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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Calgary
Strips of breaded beef fried until crispy, tossed in a sweet-and-spicy sauce with ginger, garlic and chili, served with sautéed vegetables and rice. Created in Calgary in the 1970s at a Chinese-Canadian restaurant, it spread across the Prairies and the country.
Traditional dish from Calgary, Alberta
Also known as: crispy ginger beef, Calgary ginger beef
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Ginger beef — Calgary, Canada
Ginger beef is made with strips of beef coated in a light batter and fried until crispy. The meat is then coated in a sticky sweet-and-spicy sauce with ginger, garlic and chili, and stir-fried with vegetables such as bell pepper and onion. It’s served with rice.
The dish originated in the 1970s at the Silver Inn, a Chinese-Canadian restaurant that opened in 1975 in Calgary. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the first attempt produced a tough, dried-style beef more typical of Chinese cuisine, which didn’t please customers used to Alberta’s tender beef. The breaded-and-fried version — crispy like French fries and less hot — was a hit. The restaurant closed in 2022 after almost fifty years.
Ginger beef is part of the history of chop suey restaurants opened by Chinese families in towns and cities across western Canada, where recipes were adapted to local tastes. Diners attributed the heat to ginger and began ordering ginger beef at other restaurants, and the dish entered the menus of Chinese takeout in Alberta, across the Prairies and eventually nationwide. The Royal Alberta Museum addressed the topic in the exhibition Chop Suey on the Prairies.
In Calgary, ginger beef shares with the Caesar cocktail the fame of being a city creation. Alberta beef, known throughout Canada, is the base of the dish.
Calgary , Alberta
Dish created in a Chinese-Canadian restaurant in Calgary in the 1970s.
Breaded, fried strips of beef; sauce of ginger, garlic, chili, sugar and vinegar; sautéed bell pepper and onion. Served with rice.
Hot, right after cooking, to keep the crunch, with white rice. Common in Chinese-Canadian restaurants and Chinese takeout.
Year-round, at lunch or dinner.
Your questions
It’s a Chinese-Canadian dish: it was created in Calgary in the 1970s at a Chinese restaurant adapted to local tastes. It is not a traditional dish from China.
In Calgary in the 1970s, at a Chinese-Canadian restaurant that opened in 1975. From there, the dish spread to Chinese restaurants in Alberta, across the Prairies and the rest of the country.
Usually white rice. The beef is already stir-fried with vegetables such as bell pepper and onion.
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