Another B.C. Creative Industry: Chinese Food

Vancouver Chinese food | BCBusiness
B.C.’s Chinese food has such a golden reputation that it’s influencing chefs and food trends in Asia.

Another creative industry has sprung up under our noses without any help from government, economists or the usual sources. Our Chinese restaurants lead the world with their creative cooking.

A year ago at this time, while eating in a Hong Kong restaurant my wife and I struck up a conversation with a large family having a get-together over a big, noisy meal at the next table.

“Where are you from?” asked the wife, who was obviously head of the household, spoke relatively good English and had quickly discerned that we weren’t locals. They were curious that we were tourists but seemed to know our way around Chinese food and could speak a few words. We had even brought our own chopsticks.

When we replied, “Vancouver,” she said, “Oh, that explains it.”

Curious, we asked why, and she said, “Everybody knows that Vancouver has the best Chinese food. All the good chefs have left here and gone to Vancouver.”

We found that amusing, but apparently she was right – if the annual Chinese Restaurant Awards is any indication. At a recent CRA ceremony, the Vancouver-China connection was front and centre.

According to Craig Stowe, president of the CRA, China is pretty impressed with Vancouver’s culinary prowess, which tends to creatively combine traditional Chinese cooking with B.C.’s food sources and constant willingness to try something new.

China is so impressed, in fact, that the Mainland and Hong Kong chefs are picking up on the Vancouver method of Chinese cooking, and trying to emulate it.

Stowe says there are over 500 Chinese restaurants in the Lower Mainland and a lot of culinary trends start here and move to Mainland China. (Since I live on the East Side of Vancouver, I’m thinking he must mean way over 500. It seems like there are 500 just in my neighborhood, if you count all the grocery stores that also serve food.)

Even better for B.C.’s export economy, chefs in China are so eager to emulate B.C. Chinese food they’re importing food and food trends from B.C. and Alberta.

“Cathay Pacific and China Eastern are flying out container loads” every day, says Stowe.

Well, good for them. Here’s an economic trend that the boffins in B.C., with all their spreadsheeting and analyzing and prognosticating, had not predicted.

Okay, maybe it’s not up there (yet) with forestry, but who would have dreamed a few years ago that Chinese food would be one of our exports?

It’s that kind of modern creativity that’s going to take B.C. into the future.