Lu Mama Asian Fusion

Lu Mama

1858 Ste-Catherine West
Montreal, QC
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Taiwanese/All-You-Can-Eat Sushi/A little bit of Korean thrown in for good measure

This is a bit of an odd place. It calls itself Asian fusion, but only in the sense that it offers dishes from different countries in Asia. There's nothing really fusion about their menu, thank goodness.

It started out as a Taiwanese place, but there wasn't a big enough market, so they say, for their Taiwanese food. What is there a big market for in Montreal? All you can eat sushi, apparently, though I don't think it's particularly huge here. Still, in the downtown area (Guy-Concordia, to be precise) there are at least 4 options for AYCE sushi within a three block radius. None of them are amazing, and at least two are passable, this being one. The other being Tokyo sushi. Kanda is junk and makes me want to cry over how bad the fish is, and I haven't tried Odaki, having done the rotating sushi bar well in other cities. I just can't let my heart get broken again.

So coming to Lu Mama was like putting my heart on a platter and presenting it an evil fairy godmother. I figured it wouldn't turn out well, but there was something I needed - a lot of sushi for less than the ridiculous prices that mediocre places in the city make you pay.

Know what? It wasn't bad! A lot of it was even good! and some of the Taiwanese dishes were pretty okay too. There was even a sweet potato appetizer that had obviously been sitting too long in its sweet sauce, since the starch in the potato had broken down a bit, but again, not bad.
There isn't even a Taiwanese menu here, as far as I know. At least, we were only offered the AYCE menu. All the usual suspects were there.
I don't eat tempura, but it seems like that's what this place specializes in, since there's about a page of the stuff. There's the normal vegetable and shrimp tempura, but then there are also the Taiwanese ones, like the popcorn chicken (pictured at the top - I did try a piece to be fair, and it was pretty good. Not too greasy, but actually very flavourful. The chicken inside even tasted like chicken, and was tender). There were other deep-fried and breaded chicken options, like the black pepper, which was just okay. If you like tempura I think this is a decent place, especially for the price.

Then there are the chicken and beef dishes. You get a few little slices per order, which is all you want, really. In this case the chicken was boring and the sauces - peanut, teriyaki, Japanese curry, etc. were bland. The best sauce of the evening was the wasabi masago on the beautiful mussels. I'm wary of mussels at a not-top notch sushi place, but these were juicy and huge and obviously fresh. Besides, the wasabi is anti-microbial, so it'll kill off a fair bit of bacteria and help out your stomach.
Other strange things on the menu were deep-fried tofu (again, the guy manning the deep-fryer did a good job) and spring rolls. The breaded shrimp were not coated in panko, but rather some other breading that I liked better. Then peanut sauces and black pepper sauces were drizzled over them. They didn't even get too soggy, and the breading was more like frozen chicken fingers than Japanese tempura. It was actually a nice change, so that shouldn't really be taken as an insult.
Then the maki. The crab meat was actually decent. It wasn't too sweet, and one of the rolls used a better imitation crab meat than the usual crab sticks. The California roll (on the right) did not...
Almost everything came with tempura bits in it, but they were very accommodating with making exceptions since the restaurant was pretty empty. The ambiance is nice, though a little dark, and they were probably only having a bit of success because the people who didn't feel like waiting in line at the new Izakaya place down the road, Kazu, might drift in here. It's kind of sad because this place wasn't bad!

Until...
There is a hole in the salmon. This is not okay. This shows a lack of respect for the fish by the sushi chef. Okay, he's not Japanese, but really...

It's a very bad cut - very imprecise and uneven. The fish is draped nonchalantly over the rice. The rice was also good at some points in the meal, and not good at others, which says to me that the rice vinegar dressing was not mixed in well, and that different batches of rice (though I do't think they could have gotten through an entire batch of rice with just our table and the one other occupied table that evening) are not made consistently. Often the rice was over-seasoned with too much sugar or salt, or pre-seasoned rice vinegar. Rice is delicate and this was not.

