Dobe & Andy

Val and I were running the 5km Montréal Souterrain, so I had obviously planned a little after-run lunch in Chinatown. Nothing has ever been this obvious. In life. This Cantonese restaurant is located on St-Urbain in the same building as Kim Fung (dim sum), on the ground floor.

It looks like ass from the outside and ass when you're inside too. But hey, I've learnt that the goodness of the food in Asian restaurants has nothing to do with the cleanliness. I'd even go as far as saying it's an inversed correlation. Nevertheless, this place was buuuusy! One of the gems of Chinatown.

I had the BBQ duck soup. Everything in that pleases me: BBQ, duck AND soup on a cold day? Yaaassss! My Jer Bear AKA friend from the Asian persuasion, would've been ubs proud of me: I ate the duck meat, the duck fat AND I ate around the bone (there is no effin English word for 'gruger'). There's sooo much flavor in the fat. That's probs why the stock was so good! It was legit wow. The green onions almost made a paste, which was totes up my alley. I had the choice between egg noodles and vermicelli-style noodles. I had the latter one because I thought the egg noodles would be a bit too heavy. They were perfectly cooked. Just perf. Slurp slurp! Going back to the duck, it was delish! It had absorbed all the flavours and oh how lovely that was! I added a bit of sriracha and dang girl!

Service was ok. Quick, as per use. We got tea to start off and they then brought us some water. The waiter didn't really speak any English (nor French), which was fine... but then again, he couldn't really answer our questions. I asked for their specialty (they have like 100 items on their menu!), and he wasn't really able to tell me. They didn't ask if we liked it but I ain't surprised. Asian restos are in a whole other category. I can just imagine Jer bear saying: 'I TOLD you it works like that!'.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 6

Althought Montréal's Chinatown is tiny (I dream of a Toronto-sized Chinatown ALL the time), there are many restaurants to go to. Imma try another one next time :)

Little Pink Fish 2008

Another lunch date with Jer Bear came along and we were to go try Otto Yakitori in downtown Montreal buuuuut they were closed for an event. DAMN IT. We then had a couple options: do a repeat and go  back to Maison du Nord, go to Ganadara once more (you can never go there enough) OR try a new place in this second Chinatown. Maison du Nord was a no. Ganadara, we actually checked and it was way too busy as usual, so it was going to be Little Pink Fish 2008. I love how Asian restos always be like 'we need to put a number in there'.

The restaurant is on two stories, with lots of decorations of only one thing: Chairman Mao. Cups on the walls and paintings of different colors are everywhere you look. Can you say 'obsession' much? Asian Christmas music is playing and, wait, what? Yep... Christmas music. CHRISTMAS. MUSIC. Ugh. Thank goodness there was only one Christmas tune. I would have lost my shit.

In good Marie and Jer fashion, we ordered too much food. That's what happens when everything looks too good and when your Asian connection wants you to try 'everything'.

Beef shank with hot chili sauce. This was niiiiiice. The beef was very tender and literally melted in ma mouth, the peanuts added a nice crunch, , the coriander does NOT need any introduction, the garlic either (hello!). Schezuan peppers made our lips turn from cold-ish to ON FIRE. Wow! It was weird because the inside of my mouth was just fine and dandy, but my lips had turned red and were all tingly.  

(With all this good food, I forgot to take a pic of this dish :/ ) Fried green beans with ground pork. I had this before at Hongmère in Verdun and had loved it. I gots to say though, it's VERY fried. As in, fried FRIED. As in wooooow that's fried. And I'm done. Obviously, as we ALL know, all fried things are awesome so this was no exception. They were very flavourful and the dish had just the right proportion of meat vs veggies.

Chinese fish in a hot broth. The fish was catfish and it was uber deliciousful. Yes guys, another new word, invented by moi! The fish had absorbed the beautiful flavours of the spicy broth, and it was so buttery and melt-in-your-mouth good. The bean sprouts were fresh and crispy and it was garlic city. Hello. Hello garlic, old friend. Lots of pepper corns gave some more spiciness to this soup. Yummy!!

