wild goose chase
Active Member
Just your opinion. We have diversity from all over the world which brings in many cuisines, but in particular, if an outsider asks you about Toronto's specialty, what would you say?
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Which type of cuisine(s) does Toronto shine in?
- Thread starter wild goose chase
- Start date
Humpday
New Member
I've found Toronto's Chinese, Sri Lankan, Greek and Ethiopian restaurants compare favourably to their homelands. Italian, French, Thai and Japanese, not so much. Not sure where I would put Korean, Indian and Jamaican.
Johnny Au
Senior Member
Toronto has very much the best poutine outside of Quebec.
wild goose chase
Active Member
I didn't actually realize that Toronto had a reputation for poutine specifically out of the big Canadian cities in general (I mean, it's associated with Quebec first and foremost) before but now I'm noticing it more and more (restaurants that serve and specialize in it with many variants).
ksun
Senior Member
Poutine is pretty much unknown outside Canada, so it doesn't count. Even in the US I doubt more than 10% of people know about it. Plus, it is just a variation of fries, that's all.
I concur with Chinese and Greek.
And I agree Toronto doesn't shine in Japanese food. 90% of Japanese restaurants in GTA are run by the Chinese, and many are buffet style (which is pretty much non-existent in Japan). Additionally, the vast majority of Japanese food serve primarily sushi and sashimi, and if you have been to Japan, that's no where near what normal Japanese eat on the regular basis (well, maybe the very simple rice rolls from convenience stores for a quick lunch like a sandwich for Canadians).
wild goose chase
Active Member
I wonder if Japanese cuisine arrived in Canada from Japanese-Canadians directly or from its popularity in the US first? I still remember sushi being fairly new to many Torontonians in the 90s, but by the 2000s it was definitely pretty popular. Soon it seemed like all-you-can-eat sushi was everywhere. Though the California roll is generally accepted to have originated in Los Angeles, there's even a claim that it started in Vancouver first, and came to LA afterwards.
Filip
Senior Member
I work for an Indian company (I'm actually in Mumbai right now) - compares very well. When our folks come from head office, they're surprised at how similar the Indian food is to back home.
From my experience, it's about the same. Real Indian food is a bit spicier (as they tone it down for us westerners), but overall compares very favourably.
wild goose chase
Active Member
That's interesting. I always heard that Indian food in North America and the UK is still fairly westernized like Butter chicken, Chicken tikka masala. But I'd imagine Toronto has such strong connections to those with firsthand experience in India that the similarity/authenticity is maintained.
calimehtar
Active Member
Thai, Japanese and Indian suffer a bit because they are so popular. It's pretty easy to make money selling those cuisines regardless of quality so we have a lot of bad ones. To me that isn't a reason to dismiss them, though, if you do your research you can get excellent Thai, Japanese and Indian food in the GTA.
I would add that I haven't (yet) been to Vietnam, but I haven't been to any other city in the world with as good Vietnamese as you can get here. And not for lack of trying.
I would add that I haven't (yet) been to Vietnam, but I haven't been to any other city in the world with as good Vietnamese as you can get here. And not for lack of trying.
Johnny Au
Senior Member
Not just that, but there are very few Thai people living in the Greater Toronto Area (especially if compared with the number of Thai restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area).
prosperegal
Senior Member
Every Thai restaurant I've been to in the GTA seems to be owned by people of Chinese descent - often Hong Kong, as I hear management speak Cantonese. Though one owner/manager once refused to believe that I'm ethnic Chinese (she kept on saying that I "just can't be Chinese." I don't know if she really was kind of ignorant or if it's just her bad English).
wild goose chase
Active Member
I've heard this about Thai restaurants in North America before, but I wonder why that is -- I know Thailand has a large Chinese-descended population, just like other countries in Southeast Asia.
I wonder if Thai food was brought over more by Chinese-descended Thai rather than ethnic Thai?
wild goose chase
Active Member
Sushi, and Japanese cuisine in general I suppose is popular in many places in North America too outside the West Coast that have few Japanese-Americans/Canadians and also hardly received any Japanese immigration (and the peak time of immigration from Japan earlier in the 20th century, had long since been over when sushi became trendy at the end of the century).
wild goose chase
Active Member
It also seems that while in general, cuisines become more popular when there are large waves of immigrants, past and present, bringing the cuisine from their homelands, it's not necessarily the case.
For example, there are many more German North Americans than Chinese North Americans yet you don't see German restaurants that often compared to Chinese restaurants.
Jamaican patties have become a staple snack for Torontonians as I brought up in another thread, and they are widely sold in shops/subway stations even when the seller isn't Jamaican. This seems more true in Toronto than even other cities (eg. New York) with as many or more Jamaicans.
For example, there are many more German North Americans than Chinese North Americans yet you don't see German restaurants that often compared to Chinese restaurants.
Jamaican patties have become a staple snack for Torontonians as I brought up in another thread, and they are widely sold in shops/subway stations even when the seller isn't Jamaican. This seems more true in Toronto than even other cities (eg. New York) with as many or more Jamaicans.
prosperegal
Senior Member
Germans have been here much longer than Chinese, Italians, Greeks, etc... Though Polish people haven't been in Canada that long, yet you don't see Polish restaurants.