Last minute dim sum

Oh dim sum again. Now, I know I lead a semi-unconventional life in that I don't have to go into an office every morning, but I have to say it's really unnerving for me to enjoy breakfast/brunch on a workday. It just seems too decadent.

Thursday morning at 830am I got a call from my aunt from Ontario. "Hi, we are in Three Rivers and we're coming to Montreal today. Do you want to have dim sum with us?" Sadly, they choose a really bad day for a surprise visit, but I agreed to meet them at Tong Por Restaurant in Chinatown for dim sum at 1030, with the understanding that I had to leave at noon.

Why would you drive an hour and a half to go for dim sum? "Because we want to see you" said the aunt, "and also for the dim sum." My aunt lives in Mississauga, where there's enough Chinese people for a T&T, the Chinese food is great there, but she considers Tong Por one of the best. Um, ok...

Chaos descended at 1115 when my aunt and my two little cousins finally arrived. As it was still so early and as we were the only people in the restaurant, we were asked to order à la carte, as it were. We asked for rice rolls with shrimp, glutinous rice steamed in banana leaf, Chinese broccoli, turnip cake, tripe, squid, bean curd rolls and some congee for the kids. The table quickly filled up with goodies (far too quickly if they were actually cooking to order), and they were hot (so score one point over Kam Fung).

Tong Por passes the glutinous rice in banana leaf test - the rice was unctuously delicious, very saucy, and filled with a lot of minced meat and a big piece of Chinese sausage. The turnip cake was also good, although it didn't taste like it was fried immediately before serving. It's a shame that they don't have those wagons that fry the turnip cake on request. The Chinese broccoli was very good as well. I personally prefer more garlic on the broccoli, but it was not too salty, and let the slightly bitter taste of the broccoli to come through. Unfortunately the bean curd rolls sat in a sauce that was quite gelatinous, but the rolls themselves were slurp-ly nice. The rice rolls didn't taste like they were freshly made - the wrapping was a bit too tacky and slightly tough, good wrapping should slide down your throat. The shrimps also were a bit tough. Despite this, none of the dishes were too salty, and they did pass the litmus test of the glutinuous rice dumplings. Although it was obvious that the dishes weren't cooked to order, it was 11 on a Thursday, and I'm sure the dishes are fresh and hot on the weekends at peak dim sum times.

I quite like Tong Por. The service has always been very friendly, it's clean, and I like looking at one of the Chinatown gates from the second floor. It's also slightly tucked away and the clientele is made up of a large percentage of Chinese families. A plus.

On my second visit this week, on Saturday morning as my family passed through Montreal once more en route to Ontario, we dropped by and visited them as they finished dim sum. This time, the carts were making their rounds and I saw turnip and taro cake, cut into pieces and fried up with egg, one of my favourite dim sum dishes. We ordered it to take away. It was cold and the waitress wanted to heat it up for us but as we were wrapping it up, there was no need. Still, items like this should be on the cart hot. I didn't try anything else the second time around, but I hope that the other food was piping hot.

But between Ruby Rouge, Kam Fung and Tong Por, I think this is the best of the three. (But good enough to drive an hour and a half into town for? Not really) The other two don't even place. And I ate the taro/turnip cake when I got home, it was delicious. It would have been great fresh off the pan.

Tong Por
43, rue de la Gauchetière East (cross street St-Dominique)
Montreal, Québec, H2X 1P4
(514) 393-9975
dim sum average plate $3.50

the vain search for good dim sum

Ai ya. When I first moved to Montreal, a friend from Edmonton told me not to approach the Chinese restaurants. They are all a disappointment. Well, come on. Can that be true? Ok, two and a half years later I have yet to find a good one. Some are acceptable.

So now dim sum. I've had dim sum in only three restaurants here: Kam Fung, the place on de la gauchetiere x st dominique and now, Ruby Rouge. I went with the husb, the mother in law, and my neighbours, one of whom is from Taiwan. We wanted to go to Furama but it looks like they've closed. According to the neighbours, a lot of the Chinese restaurant owners go to the Casino a wee bit too much and then lose everything, including their business. Um, cultural stereotype?!

Anyhoo, since Furama was closed, I wanted to try Ruby Rouge. I tried Kam Fung before and it was pretty bad I thought, the food was cold and way too salty. But the place was packed! and with Chinese people - with kids, usually a sign of a good place! (?!) If this was Edders, that place would definitely be empty. But I digress.

I like dim sum because if you don't have to wait in line, you get to eat pretty quickly. You get the tea, the chili sauce, then the food starts coming to you. I don't know what the cart ladies were on, but it was like they were crack addicts and we were the sole dealers they've seen in a month, they swarmed us and pawed us with dumplings. When they left we had lots of food to manage.

The dumplings were good, especially the ones with pea shoots. Delicate flavour, nice wrappping.

Turnip cake was a disappointment, it came already fried and it was quite tough - and cold. Cold! Why don't they fry on the go (yes, comes the refrain, "like in Edmonton"...but like in Vancouver and Toronto too)

Then the steamed sticky rice wrapped in leaf. For my neighbour, this was the litmus test of a good dim sum joint. I'm afraid they didn't pass...the rice was tough and DRY, and there were barely any filling. You should find nice, slightly saucey, pork in the middle, along with some other tasty bits but this really skimmed on the fillings.

Service was the standard Chinese restaurant service (I can say this, cos, you know, I'm Chinese). I found the items, for their quality, pretty expensive (average $3.50 an item).

All's I'm saying is that when my parents come to visit, there's going to be plenty of bitching going on about the crap Chinese food here...

hey - I had AMAZING dim sum once at Hakkasan. Probably the best turnip cake I've had. Super posh. Also, if you are in London, Royal China, and the place near the Millenium dome that's on the main floor of a hotel are good. And I have to say, I rather liked ping pong when it first opened (don't know what it's like now), but I wouldn't take my family there. It was more of an after work (therefore not really dim sum) with work mates kind of place.