Still, the next bunch of nigiri sushi that came out was better, and both the shrimp and salmon were consistently delicious all night. I'm very picky when it comes to salmon and I was actually very impressed here. Yes, it was Atlantic and I prefer Pacific, but it was tender and smooth. The shrimp were juicy and perfectly cooked. Even the cucumber in the maki was freshly cut and very refreshing, even if not cut into properly-sized batons. The mise en place in sushi prep (all the cutting) is very precise and dogmatic, but I didn't mind because I didn't come here for the best sushi experience ever. Lower your expectations and enjoy the good tasting salmon and shrimp.
Skip the surf clam that tastes like rubber, and god forbid you order the octopus. You will spend the next five years of your life chewing.

Also skip the sushi pizza. For something that I thought might actually be originally Taiwanese, this is not the version you find at most restaurants. It was diced vegetables in the same sweet masago as the mussel (to the right, below) on a deep-fried piece of breaded rice. There was no fish involved and the diced vegetables were just bizarre. Also, there is nothing pizza-like about it, but when you only order one serving I guess it's hard. We figured we'd get the whole pizza, not just one serving. Ah, the complexities of the AYCE menu. You just never know what you'll end up with in terms of serving size. That's where the "you pay for what you don't eat" business is such a scam. You always have to order small portions, and I feel so bad for the kitchen staff that has to make the same dish three times in slightly different portions for just your table throughout the night. It has to be done quickly and the same each time. It sounds like an awful job.

...but they do it here happily, at least when there aren't 20 tables to worry about. Food was fast, but not too fast, as if everything had been prepped in advance. The servers were friendly, even if they didn't understand the menu and couldn't always answer our questions. They always smiled, even when we asked for another ordering form and kept eating. They never judged us, which is the most important part of a buffet. At least, they didn't judge us in English, and I choose to think they didn't judge us in any other language either.

So, for Taiwanese snack food, decent salmon and shrimp, and good tempura, this place is definitely, definitely worth it. A grand total of $25 including tax and tip, and that was generous.
I'm not scared of getting sick from the fish here, like I am at Kanda, and I like supporting the small operation. Just choose you orders carefully, but isn't that the ultimate AYCE rule?

Hours: Mon-Sat noon – 3pm, 5:30pm -10:30 pm
Expect To Pay: $25 Mon-Thurs, $29 Fri-Sat, including tax and tip. You don't need to order AYCE, but I can't see that anything else would be worth it, unless the menu was greatly expanded with Taiwanese specialties
(514) 582-2222

My Little Italian Haven in the Old Port: Romagna Caffe

Romagna Caffe

60 rue St-Jacques
Montreal, QC

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8 1/2 out of 10

Montreal has an authentic Italian cafe outside of Little Italy! It's not touristy, it's not romantic, it has traditional Emilia-Romagna piadine and ciaccini sandwiches, possibly the city's best gelato, and most importantly, it shows the World Cup games on a big screen.

...or so I thought. How can a place that has FIFA world cup signs absolutely everywhere, flags everywhere, an Azzurri uniform in the window (the Italian team) be closed on a provincial holiday when neither the owner or the chef are Quebecois? More importantly, one of them is Italian, and perhaps even more importantly, one of them is married to that Italian. Really, the game should have on, the cafe should have been open, and it should have been full. That's just bad advertising. There were tourists everywhere in the Old Port this morning. How much of their money did Romagna Caffe make? None.

Nobody seems to know about this place, but there's a huge breakfast menu, $10 lunch deals of a main dish (best to go with the day's sandwich option) and soup or dessert, antipasti platters to snack on, tons of variations on the quintessential Italian soda, and it's licensed, all of which means it deserves to be very successful. Even if you don't cheer for the Azzurri, this is a downtown Montreal hidden gem.

The owner of Romagna Caffe is Italian. His wife, the cook and pastry chef, is French. She did, however, study pastry in Italy. How can her baking possibly get any better when both of these countries are involved? Oh, and they cater, so all of her desserts can be ordered, even if they don't appear in the Cafe often enough to suit your sweet tooth...fortunately, there's always gelato and Italian soda.

