If there’s one thing I love most in the world is the sweet sweet sense of comradery when fellow Montreal motorists band together, hold the line and not let that one jerk cut in line in front of queuing cars at a highway exit. Ok, if there’s another thing I love most in the world is an awesome sandwich.
A simple preparation of shrimp paste, slathered on quartered slices of bell peppers and pan-fried then painted with oyster sauce.
I hope everyone has had a pleasant holiday, filled with people you love and delicious food. As the new year is upon us, I want to tell you about this great food related idea I have; a new Shut Up and Eat project that will take Montreal like a mid-winter snow storm. I will open a gym and call it “Resolutions” for the month of January, which will become a restaurant full of slimming carnival mirrors for the other 11 months. Great idea, n’est pas?
One of the lesser known dim sum dishes, the seaweed roll is often overlooked and neglected by most, then scooped up by dim sum aficionados – don’t be that person!
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!
Beef meatball. Coincidentally, my paediatrician’s nickname for me when I was younger, the meatball is made with ground beef marinated in a mix of soy sauce, Shaoxing cooking wine, garlic, ginger and sugar; it’s then whipped together with water chestnut, shitake mushrooms and scallions. The meatball itself is light and airy; this is attributed to the baking soda that is used to both tenderize the meat as well as aerate it, which yields a firm and toothsome final product. Steamed on a soy bean curd (tofu skin), prevents the meatball from sticking to the dish, however, also provides a great contrast in texture when eaten together. The meatball is dressed with Worcestershire sauce table side; the tang definitely works well by brightening up the meaty bite.
Try it! Then tell me how much you like it!
To start this thing off, we have to do it right. The ubiquitous dish of any legit dim sum spot, Phoenix claws – AKA: Chicken feet.
Yes, they’re edible… and they’re delicious! Your homeboys Tony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern swear by it and consider it one of the most underrated, least respected and intimidating foods. Preparing this dish is quite the process. First cleaned, the chicken feet are then braised in soy and cooking wine, drained and fried twice. After the second fry (where the skin plumps), the chicken feet are immediately dunked into an ice bath to have the skin pull away from the bone – and this is what makes the chicken feet, “Phoenix claws”. The bad boys are then tossed in a sweet, honey based garlic sauce with hints of orange zest and then placed in individual dishes to be steamed. Although they are already cooked, the steaming obviously heats them through to order, as well as allows the sauce to permeate the skin.
There isn’t any meat on the phoenix claws, you’re basically eating the skin and softened cartilage. The gelatinous pectin filled bites is what makes this dish so fucking DELICIOUS, leaving a piling of little bones on your plate as a trophy of your courageous dim sum domination.
Live a little and try. Order them.
You’d think that after my big quest to find Montreal’s best Pho, I’d be sick of noodles by now; no, my insatiable thirst for noodles has no bounds. Like girls have a secret stomach for popcorn, chocolate and gossip, I have a secondary backup stomach for noodles, pizza, sushi and fried stuff with cheese. So on a cold winter night (yes, we’re still in November, but the shit is cold enough at night that I’m calling it winter, deal with it), a bunch of friends and I hit up Nudo noodle house, a spot in Chinatown who’s pulling noodles and slinging grub.