It’s that time of year again, where I look back at some of the most memorable dishes I’ve had in 2015. It’s also that time of year when I look forward to all the “New year, new me” declarations on Facebook and Twitter and the avalanche of tacky, cliché motivational quotes on Instagram. I’m so proud to say that I’m fortunate enough to live in one of the world’s best cities for food. Our food culture is perpetuated by the amazing culinary talent that calls Montreal their home. From fine dining to casual, international cuisine to domestic terroir, we truly are blessed. 2015 has been a year full of delicious food and amazing experiences, so in no particular order here is my best of the past year.
Category:
Chinatown
The best part about Chinatown in Montreal? The food; plain and simple. Although called “Chinatown” it encompasses tastes and flavours of all cultures in this 3 block radius in the Ville Marie borough. Looking for awesome cantonese food? Some of the city’s best Cantonese lobster, braised beef with bean curd, or even black bean bitter melon can be found here. Not to mention some of the juiciest xiao long bao soup dumplings, all-dressed pho (tokienese soup noodles), korean bulgogi and even Japanese sushi and sashimi. But one thing I think we can all agree on is that Chinatown’s taco game has been weak. Not until recently, La Capital Taco is changing everyone’s mind.
I used to think that it was ludicrous to eat soup noodles in summer, but with more and more noodle houses popping up in Montreal I think I’m going to have to abandon this ridiculous way of thinking. I just couldn’t imagine slurping copious amounts of hot noodles in steamy broth when the mercury inches above 20 degrees when I already have sweat management problems. I guess I can say my narrow-mindedness changed when I spent some time in South-East Asia where downing road-side bowls of hot noodles at the butt-crack of dawn where the temperature was already 30 degrees and a notion of “humidex” didn’t exist because it was always at 100%. So as spring kicks into high gear and air is still crisp, I checked out Nouilles de Lan Zhou in Chinatown for some homemade hand-pulled noodles.