Travel Canada: Best Chinese Food on the Planet?
VANCOUVER’S CHINESE FOOD SECOND TO NONE
So you think you’ve had it good, eh? Been to Beijing, you say? Been to Taiwan? Frisco? Hong Kong? Well, they’ve got nothing on Vancouver, so says Condé Nast Traveler, the hoity toity travel magazine. Oh, you know the one, with the really thick paper and glossy covers, filled with drooly pages of places you want to visit. Mark Schatzker, the Toronto writer for the magazine says that “… the experience in Vancouver left me trembling.” Trembling? Well, perhaps he’s on the MSG train a tad too much, but we do loves us our West Coast Dumplings.
Being originally from Vancouver, our family can personally attest not only to the wonderful quality of Chinese cuisine, but as well to the myriad varieties of Middle Kingdom cuisine. Some of our favourites spring from the hot and spicy Schezuan and Beijing, to the more nuanced Southern Cantonese, to the cheap and cheerful Taiwanese and Hong Kong style noodle dishes. No this definitely ain’t your daddy’s sweet and sour pork.
How did Lotusland become such a hotspot for hotpot? Having a location pretty much as south and west as you can get in Canada guarantees that this very busy port-of-call will get the first pick when it comes to seafood stock. The temperate climate of the Lower Mainland allows a large variety of fresh produce to be grown. What cannot be found within B.C. can be easily imported from Asian sources. So this equates to very-recently-flopping-fresh-from-the-ocean, or just-picked-to-your-plate, straight to tantalized taste buds. As any decent cook will attest, nothing beats fresh ingredients.
Vancouver, being on the Pacific Rim, has over the past few decades experienced very active immigration. One in three people are Asian in what has been affectionately coined as Hongcouver. With the larger influx of Chinese peoples, not only does this drive increase demand for familiar foods and delicacies, but also pulls chefs to meet the insatiable demand. The proliferation of Asian malls and markets about the city provides a convenient and constant stream of needed ingredients for chefs to work their magic. Yaohan centre, Aberdeen Mall, Crystal Mall, and many many others have sprung up over the decades about the lower mainland to house the not only wet and dry markets but bustling cafes, bakeries and restaurants.
If you haven’t had a chance to experience the West Coast’s scrumptious Chinese Cuisine, what’s stopping you? As the famous saying goes… “When in Vancouver, eat Chinese food!” It’ll leave you trembling.
Chinese favourites include:
- Taiwanese snacks and bubble drinks
- The ever popular and flamboyant hand-made pulling-, dragging-, and cutting-noodles
- Weekend dim sum
- Chinese baked pastries: cocktail buns, egg tarts, flaky beef curry pies
No Comments to “Travel Canada: Best Chinese Food on the Planet?”