So there are a few pages of breakfast options ranging from tons of omelets, to plates of eggs with toast and pork in its various forms. Nothing over $10, most things much less. There's also a very, very nice Italian espresso machine and all the options that go along with that. Then there are about three pages of lunch options including panini (which just means "sandwiches" in Italian), piadine and ciaccini. The latter two are traditional flatbreads from Emilia-Romagna. The mortadella sausage in the ciaccino pictured below also comes from that region of Northern Italy.

It's my dream to have a World Cup cinq a sept upstairs in the reception area that overlooks the rest of the cafe (Unfortunately I do not want to have this 5 a 7 from 10am to noon, or even 2:30 to 4:30). They have a special menu of platters of antipasti - so many kinds of marinated vegetables and the traditional cheeses and cured, smoked and aged meats that make Romagna famous. Prosciutto di parma and real parmesan cheese.

Really, the paper World Cup schedules as place settings tip you off that this would be a good place to come to watch the games. The soup is not the focus of this picture...even if I should be getting to the point about the $10 lunch deal being so great...

A home-made soup (broth from scratch) starts the meal. The vegetables were frozen and it really wasn't that amazing a minestrone, but at least it was good for me. Vegetables counter-balanced the gelato that was to come. Really you just want to come here for the flatbread and gelato. Piadina is unleavened bread (yeast-free) that's traditionally cooked on a terracotta pan (called a "testo") and made of flour, water, salt, baking soda (to replace the yeast) and lard. I didn't want to know if Romagna Caffe's version was made with lard, but it definitely had an extra ingredient - sugar.

I tell you it's addictive, even if the filling of seafood (mostly imitation crabmeat) and too much sweet mayonnaise weren't spectacular.

On another trip I tried the Kamouraska lamb piadina with mint and butter ($8.95 for just the sandwich. That's why the lunch deal is so good) that melted onto the inside of the warm bread (of course it's heated). I liked it more than the seafood, but the bread was just as incredible. I couldn't believe it was only $8 for Kamouraska lamb. Sure, it was only a small portion of actual meat, and the meat was pretty dry, like incredibly thin pieces of leftover roast, but with the butter and the tiny, tiny bit of mint it was pretty satisfying. I can't really complain when I pay $8 for lamb on home-made bread.

I keep wishing I'd tried the Soda Verte. It's a mix of lemonade with kiwi, pistachio and mint- flavoured syrups ($4.95). You can also get a less expensive treat of grenadine, mint and water for $2.00. Another interesting option is the Snow Ball - a mix of lemonade with coconut, lemon and curacao (the syrup, not the liquor).

Or just come for gelato, which is served beautifully in giant glass goblets. You can get specialty combinations like traditional affogato (a shot of espresso poured over, "drowning", your choice of gelato. Go with chocolate or something rich), or just get a few scoops of your favourite options. It's all home-made, and you could get lucky and find a little bit of miraculous limoncello-flavoured gelato that is so much better than a lemon sorbet. If I could find limoncello in Montreal at the SAQ I would be a happy, happy person. I have the best memory of sitting in a restaurant with a bottle of limoncello in front me that the server had placed there. He didn't say what it was doing there, since I hadn't asked for it, and he hadn't poured it for me (though he had given me a glass), but I'd already payed the bill, so I figured it was a "drink your fill" kind of idea. Tourists...

Gelato is not ice cream. It's not haagen-daaz. The method of making gelato actually results in a denser, more flavourful milk (sometimes cream, or a mix of the two) since less air is whipped into it. The gelato machine that's used at Romagna Cafe is from Italy, of course, and is very much earning its keep. It's incredible how thick and creamy milk can be. I can't even recommend one flavour over another because they were all so good. You can definitely have a taste before you decide anyway. Branching out to the Italian traditional flavours like hazelnut is a very good idea, but the papaya, lemon, and limoncello that accompany it in the picture above are all good choices.

