Here’s how to explore the Chinese Canadian immigration story through food.
Food goes beyond the taste buds: it brings people together, it’s culturally rich, and it also tells a story. In the case of Chinese food in Canada, the story of immigration is embedded into every dish.
Here are 10 iconic Chinese Canadian dishes, and where to find them in Toronto.
Must-try dish #1: chop suey
Where to find it: taste this nostalgic dish in the Beaches neighbourhood’s Garden Gate Restaurant, known to locals as The Goof.
Chop suey is a standard dish on Chinese takeout menus and mall food courts all over the city. It became a staple because it’s hearty, a balanced mix of protein and vegetables, and smothered with a sweet gravy.
Every chef has their own rendition, but typically it features pork, chicken, mushrooms, bean sprouts, cabbage, celery, bamboo shoots, onion, and peppers served with rice.
While its origin story is hotly debated, the more likely story is that this was the local creation of something called tsap seui, which in Cantonese literally means to stir-fry a bunch of random things together.
Must-try dish #2: General Tso’s Chicken
Where to find it: to satisfy your craving for this classic, we recommend heading to downtown Chinatown’s Hong Shing.
Just as emblematic of Chinese Canadian cuisine is General Tso’s Chicken.
The small chunks of crispy chicken smothered in a mouthwatering, deep orange sauce are always a favourite because they push all the right buttons and are packed with tangy, sweet, savoury and sometimes spicy flavours.
This dish is named after a 19th-century general from the province of Hunan in China, but it was Hunanese chef Peng Chang-Kuei who eventually created it in Taiwan.
In a bit of a culinary heist, another chef, Tsung Ting Wang, took the recipe and made the chicken crispier and added more sweetness to the sauce.
Must-try dish #3: wonton soup
Where to find it: Jim Chai Kee Wonton Noodle, a specialist that exclusively serves giant-sized wontons, is worth the journey to Eastside’s Scarborough. Trust me, they do it well!
A steaming bowl of wonton soup is one of Chinese cuisine’s classic comfort foods. Plump dumplings stuffed with prawn, pork, ginger and shallots are served in an aromatic broth with egg noodles and a few greens to balance it out. The soup is then garnished with chopped green onions.
While this dish goes all the way back to the Qing Dynasty in 1644, you can find variations of wonton soup across town as chefs get creative with different stuffing ingredients and noodles.
Must-try dish #4: Peking duck
Where to find it: DASHA’s take on Peking duck uses Ontario-farmed Muscovy duck that is slow-roasted per tradition and finished over charcoal. Try Pearl Harbourfront Chinese Cuisine’s two-course combination meal for a more traditional take.
Prepared since the dynastic period of China, Peking duck is a complex combination of textures and flavours that is truly irresistible. Perfected over centuries, the duck is as succulent as it is crispy and, when wrapped together, is truly irresistible.
What makes Peking Duck special is that it’s an immersive tableside experience. Servers roll in a special cart, and you watch the chef delicately carve the succulent and crispy duck into more thin slices than you thought possible.
Taking freshly made thin pancakes from a bamboo steamer, you stack the duck with julienned vegetable garnishes. A drizzle of sweet bean sauce is the key to pulling all the flavours together. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, so it’s up to you how you wrap it all up.
What’s more, none of the duck is left to waste. After the carving, the rest is often cooked in three ways: in a soup, a stir-fry that can be wrapped in lettuce leaves, and/or sautéed.
Must-try dish #5: sweet and sour pork
Where to find it: check out the sweet and sour pork at Swatow Restaurant in downtown Chinatown.
If there’s one Chinese dish that is a guilty pleasure of mine, it’d be sweet and sour pork, or in Cantonese, goo lo yok.
There’s something about the tantalizing mix of deep-fried pork, pineapples, and bell peppers doused in a gooey, brightly covered sauce. Best of all, there are no bones!
Its rise in popularity is another example of how a dish from Southern China found its way to Canada, was adapted to local tastes, and thrived.
Must-try dish #6: Lobster Mountain
Where to find it: You’ll find this iconic dish in Toronto’s far east—Scarborough Chinatown—where it was created and perfected at Fishman Lobster Clubhouse Restaurant.
What if you took 20 lbs of lobster, sauteed it, followed that up with a deep fry, smothered the lot in fried garlic and built a three-foot-high tower using French fries as the mortar? Such is the legendary, photogenic—and wholly Toronto creation known as Lobster Mountain.
