Creative Contemporary Chinese Food in Montreal

Five spice duck platter with condiments

As soon as we arrived in Montreal and dropped off our suitcases, we headed to Oncle Lee Kao, a modern Chinese restaurant in the old part of the city.

Driving there was no problem, but finding parking was quite the challenge. Eventually we found a spot -- and free too!

We entered the restaurant at 8.30pm on a Saturday night and were shocked to see it hopping, all the tables were full, and it was noisy. Did we mention the vast majority of diners were not Chinese?

Savoury jian dui with shiitake and sesame sauce

My main purpose of coming here was to finally try chef Andersen Lee's cooking, after having interviewed him 2019 when he won the inaugural 50 Best BBVA Scholarship. The award entitled him to stage or intern at three top restaurants -- Core by Clare Smyth in London, Odette in Singapore, and Quintonil in Mexico City.

Following his internships he wasn't inspired to go abroad or fine dining -- instead the experience pulled him back to Montreal, where he opened Oncle Lee and now Oncle Lee Kao, with his creative takes on Chinese dishes. 

Most impressive was the five spice duck platter. Lee explained they didn't have the capacity or knowledge to make Peking duck, so why not make it pastrami style, as an homage to Montreal? And the result is fantastic. 

The duck breast is thinly sliced so they can be placed in thin steamed wrappers and condiments can be added before wrapping it up and popping it into your mouth.

Asparagus with mapo tofu sauce

We also enjoyed the steamed oysters with black bean sauce, shrimp toast, and a savoury jian dui with shiitake mushroom and sesame sauce. How novel.

Mini egg rolls are filled with duck rillettes, while chunks of tender octopus are placed on skewers with lap cheong or Chinese sausage and spring onions in between. Typically octopus is paired with chorizo, but lap cheong is an interesting substitute we couldn't identify at first.

Asparagus are in season and they came with mapo tofu sauce on top; the green stalks were so tender that at the end of our Montreal trip we bought some at a farmer's market to bring back to Vancouver.

Sashimi isn't exactly Chinese, but we had some, along with a giant platter of fried rice that Lee likes to cook at home with crunch thinly sliced cabbage and mayonnaise and chilli crisp.

Lee's homestyle fried rice with chilli crisp

For dessert, a bowl of tapioca with coconut, strawberry and rhubarb, and some mini yuzu tartlets with green tea, together with fresh fruit.

Lee recently came back from a trip to Shanghai, Ningbo and Hong Kong -- his first to China -- which really opened his exposure to not only Chinese cooking techniques but also flavours and ingredients. 

Can't wait to see what he will do next.

Oncle Lee Kao

112 Rue McGill

Montreal

514 303 1100

Review: Quanjude iDen Tries to Impress

Carefully sliced duck meat at Quanjude

iDen & Quanjude Beijing Duck House has kept its Michelin one-star rating for the past three years in Vancouver, though most Chinese gourmets pan the place.

Some describe the interior like it is from a movie set with a grand-looking entrance and dining room with high ceilings, while the private room has over-the-top decor that is very dramatic.

Nevertheless, service is definitely a strong suit here -- and literally, as the head male servers wear blue tuxedos, and other servers wear brown vests and pants. There's even a non-Chinese server who remembers VIP customers. 

Sweet and sour pork with fruit

In general they are attentive to diners' needs, though one wonders when the menu will be more substantive.

We had lunch here yesterday, invited by VIP customers who have a membership at the restaurant. They think it's value for money, with the good service, and a small private room for five of us.

But the food is hardly impressive. We went here about two years ago and this time it hasn't changed much.

The set lunch menu is C$88 per person, with a few appetisers, a soup, and of course the famous Peking duck, and dessert, tea or coffee. 

While the decor looks nice, the food is made from inexpensive ingredients. Case in point -- to whet our appetites we were served marinated broad beans, followed by the duck soup, a cloudy milky looking broth with finely diced silky tofu, squares of seaweed and thin sheets of fried egg. 

We were also served crispy chicken. One would think of karage, or large chunks of boneless chicken, but here they were tiny bite-sized pieces that were hardly substantial.

Next came sweet and sour pork, with peppers, red onion, pineapple and large plump blueberries.

Our dishes were changed before the Peking duck arrived at our table and a chef came to slice it. He gave us a piece of the skin to dip in brown sugar, and it wasn't particularly hot or crispy, which made it taste oily. 

Glutinous rice balls with osmathus

But we were impressed by the thin slices of duck meat with a bit of the skin that we wrapped in thin pancakes with cucumbers, spring onion and plum sauce.

After three or four of these pancakes you are pretty much full, though there is still a full plate of sliced duck on the table waiting to be eaten.

The good thing is that you can pack up the meat for takeaway complete with pancakes, the sauce and condiments.

For dessert, one I haven't had in a while -- small glutinous rice balls in a sweet osmanthus soup with rice served in a tea cup.

We also had large cups of latte, which kind of overwhelmed the delicate floral-performed dessert.

We're still wondering why Quanjude iDen has a Michelin star... 

iDen & Quanjude Beijing Duck House

2808 Cambie Street

Vancouver

(236) 477 7777

Picture of the Day: Peking Duck Croissants

Pretty pastry that envelopes spicy Peking Duck 

Last Saturday at Light Up Chinatown, I was lucky to get my hands on not one, but two Peking Duck croissants!

