page_title: Canadian Chinese cuisine
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Canadian Chinese cuisine / History
caption_attribution_description: Title / Titre&#160;: Chinese quarters in Toronto, [Ontario.] / Quartier chinois de Toronto, Ontario Creator(s) / Créateur(s)&#160;: John Boyd Date(s)&#160;: April 17, 1923 / 17 Avril 1923 Reference No. / Numéro de référence&#160;: MIKAN 3316377 collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;... collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;... Location / Lieu&#160;: Toronto, Ontario Credit / Mention de source&#160;: John Boyd. Library and Archives Canada, PA-086020 / John Boyd. Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, PA-086020
context_page_description: Canadian Chinese cuisine is a popular style of Canadian cooking exclusive to take-out and dine-in eateries found across Canada. It was the first form of commercially available Chinese food in Canada. This cooking style was invented by early Cantonese immigrants who adapted traditional Chinese recipes to Western tastes and the available ingredients. This cuisine developed in a similar process to American Chinese cuisine.
context_section_description: Chinese workers were employed in the 1800s by Chinese labour contractors during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway linking Montreal, Québec with Vancouver, British Columbia. Many of those workers who stayed once the railway was completed resorted to opening small inexpensive restaurants or working as cooks in mining and logging camps, canneries, and in the private homes of the upper classes in cities and towns. They prepared variations on traditional Cantonese food that were well received by local patrons, and they were prized as cooks in wealthier households. This occurred despite the fact that few if any of them were formally trained chefs.
  In most small towns in Western Canada, the Chinese "café" was the first restaurant established, and often the only one.  People did not buy the foods of their own ethnic group since they could prepare these themselves, whereas Chinese food was a novelty.  Furthermore, the Chinese community was not heavily involved in agriculture, so this presented an opportunity for an alternative source of income.  Consequently, the Chinese community specialized in the restaurant business, and were able to undercut and out-compete later rivals. These Chinese restaurants became an icon of Prairie towns and served as a foothold for a new Canadian community, and this history is displayed in a new exhibit called Chop Suey on the Prairies at the Royal Alberta Museum.
  In British Columbia, a form of buffet known as the "Chinese smörgåsbord" developed in pre-railway Gastown (the settlement that became Vancouver) when Scandinavian loggers and millworkers encouraged their Chinese cooks to turn a sideboard into a steamtable, instead of bringing plates of single dishes to the dining table. Following the introduction of the automobile and the drive-in restaurant, Chinese take-out service was augmented by Chinese drive-ins, including the now-vanished "Dragon Inn" chain, which was also known for its smörgåsbord.
  Bill Wong, father of journalist Jan Wong, was a serial restaurateur in Montreal who reportedly opened the city's first Chinese buffet restaurant, "House of Wong" on Queen Mary Road in the heavily-Jewish Snowdon district in the 1950s.  He later opened the now-closed iconic restaurant "Bill Wong's" on nearby Decarie Boulevard in 1962.
caption: Signage in Toronto's First Chinatown for chop suey in 1923. Canadian Chinese cuisine dates back to the late 1800s.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:06:02 15:43:31", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5827", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "760", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "541"}