This cafe used to be on Crescent but they moved to the Old Port for more space. Now they have bad signage and probably aren't doing great business because it's just off the heavy tourist foot traffic area. It doesn't look like a cute place to have lunch, landing somewhere between a cafeteria-style look and a bar, but it's full table-service (for a more traditional Italian bar experience try Montallegro at 1991 rue Belanger, east of Papineau). If you prefer, you can just have a coffee at the bar, and chat with the friendly baker, but tourists would probably walk on by this place without much of a second glance. So don't judge this place by looking in the window. I'm sharing this gem with you so Romagna Cafe can be more successful. For now it's a perfect little hole in the wall that deserves to be a great success. An affordable, authentic Italian cafe in the Old Port. Please go eat piadine and gelato. They don't even have to feel conflicted about opening on Canada Day, since there's no World Cup game. More importantly, nobody will show up expecting them to be open. How much of my money did they make today? None.

Expect To Pay: $13 for a piadina and gelato, including tax and tip

Hours: Open early for breakfast, but not open late.
514-844-1528

Ferreira Cafe

Café Ferreira
1446 rue Peel
Montreal, QC
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8 out of 10

Portuguese

Again, I didn't go here to review it, but I wanted to talk about it. This is what I do, talk about food. Periodically I do and talk about other things.

Anyway, we show up a tiny, tiny bit late for a reservation but are very courteously shown to our table in the VERY busy restaurant on a Saturday night. Peel Street is the place to be apparently. Perfect seat across from the open kitchen to watch the show. Our server doesn't appear for 15 minutes. We wait. And watch. Presumably they know we're here since the busboy/runner came around with three Portuguese rolls and some exquisite extra virgin olive oil. The green tinge was beautiful and the taste was very good. No butter here. We're in Portugal.

So when the server finally comes I get scared. She talks really loud and really fast. Mind you, it's busy and it's loud in there, but I feel panicked. Exactly the opposite of the calm professionalism of MAS Cuisine. We go for the sardines grilled with Maldon salt and a salad of arugula, tomatoes and canteloupe to start. The two glasses of house white are a chardonnay from Chile and a Portuguese vinho verde (I think?) from Douro. The Portuguese was very dry and acidic and the Chardonnay was a little more flavourful and sweet. The dry went well with the sardines, which came with a little ramekin of sundried tomato pesto with olives, and went nicely with the Portuguese bun. The salad was refreshing, and even though the arugula wasn't amazing, and the tomatoes were just good (it's still not tomato season), the melon was perfect, so the sweetness of the fruit and the bitterness of the green was also nice.

For mains, a bouillabaisse, a shrimp dish with fresh vegetables, and a black cod with port wine. I was dying to try the black cod since it's my favouite thing in the world, but Portugal is not the place for it. The fish already tastes like butter, but putting the port on it kind of wrecked it since no more butter was added. The port reduction tasted like a veal reduction and so the fish just tasted like an absolutely perfectly cooked fish. There was nothing sinfully butter about the meat of the black cod itself. Basically this meal was perfect in execution and not perfect in conception, the opposite of what you might expect from a menu that doesn't often change. The bouillabaisse, was plentiful, with a rotating card of fresh fish in it (there are a few things that change depending on the day and season, of course) to include clams, cod, halibut, shrimp and a bunch of things I didn't know very well. Some potatoes made this a giant meal. If you love simple, fresh fish, this is a perfect dish, but it's home-cooking. There was no fancy sauce or exciting flavour that jumped out at you. So at $35 you are paying for plain fish. The only thing I didn't like at the restaurant (despite the wait for the server and then the excruciatingly long wait for the main dishes. Oddly enough the appetizers came incredibly quickly. Different kitchen section and man in charge I think) was the Portuguese tomato rice. Kind of like a very oily paella without the meat. It's better than plain rice, but it's a side that's just thrown on plates. It didn't go with the black cod, but I couldn't have the mashed potatoes because they do use milk in those, despite being an almost-butter-free country. I didn't want to think about the rolls.

So the real fun was watching the kitchen have a problem. Somewhere in the line some orders got messed up and things were left sitting, building up under the heat lamps for awhile. Far too long in the opinion of the chef and myself. The runners were trying to figure out what went where. Maybe some of the chits got out of order, but whatever happened, food started getting run around, the Chef came around the outside of the kitchen to figure it out, and the whole kitchen got really backed up for awhile. Our meals got long.