It’s a perfect example of how entrepreneurial restaurateurs took the bountiful resource of Canadian lobster, infused it with Chinese cooking techniques, and sprinkled in a little magic—et voila!
Must-try dish #7: dim sum
Where to find it: Chefs Eric Chong and Alvin Leung, of MasterChef Canada fame, are known for creatively reinventing tradition.
Their R&D restaurant (downtown Chinatown) features unique dim sum like foie gras sou, shrimp toast and spinach dip spring rolls. Nearby Rol San is another popular option, one beloved by former Toronto Raptor Serge Ibaka.
And now for brunch. Similar in many ways to Spanish tapas, dim sum consists of a wide variety of small dishes that are shared with family and friends at the table.
Dim sum, meaning “touch the heart,” existed as early as the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD). In the latter half of the 19th century, traders along the Silk Road expanded it beyond the tea rooms of Guangzhou to the rest of the world.
Not only does dim sum touch the heart, but it also satisfies serious cravings with shrimp dumplings, pork and prawn dumplings, BBQ pork buns, rice noodle rolls, turnip cake, egg tarts… and too many more to name.
Must-try dish #8: chow mein
Where to find it: my go-to is North York’s venerable Congee Wong, which offers the classic Cantonese chow mein, but also other varieties with lobster, Hong Kong spicy seafood, and tiger shrimp.
Like chop suey and General Tso, chow mein is a staple in Chinese Canadian restaurants. (It’s also one of those comfort foods that always hits the spot!)
Chow mein simply means “stir-fry noodles,” specifically egg noodles. They’re traditionally boiled first and then stir-fried briefly with sauce, vegetables and either seafood or meat.
There’s also a crispy version with golden brown noodles smothered with sauce and toppings.
Must-try dish #9: steamed soup dumplings
Where to find it: soup dumplings have largely stayed the same, but Asian Legend (multiple Toronto locations) has tweaked the formula with novel ingredients like luffa, which gives the skin a green colour.
While many Chinatown restaurants offer steamed soup dumplings on their dim sum menus, North York’s specialist Bao House has classic xiao long bao and a pan-fried version.
Better known as xiao long bao, these morsels originated in Shanghai over 150 years ago. They are always served in a bamboo basket, and when you open the lid, a billow of steam rises to reveal a half-dozen dumplings.
But these aren’t your regular dumplings. Wrapped in elegantly pleated skins, they contain minced pork with flavoursome broth that literally bursts into your mouth.
There’s an art to eating xiao long bao without burning your tongue or making a mess. First, take a small bite of the wrapper and drink the soup that’s inside. Next, dip the dumpling in the accompanying sauce of black vinegar with slivered ginger. Eat and enjoy!
Must-try dish #10: hot pot
Where to find it: one of the more well-known Chinese hot pot chains is Haidilao Hot Pot, which has locations in Scarborough and downtown Toronto.
Our final recommendation is hot pot, a popular choice that’s particularly warming in wintertime.
Hot pot is a simple concept: heat water or soup over flame and cook meat, seafood and vegetables inside.
With the emergence of copper in the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD), hot pot grew and spread, creating multiple styles, including Sichuan, Northern Chinese, Korean (jeongol) and Japanese (shabu-shabu).
Hot pot is one of those cuisines that has only grown more popular in the intervening years. From a modest comfort food that Chinese families would make at home, hot pot has grown into a dish that numerous global franchises and Toronto Chinatown restaurants have built their reputations on.
The roots of Chinese Canadian cuisine
Going back to the mid-19th century, early Chinese immigrants to North America primarily came from southern China. This was when the future country of Canada was first introduced to Cantonese-style cooking. Chinese Canadians started moving east from the Pacific coast, and many eventually settled in Toronto, bringing the first Chinese café to Toronto, Sing Tom, in 1901.
The first Chinese Canadian chefs and cooks needed to tweak traditional cooking techniques and flavours, using the ingredients available to them locally and to satisfy their drastically different customer base. This is how many iconic Chinese Canadian dishes were created—and how the North American “chop suey craze” began in the 20th century.
As the Chinese diaspora has grown and evolved, so has the food. Today, the Chinese Canadian food scene is more diverse than ever, with regional varieties, modern fusions, and popular franchises in Asia bringing their specialties to Toronto’s Chinatown and beyond.
