by Mark Schatzker
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.