So nothing spectacular on the menu that we tried (though the salt on the sardines was very good, the quality of the fish was incredible, and I like the olive oil and sundried tomato pesto a lot), but there was a whole lot more menu to sample. This is very good food on Peel Street, not some over-priced joint trying to make money off of people in finance who know nothing about food. It's good, satisfying, ample-portioned, traditional and contemporary Portuguese.

Expect to Pay: $80-$120 per person including tax, tip and wine (at least a glass, probably some port)
Hours: Mon-Fri 11:45am-3pm, Mon-Wed 5:30pm-11pm, Thurs-Sat 5:30pm-midnight
(514) 848-0988
www.ferreiracafe.com

MAS Cuisine

Mas Cuisine
3779 Wellington
Verdun, Montreal, QC

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9 out of 10

French/Local

This is not a normal restaurant review. I did not come to this restaurant to review it, but I loved it so much that I just wanted to write about it. These guys are good...

First came out a little platter of black and green olives with some very mildly-seasoned cashews. The cashews were at first lacklustre, since you expect them to be so salty, but that's what the olives are for. Genius! Only after that does the bread come, since it's not necessarily supposed to be enjoyed together. Three kinds - a beautiful potato-like texture with a perfect crust, a nut-spiked heartier version, and one with milk that I could not try. These are small pieces so you can sample each.

Appetizers were spectacular. A beautiful cream-based soup that I was sorry to fore go, and an incredibly-shaped circular tower of duck tartar with remoulade (egg yolk-based sauce). The duck was fine but the sauce was spectacular. Then the house gravlax. This was incredible. Not sweet, not salty, but so fresh and so much flavour. It just tasted...beautiful.

For mains, scallops in an orange sauce the likes of which I couldn't believe. Apparently the orange is put in a special European food processor that heats as it processes, so the orange is emulsified like nobody's business with oil for 30 minutes. Imagine holding a hand mixer for 30 minutes over a double boiler. Europeans are sensible. This food processor was apparently created for at-home use, so it's not industry-sized. Perfect for MAS cuisine's small restaurant and ever-changing menu. So 30 minutes of processing just to coat the most simple of sautéed foods - scallops. These were very nice, seared scallops. Along with some local asparagus, it was a great plate.

The veal organs (sweetbreads sounds so much nicer. Maybe too nice) were actually phenomenal. I hate ordering veal, mostly for ethical reasons, but also because they're so easy to do poorly, but these were tender and not stringy and the sauce was sweet and to die for. I don't even remember what it was, horrible food writer that I am, but it doesn't really matter since you can't have it anymore. The menu is changed. The lamb was also very good. That's all I can say. Simply that everything was very good to spectacular, and care was put into each element of the dish, including complementary offerings. Never would the same sides appear with each dish. Risotto, fingerling potatoes (which were heavenly, soaking the sweetbreads sauce), etc.

The desserts are the only things that don't change as regularly. So you can still enjoy a very rich chocolate brownie with slightly melted pieces of dark chocolate. No milk, a little butter, HEAVY on the eggs makes this seem very luscious. Since it's not milk chocolate the brownie on its own can seem a touch underwhelming, but the accompanying caramel ice cream is mostly milk and not so much caramel (a home-made not overly-salty version of which gets poured under the brownie) to add creaminess. On its own the ice cream isn't that great either, but put it all together and add a sweet cocoa syrup and it's divine. There is also a dairy-free option that isn't sorbet!! Even though I opted for the brownie (not TOO much butter, like I said), you can go for oranges and grapefruit with almonds, all of which I assume comes IN tea. Kind of like a fruit salad, or fruit soup, but the tea and almonds are a nice touch, and make it less disappointing. The replacement on my brownie for the ice cream was the raspberry sorbet that accompanies the lemon soufflé cake, and I'm happy to say it was very good for sorbet.

