English

Montreal’s other Chinatown in 2009

2009-04-13

I took advantage of Good Friday to go out with my camera to take pictures in the neighbourhood west of Concordia University. A new Chinatown has been thriving there for at least fifteen years. It was my personal experience as a consumer of Chinese food that usually led me to this area. It goes back … Continue reading “Montreal’s other Chinatown in 2009”

I took advantage of Good Friday to go out with my camera to take pictures in the neighbourhood west of Concordia University. A new Chinatown has been thriving there for at least fifteen years. It was my personal experience as a consumer of Chinese food that usually led me to this area. It goes back to 1993 when Soupe et Nouilles’ (Ste-Cath & St-Marc) concept of a soup and noodles fast-food restaurant with its kitchen in front was still novel to many Montrealers.

What used to be confined to North Americanized versions of Cantonese and Szechuanese (Sichuanese) regional genres is now evolving along the growing student and immigrant population from Mainland China. We now see an influx of new quick food restaurants that you commonly find in China, like brochette (chuan – 串) and homemade noodles, dumplings houses.

The pork sandwich, two loaves of flat crunchy bread with a mix of braised fatty pork and coriander (see picture), can notably be found at a cafeteria-like resto on St-Mathieu north of the Metro exit. Homemade noodles and dumplings (topic of a photo-article to be published) can also be found in the neighbourhood as a dumplings house opened on a residential stretch of St-Marc close to the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

General Tao Chicken and Orange Beef, ubiquitous in any Chinese restaurant ten years ago, are nowhere to be found in these of Chinatown West’s newest components.

Chinese restaurants, but also hair salons, “Asian-style” clothing stores now live side by side with Middle Eastern épiceries, takeouts and shisha joints. Whereas Chinatown is evolving in a very dramatic way with the building of a shiny new shopping and business centre, I find that Montreal’s other Chinatown has perhaps changed in a more gradual and low profile manner. And I’m sure it will continue to surprise me, at least food-wise.

View Montreal’s new Chinatown in a larger map

This article also appeared on Spacing Montreal.

Harbour Records 5th anniversary / 維港5年

2009-03-17

Semaine du 17 mars 2009 / Week of March 17th, 2009 1. 22 Cats – Queen of Diamond Hill 2. False Alarm – Hell’s Metal 3. Caffeine Park – Thunder Lightning Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show. … Continue reading “Harbour Records 5th anniversary / 維港5年”

Semaine du 17 mars 2009 / Week of March 17th, 2009

1. 22 Cats – Queen of Diamond Hill
2. False Alarm – Hell’s Metal
3. Caffeine Park – Thunder Lightning

Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show.

If you are in Hong Kong this Saturday, then don’t miss the Harbour Records 5th anniversary show at Fringe Club in Central.

Here are three bands/artists who had albums released with Harbour Records since 2004: 22Cats, False Alarm and Caffeine Park.

Rebecca MacKinnon speaks at Harvard

2009-03-10

I can’t help it but repost The Tao of the Web: China and the future of the Internet, the talk given by Rebecca MacKinnon, Hong Kong-based scholar and former bureau chief for CNN in Beijing and Tokyo. She was associated with the Berman Center for Internet and Society and a co-founder of the Global Voices … Continue reading “Rebecca MacKinnon speaks at Harvard”

I can’t help it but repost The Tao of the Web: China and the future of the Internet, the talk given by Rebecca MacKinnon, Hong Kong-based scholar and former bureau chief for CNN in Beijing and Tokyo. She was associated with the Berman Center for Internet and Society and a co-founder of the Global Voices Online. Etc, etc. But basically, it’s one of the very interesting conferences that I’ve seen about the Internet in China.

