I have yet to hear any of my Chinese-descendant friends say anything good about Sunnys, Mimi and Dailo … LOL
Tough crowd and picky eaters my friends are … hahahaha
1 Like
Hmmm I live right down the street from Mimi so walk by often mostly younger crowd and lots of Instagram pics being taken. So call it what you may it catering to that crowd and doing well (ambiance and insta worthy ranks higher than the food itself for that group imo) now that’s contrary to what Michelin guide says is their criterion. Go figure!
2 Likes
Even more fascinating and puzzling about this Michelin Guide mystery!
QJD Peking Duck, the iconic Beijing base Peking duck specialist opened up a couple of overseas offshoots, first in Vancouver, then followed up with a branch in Markham.
The QJD Vancouver branch quickly got recognised by Michelin and was awarded a star by them last year…becoming the first Chinese restaurant in Canada to receive such an award.
However, their sister shop in Markham, offering basically the same food ( in quality and price point ), was completely ignored and even left out as a recommendation! Go figure?!
1 Like
DaiLo is fun, fusion-y stuff. I really like the Big Mac bao when it was on the menu. The whole fried trout is another favourite.
We tried Sunny’s relatively recently and enjoyed it. I do not have the expertise to explain in any detail how it compares to places in Markham, aside from recognizing that it did not reach their levels of flavour, texture, etc. At least it didn’t pull punches in terms of spiciness.
1 Like
Went to Dailo and tried their tasting menu about two months ago. Food was ok and interestingly, quite a few of the dishes reminds me more of Thai than Chinese food
1 Like
This would help to explain a lot?!
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/xCrcY5MT3T2BmsYs/
Yes! The process would involve REAL COOKING, NOT just putting together some gimmicky pretty assemblage of exotic raw ingredients like Caviar and Uni on top of some chopped Wagyu Beef in a mold for an instagrammable end product!
Now this Mimi/Sunny is intriguing me enough to want to try it. In reading about which one I want to try, I noticed they don’t claim to be authentic. You see them being described like:
The team is serious about staying true to traditional recipes—though you might find a twist here and there, this food is about celebration, not innovation. The idea is to inspire conversation about China’s diverse culinary landscape over dishes designed to be shared. - Toronto Life
Schwartz readily acknowledges it as well:
New Orleans–spiced chicken wings are super popular in China. It’s something that’s not really Chinese but is so Chinese to Chinese people. - Toronto Life
An interesting article from Three Magazine which features Braden Chong:
Third-culture cuisine is a form of cooking that is not dogmatically faithful to a specific region, but rather inspired by it, infused by the chef’s lived experience of that place. But lately, many third culture chefs are encountering an unexpected challenge: a lack of support from older generations.
We regularly see discussions about chefs cooking cuisines not from the country they were born (usually Japanese cuisine) but that’s not an issue for me because of the multitude of counterexamples. Shoushin? Ivan Ramen? Marcus Samuelsson’s many cuisine-hopping places.
1 Like
