Local Chinese-Canadian Eateries in the Spotlight in New CBC Show “Locals Welcome”

At Vanmag, it seems we love shows about food just as much as we love food itself—catch us watching Top Chef Canada, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and even Is It Cake? (what can we say? We’re dynamic!). The through-line between Vanmag’s love of food and TV is that there’s a bevy of stories that make up our rich restaurant scene in Canada. Specifically, in the Greater Vancouver area.

We’re adding another one to our watch-list: Locals Welcome, a new docu-series on CBC that highlights Canada’s diverse food scene, hosted by Suresh Doss.

The show premiered on October 5, kicking off exploring Mississauga and Toronto’s food scenes, but in last Sunday’s episode, Doss keeps it a little closer to home, visiting Vancouver and Richmond to explore Chinese-Canadian cuisine through the restaurants and subcultures that serve it up.

We were lucky enough to get a special media preview, featuring a screening of the upcoming episode, plus a panel discussion featuring some of our favourite local foodie personalities.

In the episode, Doss jumps right into Richmond’s food scene. He starts with delicate morel mushroom dim sum at Golden Paramount, then he heads to Memory Corner for a bowl of silky noodles shared with longtime Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards judge Lee Man (also a founding judge of the Vancouver Chinese Restaurant Awards), who shows excitement with every bite he takes: “Ah, noodles… I love noodles.”

Not to spoil anything, but after Memory Corner, Doss and Lee head to Yuan’s Garden to try some glossy stir-fry; Doss then ends his day at Fish Man to slurp on some fresh sea cucumber sashimi, enjoy the spicy fried version and try the salted egg yolk Dungeness crab. It’s the full food experience that paints a portrait of the Richmond food scene’s flavour and heart.

Jenice Yu, a prominent seafood purveyor and supplier in the lower mainland (and another longtime Vancouver MagazineRestaurant Awards judge), is another one of the episode’s guest stars.

“We focused on Richmond [because of the] walkability,” Man said after the screening. “In Richmond, it is really apparent how the different waves of immigration happened: the initial Cantonese and then Sichuan. Now there are real subgroups that are pretty specialized; for example, we end up going to a restaurant that specializes in Nanjing food, which is a subset of Chinese food. We also went to Memory Corner, which has some very specific Taiwanese dishes.”

Another hyper-local feature of the episode? A trip on Yu’s fishing boat, where she and Doss pull off a seafood haul that couldn’t possibly be more fresh. They share what they jokingly call “urchin bumps” (a cheeky twist on “caviar bumps”) as they taste sea urchin straight from the source. Doss is instantly amazed by its pureness and unique flavour that defines Richmond’s seafood scene.

“Our access to B.C. seafood food is crazy, and that’s what makes our Chinese food really different from anywhere else in Canada or North America,” says Man.

As Man puts it, “Food should be celebrated as hard work”: a reminder that behind every dish, every plate of noodles and every perfectly steamed dumpling, is a story of migration, resilience and pride. Locals Welcome not only highlights where to eat, it showcases the heart of a community that feeds with flavour, history and heart. 

Watch Locals Welcome on Sundays at 9 p.m. on CBC, or stream for free on CBC Gem.