The Vancouver Chinese Restaurant Awards can help. These annual prizes recognize not just particular restaurants but the best dishes that those restaurants serve. And they’re not the typical General Gao’s Chicken or Ginger Beef that you find in many North American Chinese eateries either.

Judged by a panel of local food writers and bloggers, the 2012 Chinese Restaurant Awards gave kudos to 28 top-flight dishes, from tea-smoked duck, pan-fried prawns with soy, and curried crab to less-commonly found creations, including bitter melon omelette, wok-fried geoduck clam, and pork stomach & gingko soup. Most are Cantonese or Hong Kong-style, but a few dishes represent China’s other regional cuisines.

Check out this handy map to Vancouver’s best Chinese dishes:

View Vancouver Chinese Restaurant Awards 2012 – Critics’ Choice Signature Dish Winners in a larger map

Interestingly, while none of the award-winning restaurants are downtown, most are just a short ride away on the Canada Line SkyTrain. Here’s a station-by-station list of the Critics’ Choice eateries and their prize-winning dishes:

Broadway/City Hall:
Dynasty Seafood, #108-777 West Broadway, Vancouver, 604-876-8388, Sautéed Buddha’s Feast

King Edward:
Landmark Hotpot House, 4023 Cambie Street, Vancouver, 604-872-2868, Flash Wok Fried BC Geoduck, Tea Smoked Duck, Stir-fried Glutinous Rice, Steamed Ginger Milk

Aberdeen:
Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant, 3711 No. 3 Road, Richmond, 604-232-0816: Fried Squab, Pan-fried Prawns with Soy, Pan-fried Spike Sea Cucumber with Green Scallion, Braised Chayote with Minced Pork & Preserved Vegetable, Double Boiled Pig’s Shank with Honey Melon Soup
Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle, Aberdeen Centre, #2800-4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond, 604-295-9357: Championship Beef Shank with Noodle in Spicy Soup Noodle
Shiang Garden Restaurant, #2200-4540 No. 3 Road, Richmond, 604-273-8858,: Dongpo Style Braised Alberta Pork with Amoy Sauce, Fried Lobster with Green Onions and Amoy Premium Soy Sauce

Aberdeen or Lansdowne (roughly equidistant between these stations):
The Jade Seafood Restaurant, 8511 Alexandra Road, Richmond, 604-249-0082: Sautéed B.C. Dungeness Crabs & Mixed Mushrooms with Amoy Premium Soy Sauce
Big Chef Restaurant, #1060-8580 Alexandra Road, Richmond, 604-207-0386: Pan-fried Dungeness Crab with Salted Egg Yolk, Hot Pot Soya Sauce Chicken

Richmond Brighouse:
Hoi Tong Chinese Seafood Restaurant, #160-8191 Westminister Highway, Richmond, 604-276-9229: Bitter Melon Omelette, Pork Belly with Pickled Vegetable and Soy Beans, Daliang Fried Milk
Golden Paramount Seafood, 8071 Park Road, Richmond, 604-278-0873: Braised Duck with Plums and Taro Root Cakes, Pan-fried Fresh Oyster with Soya Sauce, Sweet and Sour Pork with Fresh Fruit Restaurant
Bamboo Grove Restaurant, 6920 No. 3 Road, Richmond, 604-278-9585: Pork Stomach & Gingko Long-boiled Soup, Stir-fried Tiger Prawns with Minced Pork and Eggplant

The other award-winners are all on Vancouver’s East Side or in the suburb of Burnaby:
Golden Swan Restaurant, 5380 Victoria Drive, Vancouver, 604-321-6621: Stewed Alberta Oxtail with Red Wine
Kalvin’s Szechuan, 5225 Victoria Drive, Vancouver, 604-321-2888: Deep Fried Pork in Red Fermented Sauce
James on Hastings Chinese Restaurant, 2683 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, 604-255-3188: Dry Fried Curry Dungeness Crab
Alvin Garden, 4850 Imperial Street, Burnaby, 604-437-0828: Stir Fried Garlic Bolt with Hunan Smoked Pork

The Chinese Restaurant Awards also has a “Diner’s Choice” category, which recognized 19 popular restaurants and dishes, from the best xiao long bao (Shanghai-style soup dumplings) to the top Taiwanese bubble tea cafe. Just in case you thought you might run out of Vancouver Chinese restaurants to try…

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

My hometown – Vancouver – has an awesome winter Dine Out Festival that I blogged about earlier this week.

