Chinese cuisine developed by Chinese Canadians
Canadian Chinese cuisine
(
French
:
Cuisine chinoise canadienne
) is a
cuisine
derived from
Chinese cuisine
that was developed by
Chinese Canadians
. It was the first form of commercially available Chinese food in Canada. This cooking style was invented by early
Cantonese
immigrants who adapted traditional
Chinese recipes
to Western tastes and the available ingredients, and developed in a similar process to
American Chinese cuisine
.
History
[
edit
]
Canadian Chinese cuisine originated in the mid-19th century, primarily in
Western Canada
and the
Canadian Prairies
, among Chinese immigrants who moved to Canada, and among Chinese labourers working on the
Canadian Pacific Railway
between
Vancouver
,
British Columbia
and
Montreal
,
Quebec
. Many labourers who remained in Canada after the railway's completion opened small inexpensive "
Chinese cafes
" or worked as cooks in
mining
and
logging
camps,
canneries
, and in the private homes of the upper classes in cities and towns.
[1]
In British Columbia, a form of
buffet
known as the "Chinese
smorgasbord
" developed in pre-railway
Gastown
(the settlement that later became Vancouver) when
Scandinavian
loggers and millworkers encouraged their Chinese cooks to turn a
sideboard
into a
steam table
, instead of bringing plates of single dishes to the dining table.
Due to common
anti-Chinese sentiment
at the time, as well as the
Chinese Immigration Act, 1885
and
1923
, many Chinese immigrants were unable to work in businesses other than
restaurants
or
laundries
. Many restaurants were opened, despite their owners having little prior cooking experience. These restaurants were often established in small towns and rural areas where residents, predominantly
European Canadians
, already did not have gathering places of their own, and where the cook/owner could very well be the only Asian person in the community. Chinese restaurant owners thus often had to modify their menus to appeal to the Western tastes of Canadians; many Chinese-owned restaurants offered very limited selections of Chinese dishes, sometimes even omitting them entirely in favour of
Western dishes
that were more familiar to their customer bases.
Chinese restaurants also served as gathering places for the early Chinese Canadian community, especially among immigrants whose families could not emigrate with them due to the Chinese Immigration Acts. It was only after the Chinese Immigration Act was repealed in 1947 that Chinese dishes on restaurant menus became commonplace, and the general public became more interested in Chinese cuisine.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Limitations and cost factors relating to the ingredients available to Chinese Canadians affected the development of Canadian Chinese cuisine, since traditional Chinese ingredients were unavailable or too difficult to grow. For example, the reason
carrots
,
celery
, and
bean sprouts
are used more often in Canadian Chinese cuisine compared to Chinese cuisine is because of their ease in growing and availability, with bean sprouts in particular only requiring "a bucket and a water source".
[1]
A number of iconic Chinese restaurants were opened in the mid-20th century, though a number of them are defunct as of 2023
[update]
. Restaurateur Bill Wong (father of journalist
Jan Wong
) reportedly opened Montreal's first Chinese buffet restaurant, House of Wong, on Queen Mary Road in the heavily-Jewish
Snowdon
district in the 1950s. He later opened Bill Wong's on nearby Decarie Boulevard in 1962.
[6]
[7]
In 1975, Louise Tang and Lily Wong opened the Silver Inn in
Calgary
, where chef George Wong invented
ginger beef
in an attempt to combine the appeal of crunchy
french fries
, sweet-and-sour
ketchup
, and Albertan beef.
[2]
[8]
[9]
Further Cantonese immigration to Canada began anew in the 1960s, and was ignited in the 1980s and 1990s in anticipation of the
handover of Hong Kong to China
. This resulted in many Hongkongers relocating to other countries, but their most preferred was Canada, the preference resulting from Canada's
immigration policy
, high standard of living, established Chinese community, and membership in the
Commonwealth
. In contrast, the United States tended to accept more mainland or Taiwanese Chinese, while imposing immigration quotas on Commonwealth territories such as Hong Kong.
Today, Chinese Canadians are one of the largest visible minority groups in Canada, and
Chinatowns
are in
every major Canadian city
except
Quebec City
, with those in
Toronto
,
Vancouver
,
Montreal
, and
Calgary
being the largest.