Service was OK. He answered all our questions but did not check on us at any point during the meal. We got water quickly but even with all the spice, we did not get a refill fast enough.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 7

I don't think I'll go back, you know, on account of the Christmas music.

Maison du Nord

Ma boy Jer wanted to bring me to sumthin' uber authentic so we headed to La Maison du Nord on St-Mathieu where they serve up genuine Chinese food.

What to say about the place? Nothing, really. To say it's run down would be an understatement. The place is tiny with 30 seats and from the outside it looks even tinier. It kind of looks dirty when you walk in and it seems like they wanted to save $ on electricity because all the lights were off. There were cool holograms on the walls... as in they would've been cool back in 1992. The ambiance was next to nil. Oh and the man that most likely owns it did not speak a word of English (or French), so I thanked my lucky stars that I was there with someone that could actually communicate with him.

Zhajiangmian OU spaghetti à la chinoise. The noodles were way overcooked and although I did like the cucumbers in there, the whole thing tasted watery and was a bit blah. That's a technical term by the way. Yep.

Roujiamo. Is it a sandwich, is it a pancake, who knows! The bread was hard. Very hard. A good hard. You know, like.... I won't even go there :) The bread itself didn't taste much but the stewed pork inside uber flavourful and had a great texture.

Pork and cabbage dumplings. Oh, how I love dumplings. Marie and dumplings: a love story. They were very tasty, although a tad on the doughy side. The chili sauce went really well with the dish and made me want to eat 8. Hello, carbs.

Pork yuxiang. Yuxiang is a mix of spices that originated in Sichuan, which has, since then, spread all over China. You know, like the plague. The basic sauce contains pickled chili, ginger, garlic, sugar and vinegar, with a starch. All that to say it was YUM-MY! It was a bit spicy but not tooo much to make me cry. There were some woodear mushrooms, which I rarely get to eat (like, ever), that tasted almost smoky. Their name suits them very well because it did feel like I was eating wood. But in a good way, you know? Yes, there IS a good way. The bamboo shoots had absorbed the sauce which was just AWESOME. Ya, that much.

Don't even get me started about the service. I can only hear Jer bear in ma head: NEVER rate Asian service. Well, I gots to. First off, well, as I mentioned, I was lucky Jer was with me because I would have had a LOT of trouble, communication wise. It took really long for us to get our food which made us wonder if the dude was working in the kitchen as well as the dining room.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 6

It was good. It was authentic (especially the service :p) . But I don't see myself goin back, especially not without my Asian connection.

Sammi and soup dumpling

As you know, I'm half Asian (it's basically a fact) and so, being half Asian, I like to hit up some Asian restos. Makes sense. My Asian connection, Jer, told me to go to Sammi soup and dumpling when I asked him where I should go eat near Concordia. And so, I went!

 Sammi is a small spot on Ste-Catherine right in the middle of le second Chinatown. Ya, it's a thing alright. They have lots of tables in a small space and have benches that hurt yo ass. Kinda like the old McDonald's. Meaning, DON'T take your time to eat, we want more money. OK, McDo was like that but I'm sure Sammi just took the benches from the resto that was there before. There were a couple people sitting at the back, a couple at the window and a man, that looked quite miserable if you asked me (until the buns arrived) sitting on the ass-hurtin' bench. It felt a bit weird to have absolutely no music and no ambiance. Just not used to it.

Obviously, I was there for the buns. According to Jer, they are some (if not THE) best in Montreal. Well hello there! I like big buns and I cannot lie! Or something less weird.

 Hot and sour cucumber. This did NOT look awesome. But as the rule goes, it WAS awesome! First of all, this was like 3 bucks. 3 bucks for awesome? Yes please! Huge pieces of cucumber marinated in vinegar and lord knows what but packed with flavor. On top, it was spicy and lovely with some chilies, chili oil and a bit of vinegar. And then, as I was digging, I found more awesomeness in the shape of ginger. WOW!!! Intense and oh-so-good! I'd like some more now please!

