Canadian Chinese Cuisine - Staple Dishes

Staple Dishes

Chinese restaurants are usually small "mom & pop" businesses. Consequently the menus are highly variable, although dishes tend to include thickly battered and deep fried pieces of meat and fish, preferred by Canadian palates. The following dishes are generally universal:

• General Tso's chicken — 左宗棠雞 Deep fried boneless dark-meat chicken pieces, served with vegetables and whole dried red peppers in a sweet-spicy sauce.
• Cantonese style chow mein — 廣東炒麵 Fried egg noodles, green peppers, pea pods, bok choy, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, shrimp, Chinese pork (char siu, 叉燒), chicken, and beef served in a thick sauce; typically marquee dish in a Canadian Chinese meal (not to be confused with American style chow mein).
• Almond Chicken Soo Guy (so gai) — Sliced breaded chicken breast with almonds and gravy. Usually known to anglophones as "almond chicken".
• Chop suey — Very similar to American style chop suey.
• Chow mein — Very similar to American style chow mein, but with more beansprouts. "Hong Kong style chow mein" omits the beansprouts and is served on a bed of crunchy fried noodles.
• Won ton soup and wor won ton - pork and shrimp dumplings in a chicken broth, sometimes with sliced meats like barbecued pork.
• Hot and sour soup
• Jar doo chicken wings — Lightly breaded seasoned deep-fried chicken wings.
• Lo mein — 撈麵 Fried egg noodles and vegetables, sometimes served in a thick sauce.
• Shanghai noodles — Fried thick noodles
• Moo goo guy pan — Sliced chicken with mushrooms and mixed vegetables.
• Shrimp with snow peas — In a clear sauce, often with other vegetables, often with battered and deep-fried shrimp.
• Singapore noodles — Rice noodles, beef, and vegetables served in a curry sauce.
• Dry ribs — Deep-fried seasoned pork ribs.
• Sweet and sour pork — Deep-fried pork chunks in sauce, often breaded into balls (but not always). May have a slice of orange.
• Sweet and sour chicken balls — Deep-fried breaded chicken or ground-chicken meatballs in sweet and sour sauce. In some Atlantic Canadian restaurants, the menus list this item only as "sweet and sour chicken," thus removing any reference to either the shape or the breaded coating.
• Pineapple chicken — A variation of chicken balls, sometimes similar to General Tso's chicken in term of appearance and texture. Coated with bright-red sweet tasting cherry sauce, and mixed with small chunks of pineapple.
• Ginger beef — 生姜牛肉 Tender beef cut in chunks, mixed with ginger and Chinese mixed vegetables.
• Ginger Fried Beef — 乾炒牛肉絲 Tender beef cut in strings, battered, deep dried, then re-fried in wok mixed with a sweet sauce, a variation of a popular Northern Chinese dish.
• Dai dop voy — 大什會 Fried sliced young chicken meat, fresh shrimps, barbecued pork with mixed Chinese vegetables.
• Diced pork ding — Cubed Chinese pork, almonds, and vegetables in a thick sauce (Any meat can serve as the base for a ding).
• Kung Pao chicken
• Egg foo yung
• Egg rolls
• Potstickers/Fried Pork Dumplings — Generally filled with diced pork and vegetables (mostly cabbage, green onion/scallion) in a doughy wrapper served pan-fried with a vinegar (can be white, red, black, rice wine vinegar...), sesame oil and ginger sauce. Often called "wor tips" in southern Alberta, especially at Chinese restaurants in Lethbridge. Also called Chinese perogies.
• Lemon chicken — Chicken breast, battered and deep-fried, then sliced and served with lemon sauce.
• Fried rice
• Salt and pepper squid