Little Britain in Montreal*

(*Apologies, but sadly there is no Matt Lucas or David Williams here.)

The next time your smuggled deep-fried fish** gets confiscated at airport customs from your luggage on your way home from the UK because you couldn't resist sharing the lovely flakes of fish with your friends and family here back home, great news! You can take a deliciously deep-fried lump of fish and crispy chips home from right here, in Old Montreal!


[Haddock in maple syrup batter to the left; cod in Burgundy Lion batter to the right. Oh yes.]

Tucked away at the edge of Old Montreal, in the former McGill Hog Dog diner spot, Brit & Chips is Montreal's answer to the staple UK take-away food, complete with artery-clogging tartar sauce and the lemon wedge designed to fit entirely in your mouth.

[Good-looking take-away boxes and the contents about to get eaten! (cw from the top: haddock, cod and salmon).]

Run, don't walk, down to this chippy if you're in the hood. Oh and maybe shell out a measly $11 bucks for some fish and chips while you're there!

Brit & Chips
433 Rue Mcgill
www.britandchips.com

** Thanks to the peeps at the Darkside HK, I have been enlightened to this "delicacy" of a fried fish practice in some part of China that will cause me to have nightmares for years to come. As if dreaming about talking sandwiches wasn't already disturbing enough!

salty cat bones

oh, on the marmite note again, they're so nuts in the uk about marmite, they dip cat bones in it, bag them, and sell them to un-witting consumers under the cutesy name of twiglets.


not sure salty cat bones would fly well here, judging by little jb's reaction.

a discussion on egg tarts

those who know me know that i am an egg tart fiend (the likely culprit behind my "extra luggage" from my expeditions in the far east).


["chieu-pei" or "flaky crust" egg tart. actually this one tasted kind of gross and lardy, like eating a spoonful of tenderflake.]

egg tarts ("dan-tat") abound in hong kong and macau, where they were popularized around WWII by "cha-chaan tengs" (tea and food restaurants). in north america, you can find egg tarts in chinese bakeries and also in "cha-laus" where dim sum is served.

story goes either the british brought custard pies to hong kong (from which the chinese eggier version was adapted), and/or they were influenced by the portuguese egg tarts (see below).

the basic ingredients are simple: a buttload of eggs, milk and sugar, and sometimes food colouring. ginger, chocolate, papaya or other stuff (like bird's nest) can be added, but make them weird-flavoured.

[milk tarts, weaklings of the egg tart family.]

there are two main types of tart crusts:
- shortcrust. butter-based, more flavourful, and slightly denser.
- puff-pastry. lard-based, flakier, considered more genuine ("chieu-pei").

portuguese egg tarts ("po-tat" as my chinese kinfolk call them) are by far my favourite. called pastel de nata in their native portugal, the macanese ones delicate eggy cups of heaven, topped with slightly burned deliciousness... best. thing. ever.

(you can even get them right here in montreal, on the plateau.)

[macanese po-tart: flaky, eggy, and slightly burned... just like the way i like my boys.]


[a half dozen of po-tarts (minus one) from macau that quickly disappeared as soon as they were boxed... and no, i did not share.]

in hong kong however, the best one i had was from kfc, i kid you not. and do not judge me lest ye be judged.