Richmond, British Columbia
, and
Markham, Ontario
, both have significant Chinese Canadian populations, with a large number of Chinese restaurants in and around their respective cities. Increasing Chinese immigration, interest in Asian cuisine, and Canadian multiculturalism has created a demand for authentic Chinese cuisine, and many newer Chinese restaurants in Canada offer authentic
Cantonese
,
Hakka
, and
Sichuan
cuisine, among others, with Canadian Chinese dishes typically also available.
Canadian Chinese restaurants
[
edit
]
A vast majority of towns and cities in most of Canada have at least one Canadian Chinese restaurant. Many towns that cannot support a single
franchise
restaurant still have at least one thriving Chinese restaurant. Many independent restaurants in larger cities have found their business shrinking as delivery chains and buffets squeeze out traditional sit-down restaurants.
[
citation needed
]
Smaller and more rural settlements in northern regions of the provinces, as well as across the Prairies, tend to feature Chinese restaurants that also specialize in Western cuisine, often relics of when such menus were necessary for business. In
Glendon, Alberta
, for example, next to a
roadside model
of the world's largest
pierogi
(a staple of
Ukrainian cuisine
) is the Perogy Cafe, a
Vietnamese Canadian
-owned restaurant specializing in both Ukrainian pierogies and Chinese
jiaozi
.
Canadian Chinese chop suey houses are predominantly situated in non-immigrant neighbourhoods catering to non-Chinese customers. They are now most often mixed with those featuring the more traditional cuisines. Canadian Chinese restaurants are not limited to these areas and can often be found even at the farthest outskirts of the metropolitan areas. Because of the popularity of Canadian Chinese food, even some of the older authentic Chinese restaurants may offer Canadian Chinese dishes to cater to non-Chinese customers.
Restaurants in the newer Chinatowns, particularly in Vancouver and Toronto, tend to cater to recent Asian immigrants and offer more varied fare;
Sichuan
,
Hakka
,
Chiuchow
,
Taiwanese
, and even
Buddhist cuisine
restaurants can be found there. One of the largest concentration of Chinese restaurants in North America is located in the
Golden Village
area in
Richmond
, a suburb of Vancouver. The seafood served here is from the British Columbian coast.
Toronto's
Old Chinatown
has seen most of the once-famed restaurants on
Dundas Street
and
Spadina Avenue
close since the late 1990s, especially the
siu mei
barbecue shops on Dundas Street that were located below grade. The 1990s also saw the closure of demise of Hsin Huang (or Hsin Kuang), a three-restaurant chain in the Greater Toronto Area.
[10]
These restaurants, one at Chinese Centre at 888 Dundas Street East in Mississauga, another at Finch Avenue and Kennedy Road in Scarborough, and their four-storey flagship location at Spadina Avenue and St. Andrew Street (just north of Dundas Street) in old Toronto Chinatown, were decorated inside with the traditional red and yellow colours of the
Fenghuang
(a mythical bird) while the exterior was yellow and had a green Oriental roof.
In the newer suburban areas of the Greater Toronto Area, such as
Highway 7
in
Richmond Hill
and
Markham
, the Chinese restaurants range from small eateries,
siu mei
shops, and
bakeries
in Chinese
strip malls
and
food courts
, to the all-you-can-eat buffets that often expand beyond Chinese Canadian to incorporate Asian fusion (including Japanese, Korean, and Thai), to the larger and more expensive places that often function as
banquet halls
with ten-course meals available. Among upscale restaurants, the older places will often have the traditional Chinese decor, which is red and yellow colours with the
Fenghuan
g (Chinese dragon and phoenix) adorning the wall behind the
dais
, while newer establishments tend to be decorated in a more Western contemporary style.
Many Chinese fine dining restaurants and banquet halls offer discounted
dim sum
lunches on weekdays and early weekends or to seniors, though this is a low margin segment, and their main earnings come from hosting weddings or other functions. Observers have noted that dim sum "cart service is a dying breed in Toronto, as more and more restaurants have switched over to a list-based dining experience. There are a few notable places where you can still witness these magical culinary carts being rolled out in front of you; and where you order by using your pointer finger, not a pen and paper."
[11]
Although most restaurants are independent businesses, there are some chains such as Hons Wonton House (metro Vancouver), Kirin Chinese Restaurant (metro Vancouver), Congee Queen (Toronto, Peel, and York regions), and
Mandarin Restaurant
(southern Ontario). Ho-Lee-Chow, a pun on the expression
holy cow
, franchised to six provinces between its 1989 launch and 2009 closure.
