Food festival founder says immigration bringing more authentic dining options to Halifax

Last year, noticing how diverse the Halifax food scene had become, Joyce Liu decided the city was ready for its first Asian food festival.

Liu's event company, Off the Eaten Path, helped put together the inaugural Halifax Asian Food Festival over one weekend last fall.

Speaking Friday on CBC Radio's Mainstreet Halifax, Liu said the 2021 event was so successful that this year's festival will be a week-long affair.

This discussion has been edited for length and clarity.

You moved to Halifax from your hometown in China a decade ago. How much would you say the city's food scene has changed in that last decade?

Definitely a lot.

Ten years ago, you would probably see more, like, a fusion restaurant in Halifax. But now you can see more ... restaurants that sell a very specific type of food that's, like, special in their own culture or from their own country. And I guess with the increase in population, there is, like, an increasing demand for more specific types of food. I'm glad we have more options here. 

The restaurants that we're seeing opening up in Halifax, are they more chains or are they more local restaurants popping up?

I would say definitely both.

It's very hard for restaurants to survive by doing a specialized type of food that's, like, super authentic. Lots of time when they choose to do fusion ... they do that to adapt to different people's tastes so everyone can find a little bit of the taste of home.

But now with the increase in immigrant population, we have more and more people that's familiar with the original culture that can come in to support them. And also, on the other hand, as people have seen more and more of the different type of food and restaurants, our minds are more open and people are more willing to try foods they've never seen, to go for a different experience. 

There is one [restaurant] that you posted about on Instagram a little while ago — a Filipino bakery, I think, in Bedford. Could you tell me about that one?

So I came across this bakery in Bedford called Tinápe Bakery Café. The owners are from Philippines. They do a special type of bread that's a purple yam flavour, which is similar to a purple sweet potato. And the taste of the bun is in between ... like a dinner roll and a brioche bun, so it's a little bit on the sweeter side.

I'd never seen that before in Halifax. But now with the increase in the Filipino immigrant community, they can actually bring more of those specialty types of food to Halifax and introduce something that's from their culture, very authentic to their own country and culture. 

You created ... Halifax's first Asian Food Festival and you're holding a second one this spring. What can people expect in May when this second one launches?

The second Asian Food Festival will be from May 16-28. There's two different programs in it.

The first one is Asian Food Week, where we invite all the foodies to go into the restaurants to ... have a special dish or a special combo that's, like, exclusive to the Asian Food Week.

The second program is on May 28. It will be a one-day outdoor food and culture carnival. We are still working on the best location for this. Last year, we had it by the Halifax waterfront.

The website has already launched. You search for Off the Eaten Path or Halifax Asian Food Festival, you will see our website. Businesses can register themselves. 

Our team provides different language support to work with business owners ... from different countries that speak different languages.

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