Behind the Counter – Today's Special: Chicken Fried Rice
FROM OCTOBER 2024 ISSUE OF WEST END PHOENIX
Alex and Susanna Leung (both pictured below) took over South Pacific (1002 Dovercourt Rd.) in 2015.
A neighbourhood fixture since 1952, the Chinese-Canadian restaurant South Pacific still serves the classics, a style of cooking they call “humble and joyful”
While my parents were dating in the late 1970s, they would spend many evenings at the kitchen table in my grandparents‘ house on Dovercourt eating takeout from South Pacific, just up the street. Even then, the small restaurant that sits three doors north of Hallam was a longtime fixture in the neighbourhood, churning out Chinese-Canadian classics like Cantonese chow mein and beef and broccoli since 1952. As my father recalls, they always ordered crinkle-cut fries and chicken balls.
Susanna Leung has owned restaurants in Acton, Woodstock and Orangeville.
They were still ordering takeout from South Pacific into the 1990s, when I was born. I remember heaping servings of fried rice, meat and noodles scooped out onto unbreakable Corelle dishware. By that time, my parents had established themselves near Dufferin and Davenport, farther from South Pacific but still within their delivery area. During a recent meal at the shop, I was heartened to learn that after many years, and even the death of its previous owner, nothing much has changed.
Alex and Susanna Leung, the mother-and-son owners of South Pacific, bought the small takeout-only storefront in 2015. Susanna, who heads up the kitchen, learned to cook in Hong Kong, and has owned restaurants in Acton, Woodstock and Orangeville.
“We provide humble meals to the guys who work in construction, the ladies that clean for a living, the kids that are in university and grad school,” says Alex. “Nothing fancy. The prices are reasonable and we give you more than you pay for.”
Alex Leung says, "Prices are reasonable and we give you more than you pay for."
He describes the food that his mother cooks as healthy and joyous. I was served a generous helping of Cantonese chow mein – noodles with fresh vegetables, beef, pork, chicken and shrimp – to take home. With fried rice and chicken wings, one order provided two grown men, my father and me, with enough food to eat twice.
Susanna is short in stature with jet-black curly hair. She zips around the kitchen like a comet. As she works her wok, she tosses noodles in the air, then catches them in the rich amalgam of vegetables and meat. “I like cooking. I like eating. That‘s my interest,” says Susanna. When she was young, she enjoyed cooking for her friends. It made her happy, so she started to cook in restaurants.
Since buying South Pacific, Alex and Susanna have tried to honour its legacy as an integral part of the neighbourhood.
The mother and son give away free meals and gift cards to community members in need. They also reward local students for their good work with gift cards.
In a Toronto where so much is changing every day, it is comforting to see a neighbourhood institution like South Pacific thriving and serving its community. In its 72 years of operation, it‘s served many generations of the neighbourhood‘s residents. When I sit down to a hot container of their noodles, I feel a connection to my childhood, and a connection to my parents and grandparents. They enjoyed food from South Pacific just the same.
South Pacific Website: https://spdovercourtca.wordpress.com