On Georgia Straight. By Carolyn Ali.
When Stephanie Yuen sits down at a table in a Chinese restaurant,
she already has a good idea of what she’s going to order. “Some of the
menus are like a book,” she tells the Straight by phone. “We don’t usually look at them because we know exactly what we want when we go in.”
The food writer explains that although Lower Mainland Chinese
restaurants offer a multitude of choices, many are known for doing a
single dish particularly well. So if she has a hankering for a certain
kind of food, she goes to a place that specializes in it.
That’s where the Edgewater Casino Chinese Restaurant Awards come in.
Now in their second year, the awards consist of two parts. The diners’
choice segment—in which people vote on-line for their favourite
restaurants in 15 categories—took place last fall, with the results
being announced in November. The winners of the critics’ choice
component, which focuses on signature dishes, were announced yesterday
(April 7).
Yuen chaired the critics’ panel, which consisted of eight judges,
including Margaret Gallagher from CBC Radio One and Conrad Leung, who
heads the Asian culinary arts department at Vancouver Community
College. The judges offered up nominations for signature dishes in 25
categories, from soup to lamb to veggies. Then each roamed about town
tasting dishes suggested by the others. The group reconvened to vote on
the best dishes, naming gold and silver winners in each Critics’ Choice
Signature Dish category.
