Pan-fried Shanghainese Buns at Top Shanghai Cuisine Restaurant. Photo courtesy of Chinese Restaurant Awards

Critics will unveil the winners of this year’s best signature dishes from nine categories at the annual Chinese Restaurant Awards on February 26. That Chinese restaurants are being recognized for their culinary artistry shows just how much of an impact the cuisine has had on the city and its people. Local Chinese cuisine continues to make a name for itself as a part of Vancouver’s unique history.

The first wave of Chinese migrants to the city began in the last half of the 19th century, where young, able-bodied men facing difficult times back home came to B.C. on the promise of gold and work. Most of them came from China’s southern Guangdong (Canton) province and worked as miners and labourers on the railway, after the gold rush.

John Atkin, civic historian and author of several books on Vancouver history, explains that many of the early B.C. migrants were single men living in tiny rooms, with no space to cook or meet their friends.

John Atkin, civic historian. Photo courtesy of John Atkin

“So that’s where the tea shops, the noodle houses became more important than just eating,” he says.  “It was the social space.”

Atkin notes that the food served in the teashops was fairly simple and mainly influenced by Cantonese-style cooking.

Early Chinese food in Canada used local game like elk and deer, and native vegetables. These were cooked with Chinese ingredients and condiments brought over from the homeland, says Robert Sung, member of the Chinese-Canadian Historical Society. Sung’s family has been in Vancouver for over 120 years and has been involved in the food industry for much of that time.

“Indeed, that’s the start of Chinese food in Canada,” Sung says. “It’s an adaptation of using local source [foods] with Chinese ingredients.”

After the war, Atkin says there was a gradual opening up of attitudes towards Chinatown and its food. The 1940s were the years of Chinese enfranchisement and the lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Act. A new wave of immigration occurred and many of the Chinese workers’ wives and children came over.

Initially, Sung explains there was a lot of stigma and paranoia around Chinese food, but Chinatown in the 1940s and 1950s became an entertainment precinct with many Chinese restaurants that drew people from all over Vancouver.

During this time North American-style Chinese cuisine became popular. “They offered all those what I call ‘San Francisco’ style dishes, so all the chop sueys, the chow mein and egg foo youngs, which had nothing to do with traditional Chinese cooking,” says Atkin.

There was a “split personality” to the Chinese food, Atkin further explains. The restaurants would cook in one style for the Caucasian customers and have another set of dishes for the Chinese patrons, he says. Still, Atkin notes that it made people appreciate the food, and for a lot of people it was an entry point into Chinatown.

The shifts in immigration patterns in the last few decades have subsequently altered the landscape of Chinese food in Vancouver.  Lee Man, food writer and one of the judges at this year’s Restaurant Awards has observed changes in the level of sophistication in Vancouver’s Chinese restaurants.

While growing up in the 1970s, Man remembers Chinese food only being available in Chinatown, and being very value driven with big portions and strong flavours.  They used to eat a lot more noodles, braised foods and big buns, Man says. A lot of places didn’t have live seafood yet, so it was more meat-oriented, he recalls.

Robert Sung, member of the Chinese-Canadian Historical Society. Photo courtesy of A Wok around Chinatown

The opening of high-end seafood restaurants came a decade later, due to the influx of wealthy immigrants from Hong Kong. And today, Man indicates that immigrants from Mainland China are starting to bring a different point of view to the local Chinese food landscape.

In judging the quality of the food, Man explains that he pays attention to the cooking skill, freshness of ingredients and care put into mixing them.  “The food has to be tasty but not greasy, not heavy and it should become bright and alive, flavour-wise,” he says.

Sung suggests that the Chinese Restaurant Awards is an acknowledgement of Vancouver’s Chinese population. He says that there has to be some recognition of the different styles and quality of Chinese food.

“I think people of Vancouver should really take pride in the level of quality of Chinese food, and be proud of it and explore it,” says Man.  “But I also feel like it really reflects how Vancouver has embraced new people into its society and let other people make a home [here].”

The Chinese Restaurant Awards will be held on February 26, 2013 at the River Rock Show Theatre in Richmond.  Winners will also be listed at www.chineserestaurantawards.com