Chinese restaurants in Canada

Like many immigrant experiences in Canada, the Chinese who came to Canada 120 years ago in search of a better life while the Manchu dynasty in the Middle Kingdom was crumbling invented a new Chinese cuisine. The Chinese migrants were not cooks or chefs but poor migrants coming to Canada as labourers to work on the construction of the railway, often performing dangerous tasks. Chinese workers would cook for the crew and attracted the attention of non-Asian workers, it was exotic and looked good.  Thus the Chinese cuisine has a long history in Canada dating back to 1880 during the period of the National Dream, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway spanning from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The first restaurants to appear were in Western Canada from the Yukon to British Columbia to Alberta. However though the restaurants had Chinese owners the dishes on the menu were not necessarily Chinese but dubbed Chinese, they were largely inventions of the Chinese owners to suit the palate of Canadians who had never heard nor seen Chinese food, thus Chow Mein, Chop Suey or General Tao's Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken balls and many other migrant Chinese cuisine dishes were invented. The Chinese restaurant is present in every Canadian town from the small village to the large metropolis. In fact there are more Chinese restaurants in Canada than fast food restaurants combined. Often one family will sell their restaurant to the next Chinese immigrant once they move upwards on the social ladder.

The restaurant like the laundry service common in cities like Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal became a way for the Chinese migrants to establish themselves and to allow the next generation to move up in society. Up to 1968 the total Chinese population of Canada was about 28,000 persons, today it stands at 1.5 million individuals. 


My grandfather who worked in Montreal in the 1930's, had in the Old Chinatown around rue St-Urbain and rue Clark his favourite Chinese restaurants, I remember going to them as a child, to my child eyes they were very exotic places, far removed from anything I knew. The food was good and it was always an adventure to go to such places. 

However when I lived in China I discovered real Chinese cuisine, which is different depending on the region and involves complex recipes, Cantonese, Mandarin, Szechuan and many others which are virtually unknown to us in the West. Beijing has its own dishes which are typical of the Capital, so now I have become very discerning and am not willing to put up with the Canadian Chinese dishes anymore, maybe I have been spoiled in a way. I find the Canadian Chinese dishes to be full of MSG and very bland tasting, lacking the subtle flavours I found in China.  It is probably true that each ethnic group who comes to Canada as migrants bring with them their food and tradition but will modify them to suit their new surroundings and conditions often creating new foods and dishes, it is certainly true of the French, the Irish, the Scots, the English, the Jews, the Italians and many other immigrant groups who have come to Canada since 1608.

Food

Living in Italy for 4 years and taking an interest in the diet and food habits of Italians changed our minds on what our diet should be to stay healthy. We all heard about the Mediterranean diet but if you are not from that region or living in that area of the world it is difficult to follow, different places, different habits. Prior to my coming to Italy I was in China (PRC), I noticed how the average Chinese man weigh about 42 Kg, a teen would weigh about 32 Kg on average. I wondered why did a Chinese man looked so slim compared to a Westerner, you could say some had almost a famish look. Once you put aside body mass and body morphology and other characteristics about race, what I noticed was that the difference in weight had to do with eating habits and what people actually ate or did not eat.

Asians in general eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, and no dairy products or bread. Westerners eat a lot of bread and dairy products and little in terms of vegetables or fruits. Red meat is also eaten in small quantities in Asia where in the West and North America its more red meat the better. An example in most restaurants in Ottawa a small steak is usually 250 gr. where as in Asia it would be chopped up and less than 100 gr.

In Italy, though bread was part of the diet and pasta is an important food staple, butter is not used in cooking, olive oil is used for cooking instead, more healthy. However Italians make conscious choices, per example if you have a plate of pasta, the portion is usually half the size of any North American portion and you will have NO bread or butter with your pasta dish.

Italians will also eat a lot of grilled vegetables and other green vegetables with their main course, potatoes are not necessarily a part of a meal. How often at lunch time I would see men and women eat a plate of green vegetables, grilled or steamed as a main course, no butter just a little olive oil on top and salt and pepper for seasoning.

We have been thinking about all this since our return to Canada, we are trying to avoid what we believe to be unhealthy eating habits, large portions, overly sweet desserts, breads and extra seasoning.

The other night we had Tilapia which is a white fish, simply cooked in olive oil and then seasoned with lemon juice. We have fresh fruit for dessert with a little lemon juice or simply as is, no ice cream or heavy cream and or sugar on top. It is going to be difficult because the food culture in North America tends to be on the heavy, sugary, overly seasoned and large portions per person. We must not forget that we are only 2 generations removed from the days when our grandparents would plough fields all day and tend to large farm animals, heavy and strenuous manual labour, today's lifestyle is plain sedentary and not too strenuous physically.

We certainly do not want to return to un-healthy North American food diet and it is going to be a battle to follow our diet and not fall into the convenience of fast or frozen foods at the supermarket.

Our new Home as of today.