What I absolutely loved about the restaurant (besides the food, of course), was the service. Our server was a true professional. Perfect wine service, attentiveness to water, dishes coming out together, knowledge of the dishes. Wow...That's an art. All in all, I was just blown away. For approximately $35 plus tax and tip you get a table d'hote including the beginning freebies of olives, nuts and bread, an appetizer, a main, a dessert and coffee or tea. If this place were more downtown and not in Verdun, they'd be charging $50, I'm sure. At least! But all that would just go to rent, probably. Still Verdun is my new favourite area (Montreal borough?) and it's worth a stroll around Metro De L'Eglise. Definitely, definitely stop at MAS Cuisine for dinner.

Expect to Pay: $65-$95, including tax, tip and a glass to a bottle of wine (with a bill split between two or three people) from the reasonably-priced, well-chosen list
Hours: Wed-Fri 12-2, Wed-Sat 6pm-close
514-544-3779

17th Festival Mondial de la Biere Montreal

-The self-proclaimed "most important festival of international beers in North America"

You hve three mroe days (including today - Friday) to sample a world's worth of beer is go to the Windsor Station and Courtyard (1160 de la Gauchetiere West, metro Bonaventure or Peel). Just buy some tasting coupons ($1 each) and wind your way through a crowd of happy, beer-loving people in a former railway station. It'll be like walking down Ste-Catherine after the Habs won game 7 all over again. This is such a big event that the wikipedia article about Windsor Station actually mentions it as the home of the beer festival. Talk about tradition. Good thing the trains don't run out of there anymore, because you should definitely stay away from operating heavy machinery, or, you know, driving anything after a stroll through this Montreal festival.

Like the Festival en Lumiere featured the wines of specific countries, so does this festival of beer. This year's special representatives are Belgium, Brazil and Italy. I don't remember a whole lot of good beer in Italy, but maybe I was looking in the wrong places? Besides, if what you sample at the Mondial de la Biere isn't very good you just pick another beer, or another country. The consistently incredible beer mecca of Belgium is offering 147 different samples, so odds are you'll like at least 1.

If you somehow make it through all 147 Belgian beers and it gets to the point where you need to sit down, you can go and learn about beer cocktails in a workshop with Philippe Gaïani, or learn how to be a beer writer and judge with Mirella Amato. Or on Saturday and Sunday you can find out how beer goes with nougat and fudge.

Even though Canada is not one of the featured countries, Quebec has a huge representation of beer at the festival. You may be wondering why you'd go to this festival to taste Quebec beers if you live in Quebec and could, in theory, have them any old time. Trois Brasseurs brewpubs are popping up everywhere (even in Toronto), and you expect the micro-brews from L'Amere a Boire or Benelux to be exceptional, but how often can you try 232 Quebec beers in 5 days? I am not suggesting that this be made into a drinking game, just that there will be a whole lot of Quebec options proudly offered under one roof, which is definitely a rare opportunity. Compare your favoure Dieu du Ciel or Ste-Ambroise with something you've never heard of. Or if you've ever wandered into the best beer Depanneur in the city, or the places in the Atwater and Jean-Talon markets that specialize in Quebec's hops-y offerings, and found yourself overwhelmed by options, this is your chance to test out a lot of types (you get 1/4 to 1/3 of a beer with every sample) without investing in a full case before you know if you'll like what you buy.

Oh, and if you really love the experience, consider becoming a member of the International Circle of Malt. I'm not kidding. It costs 18 euros. Or 50 for a corporate membership. Fun for the whole office! Sure beats team-building exercises.

So besides nougat and fudge, what does beer go with? Cheese, apparently. There will even be workshops on beer and cheese pairing. Feel a bit chi-chi to you? Don't worry, there will also be lots and lots of meat - everything from stag and kangaroo to the mandatory sausages. The cheese might be free, though. The meat will not. What kind of meat goes with the Bikini Blond Lager or Coconut Porter from Maui? Again, not kidding.

Dates: June 2-6, 2010
Hours: Wed-Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 11am-8pm
Expect to Pay: $0 - ?, or until your blood alcohol concentration = 0.8%, which is dependent on the number of drinks you have over a course of time, your weight, gender, and if you want to try the pricier beers. Do the math.