But cities all across North America are hosting restaurant weeks, dining festivals, even an entire Restaurant Month (in California) during these dark winter nights. Most follow a similar format – good-value, fixed-price menus that introduce you to the restaurant’s food – although some, like Dine Out Vancouver, also include food tours, cooking classes, or other special events.

Why do so many destinations host these restaurant events? They bring in customers during the slowest seasons, while offering diners reasonably-priced meals.

Whether you’re traveling or sticking close to home this month, check out these 2012 winter restaurant festivals:

New York City: January 16-February 10
Baltimore: January 20-29
Charleston: January 12-22
San Diego:  January 15-20
Los Angeles: January 22-27 and January 29-February 3
San Francisco: January 15-31
Toronto: January 29-February 9
Ottawa: January 12-28
Vancouver: January 20-February 5

For even more restaurant festivals, see this Open Table Restaurant Week list. And please leave a comment to recommend your own favorite restaurant events.

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Refreshing tofu salad garnished with crispy lotus roots and a bright citrus dressing.

Spicy ling cod perched atop a meltingly tender poached daikon slice, served with vegetable fritters and painted with a brushstroke of pureed nori.

With dishes like these (from upscale izakaya Hapa Umi) and hundreds more from restaurants all over the city, this year’s Dine Out Vancouver Festival is shaping up to be three weeks of delicious food fun.

Canada’s largest restaurant festival, Dine Out Vancouver 2012 kicks off January 20 and runs through February 5. More than 200 restaurants around the city are offering great-value three-course prix-fixe menus (at $18, $28, or $38 per person). This year, the festival also includes scads of special events, from food tours, cooking classes, and mystery suppers to theatre and dining nights. Plus, a new Street Food City event will let you sample from Vancouver’s growing number of food trucks, all in one place.

Read on for the festival details…

Where to Eat
With over 200 participating restaurants, choosing where to eat can be a little daunting. I’ve picked some especially interesting menus, along with a few old favorites, to help you decide.

In the $18 category, good deals include:
Bitter Tasting Room
Chutney Villa
Judas Goat Taberna
Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts – Bistro 101

For $28, my picks are:
Baru Latino Restaurante
Campagnolo
Maenam
Mistral French Bistro

The $38 menus include lots of first-rate choices. Book as soon as possible, since many of these dinners will sell out fast:
Boneta
Cibo Trattoria (their menu is posted on their Facebook page)
Cru
Hapa Umi
Hawksworth
L’Abattoir
Raincity Grill
West

“Salt and Pepper”
Several restaurants are hosting special events beyond the prix-fixe dining options, adding a dash of “Salt and Pepper” to this year’s festival. Save On Meats is hosting a “Social Feed” on January 27—a pork-centric “nose-to-tail” menu served family style at a long communal table. Hamilton Street Grill and British Columbia’s Township 7 Winery team up for a “Wine Country Luncheon” on February 2. Provence Mediterranean Restaurant transforms into a “Pop-Up Salsa Club” on January 29, pairing Cuban food with a night of dancing.

Street Food City
On January 24, 25, and 26, take your lunch break with Vancouver’s food trucks. Each day, at least eight different food trucks will park near the Vancouver Art Gallery, enabling you to sample the city’s street food bounty all in one place. And because this is January in Vancouver (rain, what rain?), there will be tents set up to provide shelter, as well as bands to entertain you while you eat.

Dine Academy
Want to learn to prepare Chinese dim sum or Indian snack food? Tour Granville Island with a chef or take a guided walk through Chinatown? Shuck oysters and concoct cocktails with an expert bartender? Then check out these Dine Out “Dine Academy” events.

Hotel Deals
Even if you didn’t care about the food and restaurant events, this month would be a great time to visit Vancouver. Three dozen hotels are offering special Dine Out nightly rates of $78, $108, or $138 per room.

If you go…
Want more details about Dine Out Vancouver and the many more special events? Get the complete schedule, make your reservations, and book tickets online on the Tourism Vancouver Dine Out Festival website.

Have you come across a great food festival like Dine Out Vancouver in your travels? Please leave a comment and share the details with other WanderFood readers. And if you have a food post – on any culinary topic – that you’d like to highlight, you can link to that post here:

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Thanks to Tourism Vancouver for hosting a Dine Out media preview evening that included my excellent dinner at Hapa Umi restaurant.