by Mia Stainsby

The founder of the Edgewater Casino Chinese Restaurant Awards is like a lot of us in Metro Vancouver. There’s a blur of of Chinese restaurants out there but to which should we cede valuable real estate in our tummies?

“I would see a sea of over 400 Chinese restaurants and I’ve always wanted to know which were the best restaurants and what dishes I should order,” says Craig Stowe of JetSet Crew, a cross-cultural marketing and social events company. “I kept hearing we have an incredible selection and variety of Chinese food like no other place in the world.”

And that is why he founded the Chinese Restaurant Awards last year. Yesterday, at the second annual event, more Chinese restaurants in Metro Vancouver were recognized for their signature dishes, which is what’s important to Chinese diners: Where to go for what dish.

The winners this year were almost equally divided between Vancouver and Richmond with 24 going to Richmond and 29 to Vancouver. Burnaby took three, Coquitlam took two and New Westminster, one. There were gold and silver awards in each category.

Judges were chosen for their expertise but also for their love and understanding of Chinese food. They were given a list of 400 Chinese restaurants to work from as well as an undisclosed honorarium (some of the judges declined the honorarium since they’re doing it for the love of it) and were set loose over the year to judge and choose the best signature dishes amongst themselves.

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