter of fact, the bowl of Tan-Tan Noodle; the pot-stickers; the variety of cold plates, even the steamed buns served in a Northern Chinese eatery are all dimsum.
Northern dimsum constitutes 2 major categories:
1/ Hand-made floury items such as pulled noodles (panfried or in soup); steamed vegetarian buns, pan-fried onion cakes, Guoteh (pot stickers) and the most delicate, extremely popular Xiao Long Bao (Juicy Pork dumpling).
2/ Peasant style cold plates such as Spicy chicken; Pressed tofu salad; Marinated cucumber and Seaweed salad.
Southern restaurants offer a much wider range, more delicate dimsum menu:
Dumplings: such as Har-gau (shrimp dumpling), Siumai (pork dumpling), Chiujow Funn-Guo (peanut dumpling).
Steamed morsels: Spareribs in black bean sauce, Chicken feet, Beef balls.
Buns: BBQ Pork bun (Char-siu bao) and sweet buns.
Pan-fried dishes: Stuffed eggplants, Chow-mein with soy; Daikon cakes.
Deep-fried goodies: such as calamari and spring rolls.
Desserts: Baked tapioca pudding, sesame balls and egg tarts.
No matter what dimsum we are enjoying, they’re meant to be enjoyed with tea. Cantonese take great pleasure in tea drinking, the very reason why when we go ‘yum-cha’, we’re offered choices of tea – Jasmine, Iron Buddha, Dragon Well, Pu-er…etc.
2ND ANNUAL CHINESE RESTAURANT AWARDS – VOTING NOW!
Last week the categories and judges were announced for the second annual Edgewater Casino Chinese Restaurant Awards (CRA). “These are the first awards of its kind in North America to recognize the excellence of Chinese culinary arts by awarding also particular dishes, not just restaurants. This cuisine exerts an important influence on the culinary culture of Metro Vancouver and is one of the reasons Vancouver is recognized world wide as the Chinese gourmet capital outside of China. We could not have been more delighted by the success of the first year,” says Criag Stowe, awards director. “More than 7,000 diners cast their ballots last year. The dining public, from high-school students to elders, discussed the merits of the restaurants and preparation of various dishes. Given the level of last year’s interest, and with HSBC Bank Canada and Tourism Richmond on board as our partners, we are expecting even greater public participation this year.”
The CRA are divided into two components: The Critics’ Choice Signature Dish Awards and the HSBC Diners’ Choice Awards.
For the Critics’ Choice Signature Dish component, the judging panel is comprised of food professional and journalists who possess a strong knowledge of Chinese cuisine. “They have to understand the cooking methods, history and traditions of Chinese food,” says panel Chair, Stephanie Yuen. “This is really important. It creates a level judging field where they all share the same criteria.” Upon joining the panel, each judge receives a directory of the more than 400 Chinese restaurants in Metro Vancouver. By mid September, they have submitted three to five nominees for each category. Then all the judges go out and taste each other’s recommendations. This goes on through November, when they meet to vote on the 25 Gold and 25 Silver Signature Dish winners.
The HSBC Diners’ Choice Awards allows the public to also participate. From the original list of nominees and other suggestions by the judges, between 10 to 20 restaurants are then selected to be included in each of the 15 different award categories.
The public votes on-line for its choices. Voting is now open at www.votedinerschoice.com and continues until November 15.
The winners will be announced on January 27, 2010 at an Awards Ceremony held at the Edgewater Casino’s Stadium Club.
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