Now, the Thai restaurant Sweet Basil stands where the Marco Polo was.Īmong the restaurant pioneers of Ottawa’s Chinatown was the Shanghai, opened by Alan Kwan in 1971. The Marco Polo served Canadian and Chinese-Canadian dishes galore - hot turkey sandwiches and chicken fried rice, grilled baby beef liver and garlic spare ribs. “There was a lot of construction going on in Alta Vista and we catered to the working class,” my father wrote. jpgīy the early 1960s, my father and his brother-in-law were running the Marco Polo Tavern Restaurant on Bank Street near Heron Road. Owned by the Hum family, it boasted an attractive store front and even air conditioning. Article content By the early 1940s, the Arcadia Grill was a popular Chinese-run restaurant in Centretown, at 249 Bank St. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. My father, who died in 2005, wrote in his diary of reminiscences that during the Second World War years, the Arcadia Grill “was extremely busy because it had an attractive store front and was the only restaurant to have air conditioning.” My uncle Tom held shares in the Arcadia Grill at 249 Bank St. Regional specialties such as Yunnanese “Crossing the Bridge” soup, Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles, the street-food crepes called jianbing and more are now served in Ottawa, the latest arrivals in a century-long evolution of Chinese food that in Ottawa began downtown, moved to Somerset Street West by the 1980s, and appears now in our suburbs.įrom the Ontario Cafe, my relatives made their entrepreneurial move to Centretown.
Waves of immigration from China have brought a succession of new, diverse dishes, served not just to fellow expats but to non-Chinese with curious taste buds. Photo by Jean Levac / Postmedia NewsĪlthough Chinese-Canadian fare hasn’t died out entirely, we are a long way from chop suey. That kind of popularity is reason enough to ponder what’s meant by Chinese food in 2020, particularly in Ottawa. For all of Quebec, Chinese food was again No. Still, when I asked Chef’s Pencil for data exclusive to Ottawa, Chinese food again topped the list, followed by Indian, Thai, Italian and Mexican. contributed heavily to Chinese cuisine coming out on top. Drilling down into the results, you do find that input from B.C. The international food website generated its rankings through Google Trends analyses. Analysis released this month by the website found that the top “ethnic” cuisine in Canada was Chinese, followed by Italian, Thai, Indian and Mexican. Chinese New Year, which begins Saturday, encompasses many traditions and superstitions, and perhaps above all, it is a time for families to come together, honour ancestors and feast.īut even if your ancestry isn’t Chinese, you too might feel like celebrating soon with a Chinese meal. Article contentĬhinese food and my family are on my mind this week. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.National Capital Region's Top Employers.
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