Los buns. Or xiaolongbao (check it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaolongbao ). OR tiny little heavenly thangs. I asked which ones I should have and she said that if I had never been there, I should have the pork buns. Done!

So, ten buns. TEN! Let's calm down here, people! I obviously brought some home for a friend. Who can eat ten buns? They were just perfect. Totes serious. Perfect size, and perfect level of juiciness, as in they didn't actually explode in my face when I took a bite. The meat was very tasty and very moist (ugh!). The dough to meat ratio was perfect! The sauces that were on the table were also uber awesome (do you even have any idea what 'uber awesome' looks like?). There was this sauce with chilies in it that was just like DSAMN GIIIIRL. Let's just say I was satisfied.

Service was mmmkay. It took my waitress all her might to crack a smile. Come on, is it that hard? I didn't have any sauces on my table so I had to go get em' from another table, which is just fine, but I'm thinking it's part of her job description (yes, I'm harsh). Water was served quickly and refilled not so quickly. Service was fast though, which was great because I needed time to digest before le gym.

And now, the scores!

Food: 9
Service: 6

I'd totes go back for a bun or TEN!

Hong Mère

My friend Jer and I had been meaning to go to this restaurant for about a year and a half and it finally freaking happened last weekend! What!!! I was looking forward to eating 'real Chinese food'. Not that crap Manchu Wok, Tiki Ming or the other ones that are advertising 'Chinese food'. Come on people, General Tao chicken is NOT ASIAN. Thank you for listening. That'll be all.

You could walk right past this place and not even know it: it's tiny and does not stand out in any way, shape or form. Even when you're looking right at it, you wonder if it would be a good idea to actually go IN. Anyway, obviously, we DID go in. Surprisingly, the place holds around 26 seats. The room is decorated with, you know, Asian-y art and stuff. Dudes, I ain't Asian-ist, I'm being realz. Lanterns, fake gold stuff, the usual, really.

This establishment serves up north-eastern Chinese and Szechuan (south-western) food.  I was letting Jer do the ordering because A: he had been there many times and B: he knew his sh*t. Oh and C, he speaks Chinese. You know, a detail. Jer has these evenings called 'Strange Meats' where we go somewhere to eat cartilage-y, squishy, gooey stuff, which, although I really tried, and as a food blogger, I should be open to everything, I just can't effin do those kinds of textures. So I kindly asked (read: threatened) him NOT to order that cucumber and egg soup or the intestines, kidney or ears.

Stir fried green beans with minced pork. This looks normal. This looks just alright. This looks almost a bit boring. No. It was effin amazing. Well, first of all the green beans were uber deep fried, which, as we all know, makes everything better (I hate that!). They were crunchy and greasy and delightful. I love grease. Damn it! Second of all, that pork. Oh, that pork. Little bites of goodness. It had something like Chinese 5 spice that made it pop with flavor. I write 'something' because Jer and I, after researching the dish, can't find any example of it with 5 spice. Hot pepper added another element to the dish. That heat was awesome with the 5 spice and the beans.

Chicken with special sauce. How special you ask? Oh, very! Tasty and on the thick side, I wanted to dip everything in there. The ingredients that we remember are the following: soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper, Szechuan pepper, brown sugar, Shaoxing wine and green onion. It tasted sweet and a bit sour. Yuuuuummy! The chicken was deep fried and then stir fried. Yep, fried was the word. Nice and crunchy on the outside, a tad dry on the inside. But there was the sauce so hey! The hot peppers and chives gave it that extra kick. I love me some kicks!

Leek pie. Yes. This was, according to Jer, from a usually-less-tasty part of China, if that's possible. Well, he were wrong: it was awesome. By the way, this was also fried. Ha, big surprise! I mean, why wouldn't it be good? It had leeks, glass noodles, egg. Everything was to perfection in there. But you know what made it even better? Just dip it in the sauce man! Ya, dip everything in the special sauce.

Service was wonderful. That guy spoke quite a rare language: Chifrenglish. That's right. Perfect Chinese (I presume. Oh, I mean, I know :p ), perfect French and perfect English. This is a rare occurence and I loved it. He was friendly and explained our dishes. Water service was good too. Hahaha, ok, it's becoming a bit ridiculous how important that is to me. Whatever, I like to be hydrated! 

