Changing for the Best: The 6th Annual Chinese Restaurant Awards Return with New Goals
(Canada) The Chinese Restaurant Awards kick-start 2014 with the goal of elevating and refining the much-loved authoritative dinning guide. After five years of success, the Chinese Restaurant Awards continue to develop exciting new programs that encourage aficionados to explore deeper into the ever-changing Chinese culinary scene in Metro Vancouver and Greater Toronto and challenge the well-honed palates of food critics to recommend the best signature dishes in 2014.
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“As the forerunner of promoting Chinese cuisine in Canada,
we have dedicated ourselves in staying up-to-date with the industry,
both at home and abroad,” said Craig Stowe, Chinese Restaurant Awards’
Founding Director. “We’ve been persistent at bringing the public a
well-rounded dinning guide that highlights the crème-de-la-crème in the
past five years. The public’s phenomenal support has pushed us to raise
our game.”
This year, the categories of Diners’ Choice
Awards in Greater Vancouver have expanded from 18 to 20, including six
new awards: Best Wonton Noodles, Best Honey Garlic Spareribs, Best
Sichuan Boiled Beef, Best Bubble Tea, Best Egg Tart, and Best Service
Restaurant. The public is invited to nominate their favourites from
February 3 to 9 and vote for the best from February 10 to March 9 on
www.ChineseRestaurantAwards.com The results will be announced on March
10.
Many diners had written to the Chinese Restaurant
Awards requesting the return of Best Service Restaurant in 2014. Their
candid experiences make them the most qualified critics for the
category. They are also very enthusiastic about voting for each year’s
new selected dishes based on regions, popularity, and ingredients.
Wonton noodles, for example, have been a popular comfort food in
Guangzhou since the late Qing Dynasty (1890s). It is one of the most
recognizable Cantonese dishes outside China, yet only the most skilled
chef can perfect the combination of soup, wonton, and noodles. Sichuan
Boiled Beef, developedby the late master chef Fan Ji-an in the 1930s, is
equally challenging to recreate: poaching thinly sliced beef to
perfection in a spicy aromatic broth looks easier said than done. Honey
Garlic Spareribs is a Canadian invention that one rarely finds on a menu
in China. Bubble tea and egg tarts are popular delights that have been
satisfying the sweet tooth of Vancouverites.
The Chinese
Restaurant Awards also have taken a drastic step in reducing the
twenty-five best signature dishes of Critics’ Choice Signature Dish
Awards to ten. Vancouver-based food critics Stephen Wong, Lee Man,
Brendon Mathews, and Foodie Yau have been the Awards’ leading judges
for many years, and they have taken on the new mission to select the
spectacular from the best. Handed with a set of new rules, the Vancouver
judging panel has began a rigorous tasting journey since the summer of
2013.
Last year, the Critics’ Choice Signature Dish
Awards were introduced in Greater Toronto, based on the growing demand
of Chinese food in major Canadian cities. After receiving positive
feedback from the public, the Chinese Restaurant Awards will once again
team up with Toronto-based food critics Jen Chan, Jennifer Kwan, Renée
S. Suen, and Charles Yu to search for the 10 best signature dishes.
Winners of the Critics’ Choice Signature Dish Awards for both cities
will be announced on April 23 in a glittering awards ceremony at Four
Seasons Hotel Vancouver.
Critics’ Choice Signature Dish Awards (10 awards in Metro Vancouver and 10 awards in Greater Toronto)
Diners’ Choice Awards – Greater Vancouver (20 awards in total) *new awards this year
1. Best Wonton Noodles*
2. Best Sichuan Boiled Beef*
3. Best Honey Garlic Spareribs*
4. Best Taiwanese Bubble Tea*
5. Best Egg Tart*
6. Best Service Restaurant*
7. Best Fine Dining Restaurant
8. Best Dim Sum Restaurant
9. Best Cantonese Restaurant
10. Best Northern Chinese Restaurant
11. Best Shanghainese Restaurant
12. Best Sichuan Restaurant
13. Best Hunan Restaurant
14. Best Taiwanese Restaurant/BBT Café
15. Best Hot Pot Restaurant
16. Best Congee and Noodle Restaurant
17. Best Vegetarian Restaurant
18. Best Hong Kong-Style Café
19. Best Bakery Shop
20. Best Food Court Stall
The
Chinese Restaurant Awards wishes to thank the following sponsors:
Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, Alberta Beef Producers, Alberta
Canola Producers Commission, FortisBC, Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver,
Hennessy, Heineken, Amoy Food limited, Anchor Foods International
Limited, Northern Divine Caviar, Premium Pork Akakuro-Buta, Target
Marine Hatcheries, Underwater Harvesters’ Association, Fortune World,
CityTV, OMNI Television, Richmond Review, Yelp Canada, Vancouver Boulevard, CNTVNA.com, City365.ca and Vandiary.com
To nominate your favorite restaurants and cast your vote: www.ChineseRestaurantAwards.com
Recommend dishes to the judging panel: critics@ChineseRestaurantAwards.com
Facebook @ChineseRestaurantAwards / Twitter @CRADiningGuide
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+ Media Contact
Rae Kung, Project Manager // +1778.829.6244 // rae@ChineseRestaurantAwards.com