Showcasing Local Cuisine in Canada

The screening was held at Silver City Riverport in Steveston

Went to another screening this evening -- this time for a TV series on CBC called Locals Welcome. There are 10 episodes in this inaugural season featuring host Suresh Doss. He's a food writer in Toronto who has a regular column on CBC Radio Toronto's Metro Morning.

Doss, originally from Sri Lanka and moved to Toronto when he was 12 years old, could probably be best described as the South Asian version of the late Jonathan Gold, who championed the mom-and-pop shops serving ethnic foods.

Chef May Chau at Golden Paramount

While there is a big mix of ethnicities in Toronto, the show also wanted to spread out across to Vancouver, and Richmond was chosen as a place to showcase the best in Chinese cuisine.

In the episode entitled Seafood and Tradition, Doss meets up with Lee Man, a congenial foodie, a judge for the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, and founding judge of the Chinese Restaurant Awards. 

Lee takes his foodie buddy to Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant to have dim sum that included dumplings with large morel mushrooms on top, and the signature fun guo, or Chiu Chow steamed dumplings stuffed with pork, chives, peanuts, preserved radish. 

Chef May Chau Siu-may explains on screen that her family was in the restaurant business and she learned at a very young age how to make dumplings thanks to her dextrous fingers. She is now in her early 60s. 

Man, Doss and host Lien Yeung

Golden Paramount is our go-to for dinner, but haven't eaten here for dim sum...

Doss and Lee also visit "Eat Street" on Alexandra Road, where there are restaurants representing an array of regional Chinese cuisines. They also check out a Taiwanese place serving tomato beef noodles, and Yuan's Garden that doesn't only have Shanghainese dishes, but also Nanjing ones too.

Apparently Nanjing cuisine has more of a sour and sweet combination of flavours, and soupy dishes with noodles. I ate here over the summer, but was not aware of the Nanjing specialties!

The episode ends with Doss eating at Fish Man restaurant with fishmonger Jenice Yu and an influencer. Chef Li Bo presents enticing dishes like geoduck two ways -- sashimi slices and wok-fried typhoon shelter style with chillis and chilli flakes.

He also used fresh ling cod, de-boned it, sliced it up and then put them in a sour and spicy broth with pickled vegetables (or Chinese sauerkraut) and topped with a lot of red chillis. I have had this dish here and chef Bo is very talented. When I ate here over two years ago, he presented almost 20 different ways of eating sablefish!

Chef Bo is originally from northern China, came to Vancouver via Winnipeg and not only is adept in Chinese cooking techniques, but also has learned Japanese knife skills to cut sashimi, and make Cantonese seafood dishes too.

A panel discussion with Doss, Man and Yu

The episode left viewers salivating over the food. After the screening, an audience member asked Doss if they finish all the food during filming. He explained while he had a fast metabolism, he had a rabid film crew who helped eat everything as soon as shooting wrapped.

Doss said he hopes to do an expanded series on food courts, as well as Chinese diners across the country, some of which are closing as the next generation are not taking over. There was also the suggestion that he check out Surrey for the South Asian dishes there.

So many possibilities! More importantly, there are so many food stories in Metro Vancouver that need to be covered!