A friendly, casual épicerie in NDG
Montreal Korean & Japanese Food is an old favorite of ours on Sherbrooke (where it intersects Beaconsfield Avenue). If you’re craving octopus dumplings or shibazuke, this épicerie has you covered. Like the nearly century-old Épicerie Segal on boul. Saint-Laurent, it’s a casual grocer not concerned about superficial appearances. Montreal Korean & Japanese Food also has a store downtown at 1829 Sainte-Catherine W, between Saint-Mathieu and Saint-Marc.
It’s a whole lot smaller than other places we’ve reviewed here like Marché Newon and Marché Hawai. But we often find exactly what we need at the Montreal Korean & Japanese Food store. Enough with the talking, here are some photos (descriptions below):
Notes on photos of Montreal Korean & Japanese Food
Sure, you can get Ajinomoto Hondashi bonito soup stock at Walmart, but I’d rather not support an American multinational retail corporation whose primary mission is to put small stores (like Montreal Korean & Japanese Food) out of business. And you absolutely do need some Hondashi in your kitchen.
Can a little bowl of rice be eaten without furikake? Perish the thought.
Yuzu is all the rage these days. But it’s not only a neat word; yuzu adds dimension to the right dish.
Black soybean natto is a nutritious, traditional (of Japanese origin) soy food fermented with Bacillus natto, a strain of bacteria from a species widely used to support the immune system prior to the introduction of antibiotics. A popular breakfast food in Korea, many Westerners find black soybean natto disgusting because after fermentation it’s covered with a whitish viscous substance that looks slimy. (Not to mention, they are likely to tell you it smells and tastes horrible). Black soybeans are best known for furnishing protein, isoflavones, vitamin E, saponins, carotenoids, and anthocyanins. Yet they also contain “numerous bioactive compounds which inhibit low-density lipoprotein oxidation, scavenge free radicals, and reduce the incidence of DNA damage by cyclophosphamide”.
Hey, that’s not a bad idea: a store-made spicy soup mix offering fresh vegetables and meat. Just add 1 litre of water and boil for 10 minutes.
A soy sauce for egg. What makes it different than regular soy sauce? The usual ingredients in a soy sauce like Kikkoman’s are soybeans, wheat, salt, water, and something like Aspergillus mold to induce fermentation. The “soy sauce for egg” doesn’t use Aspergillus, but does include more than just the soybeans, wheat, salt, and water: there’s katsuobushi extract, sugar, yeast extract, kelp extract, spirits, and thiamine dilauryl sulfate (an anti-microbial preservative).
A wide range of anchovy products, including small refrigerated containers of different flavorings.