And now, the scores!

Food: 8

Service: 9

I'm totes going back! There's a lot more deep, DEEP fried stuff I have to try.

Wok Café

I had to eat out since, well... I'm working at the new Juliette et Chocolat on Ste-Cat near a bunch of asian restos (it's second China town!) !!! OH YES!!! ----WARNING: flash review!!

I wanted to eat OK to good chinese (ish, of course) food so I left my restaurant (who can eat crepes every day?) and went back to a favorite from my old job in the same area and hit Wok Café.

General Tao chicken
-Nice texture
-Veggies are good, not too strong tasting and well cooked
-Rice very blend
-Very tasty sauce
-Spring roll that came with it was blend but crispy

And now, the score!

Food:6.5

An obvious choice if you work in the Faubourg Ste-Catherine, where there is NO good food except maybe for Bangkok but who can eat pad thai every day!!!

ps: A friend almost scolded me for going to Wok Café. Arguably not the best around but it still comforted my little stomach that evening. And had the left overs for lunch the next day!

Mai Xiang Yuan

I had heard great things about this restaurant and how it had possibly detroned Qing Hua. I was all getting ready to go eat marvellous dumplings at Qing Hua but then decided to go to its better half :) So I went with Isa and we had really high hopes. You know what it's like when you have high hopes right? You get easily disappointed. 

Anyhoot, we got to this chinatown resto (which looks like nothing from the outside) and there was only one table left. Score! There are about 40 to 50 seats in this tiny, crowded room. 

You can see four people, mostly women, making dumplings as fast as the wind behind a window in the kitchen. It was fun to see them go at it with the dough and the filling (yes, that's right, go at it). Could not be fresher than that. Amazing! The place itself is nothing special, with chinese art on a brick wall along with some cartoons (ish things).

As an appetizer, we splurged and shared a 1,50$ cucumber salad :p It was nice and refreshing although a tad to spicy for Isa. She still ate it though! It had some chillies in there with a tiny bit of carrots, coriander and sesame oil. The cucumber pieces were cut a bit weirdly though; one could say they were really roughly cut! Actually, everyone would say that. It's almost like they used their hands.

We had two orders of dumplings. You can either have them fried or simply boiled. Obviously they take longer if fried and obviously (duh!) they are better fried (isn't everything?). I was told to have the chinese cabbage and pork one and we also decided to order the shrimp, coriander and pork ones. Oh and FYI, the lunch special from 11 am to 3 pm is 15 dumplings per plate for less $. Nice if you are more than yoself :p You must also know that if you order for under 15$, you have to pay cash. 

Alright, so both were good. Both weren't fried the same way though: it seemed that the chinese cabbage one was fried on both sides and the other one, not so much. Both were more squishy than crispy unfortunately. Apart from that, they both had wonderful taste and just enough seasoning. The shrimp one reminded me of shrimp dumplings I used to buy au Jardin de Jade just on the other side, on de la Gauchetière. Yummy. I loves me big chunks of shrimp! And the coriander was great in there! 

Shrimp, coriander and pork dumplings

The cabbage ones were silky and juicy. We also had both soya sauce and hot sauce on the table. The hot sauce was a bit disappointing though---not hot enough. Just one advice, these things tend to be juicy, as previously mentioned, so if you bite into it, the boiling juice may squirt into your nose. Just sayin. And it hurts.

Chinese cabbage and pork dumplings

The service was nice. Poor guy was alone. He was running everywhere but was quite efficient and managed to say 'bonjour' to everyone coming in! He served us hot tea as soon as we sat down and since there's a high turnover, he's quick to clean the table.Fast waiter=good waiter :)

And now, the scores.

Service: 8,5

Food: an average of 7,25. I would have loved to put higher but it just wasn't a 10

If you like dumplings, it,s a good place to go. Don't get your hopes too TOO high though. But don't get me wrong, it WAS good :)