Regarde les Chinois : Cheuk Kwan 關卓

2009-02-16

En mai dernier, nous avons reçu Cheuk Kwan à la chronique Regarde les Chinois. Ingénieur de profession, Cheuk Kwan est mieux connu aujourd’hui pour sa série de films Chinese Restaurants traitant de la dispora chinoise à travers le monde vue à partir du restaurant familial. Se décrivant comme internationaliste, M. Kwan a grandi à Singapour avant d’arriver au Canada comme étudiant en 1969. En 1979, il a participé à la réaction à la controverse des Campus Giveaways du W-FIVE. Après un passage à Montréal, il a vécu successivement en Arabie Saoudite, au Japon et à Hong Kong, avant de revenir au Canada. Je l’ai rencontré à la sortie de la projection de son film au festival Accès Asie et on a parlé de ses films, les diasporas, de « chinoisitude ».

Last May, we welcomed Cheuk Kwan to our Regarde les Chinois column. Engineer by trade, Cheuk Kwan is better known today for his film series Chinese Restaurants on the Chinese diaspora seen through the family-owned restaurant. A self-described internationalist, Mr. Kwan grew up in Singapore before arriving to Canada in 1969 as a student. In 1979, he participated in the reaction to the W-FIVE Campus Giveaways controversy. After a stint in Montreal, he lived successively in Saudi Arabia, Japan and Hong Kong. I sat down with him after the screening of his film at the Accès Asie festival and we talked about his films, diasporas and “Chineseness”.

Continue reading “Regarde les Chinois : Cheuk Kwan 關卓”

Ginger milk curd 薑汁撞奶

2009-02-13

Following my experience in a dessert place in Markham (dessert houses in Montreal are rare to inexistent), I became obsessed with the idea of making one day my own ginger milk curd, or “keung zap zong nai” in Cantonese (薑汁撞奶). If the number of YouTube videos of people is a clue, then ginger curd is … Continue reading “Ginger milk curd 薑汁撞奶”

Following my experience in a dessert place in Markham (dessert houses in Montreal are rare to inexistent), I became obsessed with the idea of making one day my own ginger milk curd, or “keung zap zong nai” in Cantonese (薑汁撞奶). If the number of YouTube videos of people is a clue, then ginger curd is something that is definitely fun and intriguing to make.

Why that? Perhaps because it defies everyday conceptions. The principle of ginger curd is to take ginger juice, a mixture full of enzymes, and mix it to some warm sweetened milk. It’s supposed to react and make the milk curd, just like for tofu or cheese.

In 2006, a bunch of Hong Kong high school students’ science fair project won a prize and their presentation (PDF) became a hit on Google searches.

Ginger milk curd is a speciality of Guangdong, said to actually be from the locale of Panyu, nearby the provincial capital city of Guangdong and maybe where one of my grandmothers came from. It’s a staple dessert in Cantonese style (so, Hong Kong style) dessert houses all over the world. It is not known whether Montreal has a place that serves ginger milk curd, as not even the place I went to in Toronto made their own properly (they cheated by adding eggs, and it had the consistency of flan).

The recipe is rather simple, but just like any chemical experience, can be a little fussy. Here is the Flickr set of my two attempts at making ginger milk curd, the second time being successful:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smurfmatic/sets/72157613733786306/

You can certainly find many recipes in English on the Internet. I notably used this forum page and this page, as well as watching some of those videos. I ignore why my first attempt was a failure (it was ginger-flavoured milk in the end). On the next day, I went to the shop to get fresh ginger (the one I had was sitting in the fridge in a plastic bag for over three weeks and its flesh was getting brownish…). I removed the skin with much precaution in order to keep as much flesh as I could. Then I chopped it and extracted the juice. I heated some milk, and took it off the stove as soon as some steam was coming out.

I added two spoonfuls of sugar. Then I cooled down the milk a little, before pouring it in the ginger juice.

I left it there for twenty minutes on the counter and the mixture had coagulated! Then, I remembered that the taste of something extremely smooth (“waat” in Cantonese) is still somewhat unusual for a Western-trained palate such as mine.

