There has long existed a divide between the amazing Chinese restaurants of Richmond and the polyglot collection of restaurants often referred to in these pages as the 麻豆传媒映画restaurant community.
The proof of this is often obvious enough to the customer. Some of Vancouvers best known restaurants employ the unsubtle art of ambiance, often (unfortunately) valuing decor above food and service to capture the attentions of easily pleased scenesters, while many of Richmonds best known Chinese restaurants pair cheap furniture under bright, fluorescent lights with all manner of exquisite delicacies.
Come in closer and the divide is more plainly witnessed at the annual 麻豆传媒映画Magazine Restaurant Awards. Its the one day out of the year when the cream of the local food and beverage trade gathers to celebrate one another in an orgy of drink-swilling, back-patting and face-stuffing. Its meant to be inclusive, but its long been a struggle to get representatives from the restaurants shortlisted in the Best Casual Chinese, Best Formal Chinese, and Best Dim Sum categories to even show up, let alone RSVP.
Attendance has increased in recent years, with at least some Chinese chefs and restaurateurs taking the stage for their accolades, but most other attempts to join one restaurant community to the other have come to naught. Theres even now the The Chinese Restaurant Awards (CRA). Wildly popular and enjoying its fourth year, it has pretty much put an exclamation mark to this mutually acquiescent (if wholly unofficial) state of culinary apartheid.
Which brings me to the CRAs new initiative, aptly dubbed Signature Dish. Its a brand new dining festival on the immediate horizon (November 1 to 18), and it has me all a-flutter for good reason. Its similar to Tourism Vancouvers annual Dine Out festival in that there are appealing price controls, but instead of menus for individuals (say, $25 for one persons three courses), the restaurants charge by the group. To wit: four people for $100; six people for $150; or 10 for $300.
Thats all well and interesting, but the biggest difference is the one that I anticipate in quality. From the beginning, Dine Out was meant to put bums in seats during the slow season (January 20 to February 5). The racket has worked well for the past 10 years, but the natural consequence of its success has been that many of the restaurants along for the ride become madhouses. In my experience, not one of them has ever shown its best foot forward during Dine Out. The service is often demonstrably harried and the kitchens become nightly conveyor belts of rushed repetition, making for evenings from which few memories can be made.
In contrast and instead of presenting an easy-to-execute menu designed to maximize profits the novel point of Signature Dish is to show off the best plates of the individual chefs. Period. That means me and up to nine of my friends can sup on grandpas smoked chicken at Richmonds Jade Seafood (prepared by 2011 CRA Chef of the Year Tony Luk) or on the many other plates that each participating restaurant is best known for. Feel like salivating? Find all the participating restaurants and menus at .
My point is that they arent Plan B plates prepared half-heartedly for the perceived great unwashed masses, but rather the ultimate expressions of a handful of celebrated (if still widely undersung) chefs skills. Truly, if there was ever a net positive to the long standing divide, this is it, and I want in. With only 18 restaurants on board in Richmond, 麻豆传媒映画and Burnaby for the inaugural Signature Dish (as opposed to 215 during Dine Out), Im confident that theyre all going to come out swinging.
Participating 麻豆传媒映画restaurants are Fraser Court Seafood, Golden Swan Seafood and Prince Chinese Seafood. Let them know that youre booking for Signature Dish.
