Toronto is a sophisticated city with many fine restaurants, but the cuisine that distinguishes it is dim sum. Of all the restaurants we tried as part of a group of 20 food writers traveling together across Ontario, none was better than the Golden Regency in Toronto's Pacific Mall and Lai Wah Heen in the downtown Metropolitan Hotel.
At the Golden Regency Restaurant general manager John Lau told us that Toronto and Vancouver set the standard for dim sum on a par with Hong Kong. He said New York City is no longer a contender.
Toronto's advantage is at least in part a consequence of numbers. More than 450,000 Chinese people live in six Chinatown neighborhoods throughout a city of 5 million. From more than a dozen dim sum options, Valerie Mah, a former school principal, historian for the Toronto Chinese community and our tour guide, chose two examples.
At the Golden Regency, a restaurant seating 360, we were served a fine, fragrant jasmine tea, a radish cake pastry, a crispy fried shrimp roll and a Shu Mai pork dumpling. They were modestly priced and very fine, though not as refined as dim sum can be. That, and higher prices, were left for Lai Wah Heen. Neither restaurant used carts as it was agreed that dim sum must be served freshly made and hot. When a cart moves slowly through a crowd, with the cover raised for patrons to see, the dim sum cools down.
The Lai Wah Heen dining room in the swank Metropolitan Hotel is beautiful and serene. Although the restaurant offers an English menu, it is intimidating. I reprint here a list of dim sum that impressed food writers from newspapers across the United States. (Remember that the Chinese waste nothing and their skill is in making everything taste delicious.)
Butterfly-shaped dumpling with shrimp and scallop; wonton-wrapped lobster, shrimp and asparagus; deep-fried taro root paste with duck and chicken; bumble bee crab claw with calamari mousse; bok choy dumpling; deluxe wild forest mushrooms and bamboo fungi in a rice wrap; baked pastry with cured ham, shrimp and pork; pan-seared crystal purse with tofu, pea and vegetables; cream custard tart with swallow nest; deep-fried sesame balls with chocolate paste. Menus provide the price per piece.
The Golden Regency serves Cantonese dim sum and Shanghai-style dumplings from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Lai Wah Heen, seating 120, serves Cantonese-style dim sum from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Tour guide Valerie Mah may be reached by e-mail: vmah@ican.com.
One of the great pleasures of this downtown was a visit to the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto's original city hall (1845-99). According to a recent Food & Wine magazine, it is one of the 25 best food markets in the world. Although Toronto is only a five-hour drive from Pittsburgh, realistically it seems a mite far for groceries. Still, I'm tempted to give it a try. What a wondrous place this market is. Stall after stall of the finest and freshest, most beautifully displayed, attractively priced, eminently eatable meat, fish and seafood, plus produce, cheese, dairy, breads, bakery, specialty items, restaurants and more. As all visitors seem to do, we stopped at Carousel Bakery for cornmeal-coated Canadian bacon sandwiches, $3.
Bruce Bell is for hire to give an excellent tour of both the market and the environs: bruce@brucebelltours.com.
St. Lawrence Market, Jarvis and Front streets, 1-416-392-7120.
Along with pleasures, there were disappointments. One of my best memories from a previous trip to Toronto was a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum, the only museum to get three stars in the Toronto Michelin Guide. Because of expansion and a new building designed by Daniel Libeskind, one of the architects at work on the New York World Trade Center site, it will be late 2006 before the museum is fully operational. Across the street, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art is closed for renovation.
Tourism Toronto offers visitors help with visiting the city: 1-800-363-1990.
First Published: October 24, 2004, 4:00 a.m.
