Tiny Taiwanese eatery on St-Marc
I've been complaining a lot about the state of Chinese food and not doing anything about it. Or rather, not trying very hard to disprove my thesis (as human beings, we do try to be positive, better people, sometimes).
So tonight, I actually tried, and before catching Seven Swords, went to some random Chinese eatery I encountered one previous evening erring in the neighborhood. This one was at the ground floor of a residential tower on St-Marc, between De Maisonneuve and Sherbrooke, and I don't even know the name. It's adjacent to a Viet/Asian fast food joint, east side of the street.
We were very hungry, or the portions are deceivingly small. Whichever, it doesn't matter, because it gave us the chance to sample about 1/4 of the menu already. XD Wee took a soup noodles and roasted chicken leg combo, and I took a variation on the theme of cold noodles with chicken and cucumber noodles and that famous peanuts/chili sauce (which was indeed really spicy: I was, like, here, can I have the spicy, and the guy looked at me, and said, alright boy, how about I make it mild spicy for you? XD), and didn't have enough and got a beef dumplings soup (can't not be homemade, but five/six pieces for $4: comes at a premium), and we previously shared a wonton soup (pork-only, an alternate way to make wonton which I haven't seen much in other restaurants... maybe b/c it's cheaper that way, haha, but I like, nonetheless). It was a pleasant surprise...
No pictures, since both cameras of the household are in the process of being requisitioned for Hong Kong. Wee notes that the soup is without MSG. I note it is very salty, and tastes a bit like the won ton soup served at a particular fast food joint (which claims that it is MSG-less, incidently). Coriander everywhere. The wonton soup was delightfully special because it was served in a way precedently unexperienced, which is, with seaweed, zha choi (sort of preserved crunchy variety of veggie) and coriander leaves.
$25 for two peeps, taxes and tips incl. Interac or credit card is accepted, according to the machine near the cash register.
There was another random eatery, that one on the way of the previous I spoke of, and tried after a hard hard dragon boat practice last week. This one, on De Maisonneuve, east of St-Marc, is owned by Cambodian Chinese. Besides the usual General Taos and Cantonese Chow Meins, they also serve beef brisket. A new dish they had the time we were there was this pot-au-feu of beef brisket served with transparent vermicellis at the bottom, and a rich aromatized sauce that had a very familiar taste (perhaps also coriander). Not sure if it had a Cambodian hybridization factor, but that would've been really cool.
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