What are they, you ask?

Original flavour on the left, spicy on the right

It's a collaboration between a Chinatown restaurant called Chinatown BBQ, known for its siu yuk or roast meats, and a French bakery owned by a brother-and-sister duo originally from Hong Kong.

The last time they made Peking duck croissants was two years ago, so bringing them back this year generated a lot of excitement.

This year there are two flavours, one is classic, featuring roasted and shredded Fraser Valley duck, combined with hoisin sauce, green onions, five spice, truffle sauce and these are enveloped in the flaky croissant that has a honey glaze on top sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds and even gold foil!

The other one is a tiny bit spicy, using local brand Holy Duck Peking Duck Chili Oil together with the roasted and shredded duck. Even the croissant's outer layer has a red rim to indicate it's a bit spicier, but really it was quite tame.

Nevertheless, we were thrilled to receive these pastries that once heated up in the toaster oven were delicious treats!

The Opposite House is No More

Will miss the delicious Peking duck at Jin Yaa Tang

I just found out through a social media post that The Opposite House, a hotel run by Swire in Beijing has closed down. The hotel had a blow-out farewell party on June 29 and then closed its doors the next day.

The 16-year-old hotel was part of the complex known as Sanlitun, which featured a shopping mall anchored by Apple and Uniqlo, and when I was there, a Hong Kong-style restaurant that served Cantonese dishes.

The porcelain Mao jacket

Many years ago I got a tour of the hotel, and it was forward-thinking at the time with minimalist interiors, and the lobby was decorated with a larger-than-life cheongsam and a Mao jacket made from fragmented blue and white bowls and plates. 

On the lower ground floor was a fantastic restaurant called Jin Yaa Tang that served one of the city's best Peking ducks. There was an open kitchen where diners could watch ducks roasted over a jujube wood-fired oven.

According to The Beijinger, an English-language magazine, The Opposite House probably closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and high room rates. Apparently the hotel will be "converted into an innovated retail landmark."

In a sign posted outside the hotel, the Beijing Sanlitun Hotel Management Company Limited thanked people for their support.

"We deeply regret that we made such a difficult decision. We believe that the hotel closure is not a permanent separation, but a new beginning. We sincerely welcome your continued attention and support to Sanlitun Taikoo Li, and very much look forward to serving you in the near future," part of the notice read.

Why is it always spun as "separation", when the hotel is closing down for good? And it wasn't a divorce, it was a business decision that had to be made. 

Looking down on the swimming pool

The Opposite House was the sister hotel to the Upper House in Hong Kong, The Temple House in Chengdu, and The Middle House in Shanghai.

Highlights of the 2023 Michelin Awards

The three-Michelin star restaurants honoured yesterday

Yesterday the latest Michelin star unveiling was held in Macau, the first in-person event in three years.

There were a few surprises, with stalwart Lung King Heen, the Chinese restaurant at the Four Seasons Hong Kong lost a star. I don't find this surprising, as a Singaporean foodie friend went there over a month ago and was not impressed by the quality of the dim sum she ate.

Chef Sato's Ta Vie has been awarded three stars

The other reason is the head chef, Chan Yan-tak is getting on in age. While he claimed to me over a year ago that if he retired he would have nothing to do, perhaps this is a good way for him to bow out and allow someone else to take over the reins.

A shock surprise was French-Japanese restaurant Ta Vie garnering the coveted three stars. Chef Hideaki Sato is a low-key person, but he is extremely passionate about cooking. During the pandemic, he used the time to experiment and even learned how to make Peking duck! Everyday he would make a new one and post it on Instagram.

The rest of us salivated over his pictures of these beautifully roasted ducks, but he would humbly say they were not good enough. Needless to say they were not wasted -- he carved the meat and with the bones made a stock to serve his own handmade ramen.

I was very lucky to try it once and wished I could eat it every week!

Chef Merone of Estro now has one star

Periodically Sato would get visits from chef Cheng Kam-fu who used to be with Celebrity Cuisine and is now at The Demon Celebrity (a partnership with 'Demon chef' Alvin Leung), who would inspect his roast duck and give him some pointers.

Other well-deserved stars include chef Antimo Maria Merone for his restaurant Estro that serves contemporary Italian food. He has thought long and hard about figuring out new ways to present Italian dishes while retaining the traditional taste.

However, one restaurant in Wan Chai, called DHK Seafood Restaurant was given a star, but it had announced it was closing just before the Michelin stars were handed out. As a result no one from the restaurant came to claim the award.

DHK was headed by former chefs of Fook Lam Moon and Guo Fu Lou, but the restaurant had financial difficulties, as staff told HK01 that they had not been paid for months.

DHK was shuttered before it was given a star

A Michelin star probably would not have saved the restaurant either -- greedy landlords would have jacked up the rent, the biggest headache for businesses in Hong Kong way before the pandemic.

A bit embarrassing for Michelin to include a restaurant that has already shuttered, but that just illustrates the precariousness of the industry in Hong Kong, and that its economic revival is a long way off.