[12]
The Regal Palace chain of four restaurants, owned by Yuk Yee Ellen Pun and Patsy Lai, went bankrupt and ceased operations in 2013 while owing 60 employees $676,000 in unpaid wages.
[13]
[14]
Imitation restaurants include Ding Tai Fung (intentionally similar to
Din Tai Fung
) in
First Markham Place
and Hutaoli Music Restaurant & Bar in
Bridlewood Mall
.
[15]
Culture
[
edit
]
Josephine Smart, a professor from the
University of Calgary
, has written on the evolution of Canadian Chinese cuisine. Her papers have examined the dynamics of localization and "authenticization" of Chinese food in Canada, and its implications for ethnic relations and the culture of
consumption
.
[16]
Chinese restaurants generally use either one of the romanization systems for Cantonese or an ad hoc romanization rather than the
Pinyin
romanization of
Mandarin Chinese
with which non-Chinese people are now most familiar.
Foam take-out containers
are commonly used by Canadian Chinese restaurants for
take-out
, although some restaurants use special plastic containers. Aluminum pan pie dishes were previously used until the late 1990s, but fell out of favour due to high costs and environmental concerns. The
oyster pail
is used but not common.
There are a few distinctive regional dishes:
- Ginger beef
- Deep fried strips of beef coated in a dark sweet sauce featuring
ginger
,
garlic
, and
hot peppers
, commonly served with a small amount of
julienned
carrots
and
onions
.
[17]
Ginger beef is derived from the original
geung ngao yuk
(
Chinese
:
薑牛肉
) dish. Though common across the country, it is ubiquitous in Calgary and the Prairies.
[18]
The invention of ginger beef is generally traced back to the Silver Inn in Calgary in the mid-1970s.
[5]
[8]
[9]
[19]
- Newfoundland chow mein
- A regional variant made with thinly sliced
cabbage
instead of
egg noodles
due to historical difficulties in accessing authentic Chinese ingredients in
Atlantic Canada
.
[18]
- Montreal peanut-butter dumplings
- A dish consisting of
wonton
or
jiaozi
covered with peanut, honey, and soy-sauce based sauce,
[20]
[21]
most likely based-on the
Sichuan dish
hongyou chaoshou
(
紅油抄手
, lit. "folded-dumplings in red-oil") and reinterpreted for the tastes of Montrealers.
[22]
Also known as "Hunan dumplings",
[21]
[22]
the dish was likely created in the 1980s at a restaurant "le Piment Rouge" and quickly became popular throughout Chinese and Thai restaurants in Montreal and later Quebec.
[22]
- Thunder Bay bon bons
- A salty, deep-fried rib dish that is said to go well with beer, invented in the 1940s by
Thunder Bay
Chinese restaurateur Lam Pang
[23]
and now ubiquitous in Thunder Bay's Chinese restaurants.
[18]
The ribs are chopped, marinated overnight in ingredients including salt, sugar, and
five-spice powder
, dipped in eggs, and coated with bread
[18]
or crushed crackers
[23]
before frying.
- Fried macaroni
- Stir-fried
macaroni
with soy sauce, meat, and vegetables served in Quebec.
[18]
- Green onion cake
- A flat breaded cake that is made with scallions. It is a popular dish in Edmonton that was introduced by Siu To, a restaurateur who brought Northern Chinese delicacies to the city. Also known as
cong you bing
.
[24]
- Sweet and sour chicken balls
- Breaded chicken served in sweet and sour sauce. Possibly a Canadianized version of the traditional Cantonese sweet and sour pork.
[25]
For more expensive or formal occasions, Chinese Canadians may seek out more authentic Chinese cuisine. A Chinese
wedding reception
typically has nine or ten courses. Expensive luxury dishes such as
abalone
,
lobster
, jumbo shrimp,
squab
,
sea bass
, or
sea cucumber
are common on a wedding banquet menu. A whole cooked fish, chicken, or pig means luck and completeness in Chinese wedding culture.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
MacDonald, Moira (21 September 2015).
"The unique culinary delight that is Chinese-Canadian food"
.
ca.news.yahoo.com
. Retrieved
19 February
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Tran, Paula (22 October 2022).
