When renowned restaurateur Tannis Ling was growing up in Vancouver, her parents would pack the kids into the car every weekend and drive to the city’s bustling Chinatown.

Parking was notoriously difficult, so her dad would drop off her mom at the butcher or market, then circle the area.

“It was in the ‘80s before T&T and all the Chinese malls in Richmond. This area was the only place you could get Asian groceries,” says Ling.

“I have really nice memories of eating buns in the car and drinking mango juice.”

Inspired in part by her mother’s cooking, she opened Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie in 2009, which instantly became one of the city’s culinary hotspots.

