If you’re a Montrealer and a Montreal who likes to eat, then it’s obvious that you have cherished “go-to” places for certain meals or dishes; whether it be the juiciest gyro with awesome vampire repelling tzatziki sauce, the most decadent slice of chocolate cake, the richest espresso to keep you awake, or the ripest cup of fermented yak’s milk that any Inner-Mongolian would swear is authentic. Now think of your favourite spot for smoked meat… no, not that place, the other one.
Remember the last time you were at the Asian market picking up your pickled mustard greens, pork trotters, salted fish and bottle of lye and saw stacks on stacks of aluminium tins with old Asian aunties huddled around them making deals and trading back and forth like they were gambling plaques from Macau? That coveted aluminium tins house one of the season’s most illustrious treats – Moon cakes! But what are they and why do we eat them at this time of year?
Are there things that you can eat and eat and eat and never get sick of? For me it’s dumplings. Like some people joke and believe that they have separate stomach for the things they love to eat, I love dumplings. I truly believe that I really do have a separate stomach to house and digest the copious amounts of dumplings that I can eat that would frighten the common person, make old people lock their doors and children cry. Where in my body this stomach is located, I’m unsure, but I have a feeling it’s next to the stomach for pho and below the one for chips.