Do you have a go-to spot for fresh pickled herring or mackerel, German butter cheese, rose water-raspberry jam and Russian mint soda? Opposed to your big-box chain grocery stores, I recently found this place on Paré, off Decarie (in the old Paré lanes bowling alley) for eastern-European groceries… but if you’re Eastern-European, then just… your regular groceries.
“Cha siu” meaning: barbecue pork, and “So” meaning: pastry, one of the random dishes that sit atop the Auntie’s dim sum cart that doesn’t get as much love as it really should. The BBQ pork pastry is one of my all time favourite dim sum dishes. So favourite that it’s on my top 5 dim sum dishes that if I don’t have the whole meal cannot be considered dim sum. The filling is the same you’d find in the “Cha siu bao” – BBQ pork bun – a mix of barbecue pork, oyster sauce, sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
The buttery and flakey dough with a quick egg-wash and sprinkle of sesame seeds comes to your table golden and warm. This savoury pastry has a hint of sweetness to it.
I’m not a winter person, but living in a city where winter is a thing that’s six months long – it’s something you have to learn to deal with. I’m not a religious person either, but I’ve found the best thing to do in the winter is pray… and lots of it; and just sit there and try to pray the shit out of winter to leave. But alas, we need to put up with it, and on the brighter side, what’s synonymous with winter? Yes! Soul soothing, comfort food that will stick to your ribs like a big hug and all those other adjectives with warm and ooey-gooey clichés that are associated with winter eating!