Pétoncle Paradise

Over the last week I have been less than inspired. However a slow weekend gave me some time to reflect and along with that came inspiration. So in honour of this inspiration I decided to tackle a new dish, well new for me: scallops. A few weeks ago I had a fresh sea scallop from one of the fish mongers in Jean Talon. They were fresh and straight from New Brunswick! Words cannot describe my feelings of joy while consuming my 8$ taste portion, yes EIGHT WHOLE DOLLARS, but oh so worth it! Hélas, I had to tackle this delightful delicacy and lucky for me their petit cousins were half the price and more abundant at my local grocers.

With scallops in the fridge, I called my mother for advice. It’s the way to go in all my food dilemmas. She admitted that she had been unsuccessful in her previous attempts with scallops, so I headed to my next favourite resource, Youtube. Ah Youtube, the home of any and everything! I was lucky, after entering, How to Cook Scallops, I discovered this easy guide:



20 minutes later, some reflection, and I was ready to cook. Voilà, the final product:

I pan seared the scallops, as directed in the video, and accompanied them with garlic mashed potatoes and a nice green salad. The gravy on the potatoes is simply the pan drippings from the scallops. It was light in flavour but added just the right amount of umph! Were they tasty you ask….oh they were heavenly! And with two servings being less than 5 bucks I’m in for many many more scallops!

Factory Foray

I am fully on a noodle kick! Thanks to a co-worker I have discovered a place that makes fantastic noodles. I am unsure if I will ever be able to eat pre-packaged again now that I have tasted homemade chow mein! The Noodle Factory is the name of this utopia! It is located in Quartier Chinoise, aka China Town, and can be easily spotted by the line of people waiting to get in! In two trips I have had the opportunity to taste both types of noodles (chow mein and shanghai style) and their vegetarian wontons. We could see them rolling the pasta and filling the wontons from out table! I’m not even sure where to start without falling into repetitive praise. Everything was above expectations and the prices are just right. You can spend 10$ (entrée + main) and leave full and happy. The service is rushed but not off putting and tea is on the house if you ask. Ah…. I can’t think of much else to say so I will move onto the pictures:

Veggie dumplings.


Chicken and Shanghai Style Noodles


Satisfaction

Fusion Foray

As it seems I had not much to write about the handmade delights of the Noodle Factory, it is quite the opposite for LuMaMa. For months we have been speculating on LuMaMa, an Asian fusion restaurant with elusive opening hours. Finally a few days before Laura was to move away, LuMaMa was open for business and we were looking to eat.

We sit down expecting to get a main, maybe an entrée but lo and behold, there is an all you can eat sushi menu. Now these menus typically include much more than sushi; tempura, teriyaki, soups, fried rice, etc… are offered in taste size portions. LuMaMa was no different. So agreeing that the buffet would be the most economical option, we went for the buffet and ordered tea. Oh but the tea! Our waitress arrives with a generic bag of green tea, and the smallest pot of water you have ever seen. Now under normal circumstances this would be expected HOWEVER, we are in the heart of the unofficial western wing of Chinatown, i.e. the area around Concordia university. This restaurant is flanked on either side by other Asian restaurants and there are two to three opposite. Generic bags of tea are just unacceptable, they should have known better. The looks on our faces told the story; she took the tea back and filled our water glasses.

Let’s get to the food:

Sushi:
So we ordered Sashimi and Maki. Quite a few orders of lobster sashimi were made, as well as salmon sashimi. Both were grave disappointment.

The lobster sashimi was more of a lobster and shrimp salad placed on the plate. The portion grew based upon how many you ordered. It was hard to tell how they measured it. Was it tasty? Yes, but defiantly did not qualify as sashimi. The salmon sashimi, my favourite of all sashimi, was just not tasty. They chose to keep the grey edge of the salmon on the pieces served adding a not so clear taste to the otherwise decent salmon. We had a beef sashimi and that was nice.

The Maki were just poorly rolled. It was a fight to get them to stay together, some fell apart on arrival. This was the biggest disappointment.

It was not all bad though; the scallops were quite tasty as were the shrimp and vegetable tempura. Fried chicken, yes I said it, fried chicken, and it was some of the best I’ve had in Montreal! The fried tofu was also lovely. The tamagoyaki (omelette) had a nice, light, sweet sauce. To sum this up, the best portions of the meal were the non-sushi portions and these portions were just OK. We could easily go to Kanda and get every item, plus great sushi for about the same price. Exception to the fried chicken, however, fried chicken should not be the sole reason you return to an Asian fusion restaurant.