"An ode to ginger beef: the hidden history of Chinese Canadian cuisine"
.
Global News
. Retrieved
19 February
2023
.
- ^
Rogers, Shelagh (5 April 2019).
"Why Ann Hui documented the history of Chinese restaurant owners in small-town Canada"
.
CBC Radio
. Retrieved
19 February
2023
.
- ^
"A Brief History of Chinese Food on the Prairies"
.
MountainviewToday.ca
. Retrieved
2023-02-19
.
- ^
a
b
Wingrove, Josh (2013-04-30).
"The Chinese restaurant as a Prairie icon"
.
The Globe and Mail
. Retrieved
2018-11-28
.
- ^
Boyer, Michel (2014-07-04).
"Bill Wong, Montreal restaurateur dies"
.
CJAD
. Archived from
the original
on 2016-03-03
. Retrieved
2016-06-15
.
- ^
Delean, Paul (2014-07-04).
"Bill Wong: a private man who popularized buffets and Chinese fare"
.
Montreal Gazette
.
- ^
a
b
"Chinese New Year: Silver Inn, Calgary"
.
CBC News
. February 15, 2007. Archived from
the original
on 2009-03-30.
- ^
a
b
Beneteau, Greg (March 12, 2013).
"7 Iconic Calgary Foods: Chicago has deep-dish pizza. Boston has baked beans. What about Calgary?"
.
Avenue Calgary
.
- ^
"History of the Dragon Centre : Dragon Centre Stories"
.
dragoncentrestories.ca
. Retrieved
2023-02-20
.
- ^
Susilo, Darren "DKLo" (2015-06-20).
"Toronto dim sum restaurants that still do cart service"
.
blogTO
.
- ^
"Ho-Lee-Chow out of business"
.
CBC News
. 7 October 2009
. Retrieved
24 May
2024
.
- ^
"Ellen Pun Jailed For 3 Months After Not Paying Staff As Ordered"
. Archived from
the original
on 2018-08-02.
- ^
"Ontario Newsroom"
.
- ^
"Toronto has a problem with imitation Chinese restaurant chains"
.
- ^
Smart, Josephine (Fall?Winter 2003). "Ethnic Entrepreneurship, Transmigration, And Social Integration: An Ethnographic Study Of Chinese Restaurant Owners In Rural Western Canada".
Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development
.
32
(3/4): 311?342.
JSTOR
40553618
.
- ^
"Calgary Style Ginger Beef Recipe"
.
ChowTown
. October 21, 2009.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Tremonti, Anna Maria; Hui, Ann (January 31, 2019).
"These dishes from Chinese restaurants are uniquely Canadian. Is your favourite on the list?"
.
The Current
.
CBC Radio One
. Retrieved
12 April
2019
.
- ^
"Chop Suey on the Prairies"
.
Royal Alberta Museum
. Archived from
the original
on 2012-08-29.
- ^
Ricardocuisine.
"Pork Dumplings with Peanut Sauce"
.
Ricardo
. Retrieved
2019-08-28
.
- ^
a
b
"Hunan Dumplings"
.
The Healthy Foodie
. 2017-10-17
. Retrieved
2019-08-28
.
- ^
a
b
c
Wei, Jessica (September 14, 2015).
"Only in Montreal: Peanut Butter Dumplings"
.
Saveur
. Retrieved
2019-08-28
.
- ^
a
b
Latimer, Kim (February 2016).
"Birth of the Bon Bon ? Thunder Bay's One and Only Bon Bon Spare Rib"
.
The Walleye ? Thunder Bay's Arts & Culture Magazine
. Retrieved
12 April
2019
.
- ^
Charnalia, Ameya (April 10, 2018).
"Siu To, 78, is believed to be the man who popularized green onion cakes in Edmonton"
.
The Star (Edmonton edition)
. Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd
. Retrieved
2019-12-12
.
- ^
"The Restaurant: Sweet Sauce, Quick Food, Lasting Memories"
.
A Culture of Tastes
. Retrieved
5 June
2023
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Hui, Ann (2019).
Chop suey nation : the Legion Cafe and other stories from Canada's Chinese restaurants
. Madeira Park, BC, Canada: Douglas & McIntyre.
ISBN
978-1-77162-222-6
.
? A journalist's exploration of her own and other's family histories operating Canadian-Chinese restaurants across the continent
External links
[
edit
]