I think it was pretty well done anyhow as it was very smooth, the milk protein having separated from its serum and with the consistency of egg whites (it was way softer than jello, say). Apparently, some people say that it improves your skin! But how can a glass of milk, sugar and some ginger juice do that?

SuperDay

2009-02-03

1. 巴士奇遇結良緣 (Strange Bus Here We Love) 2. 迷失超市 (Lost In Supermarket) 3. 有條尾 (Have A Tail) — Semaine du 3 février 2009 / Week of February 3rd, 2009 Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show. SuperDay is … Continue reading “SuperDay”

1. 巴士奇遇結良緣 (Strange Bus Here We Love)
2. 迷失超市 (Lost In Supermarket)
3. 有條尾 (Have A Tail)

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Semaine du 3 février 2009 / Week of February 3rd, 2009

Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show.

SuperDay is a band from Hong Kong, which I discovered through the AMK cover album. They are a cool sweet cutie rock band, reminiscent of Tai Tau Fat, another Hong Kong band with squeaky vocals.

SuperDay were formed in 2002 by band members Superman and Brian. They were joined by Kwok Chi and Regine, specialist of the “cute female vocals”. Two years later, she dropped from the band, and was replaced by current member Winnie.

I like Lost In Supermarket, which refers to local Hong Kong supermarkets in its lyrics.

AMK (Adam Met Karl)

2009-01-27

1. 茘園 Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park 2. 山頂. 公仔. 波板糖 The Peak, The Doll and The Lollipop 3. Girls who don’t want to go home — Semaine du 27 janvier 2009 / Week of January 27th, 2009 Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as … Continue reading “AMK (Adam Met Karl)”

1. 茘園 Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park
2. 山頂. 公仔. 波板糖 The Peak, The Doll and The Lollipop
3. Girls who don’t want to go home

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Semaine du 27 janvier 2009 / Week of January 27th, 2009

Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show.

AMK seems to have a certain cult status among today’s indie bands in Hong Kong. AMK stands for Adam Met Karl, where Adam is Adam Smith, while Karl is Karl Marx. They describe themselves as “one of the most influential local indie bands in HK” on their MySpace, which could be agreed upon, based on the fact that a bunch of bands got together and released In The Name of AMK (as seen on the picture here above), a tribute to the band published by Harbour Records and unfortunately out of stock.

AMK’s song topics vary between urban life and politics. They sound a lot like a band from the late 80s, early 90s, because they are precisely that. Their sound is eclectic: they have louder, noisier songs like 納粹黨勇戰希特拉 (Nazis vs. Hitler) and some more melodic ones like 轉轉轉 (Pirouette) that have elements like the chorus and violin that remind me of Belle and Sebastian (although AMK in fact predates B&S). They did a mix of “post-punk, blues rock, neo-classical, noiseike, gothic (and even rap)”.

I chose the songs quickly for the pre-recording last week and even botched my intervention on air where I claimed that Anson Mak was a boy! You can download songs from Mak’s personal website (check the page’s source and you’ll find links to the mp3 files). 茘園 (Lai Chi Kwok Amusement Park) is an instrumental piece named after a now-defunct Hong Kong amusement park.

Then, I chose 山頂·公仔·波板糖 (The Peak, the doll and the lollipop), from their 1995 album 請讓我回家 (Please Let Me Home), a cute indie rock song covered by My Little Airport on In The Name of AMK. Since I did know that In The Name of AMK was a cover album, I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the original. The cover version played on a synthesizer and had even been my phone ringer for a long time.

The last song was “Girls who don’t want to go home” also from that 1995 album, which contains my favourite songs so far. It sounds like the kind of song you’d use as the ending song to some 90s (or pseudo-90s) satirical movie.

Judging on the length of this entry, you could say that I’m presenting one of my favourite bands in a long time!

Spécial du Nouvel An chinois à RCV 102,3FM

2009-01-21

L’équipe chinoise de Radio Centre-Ville présentera son émission spéciale du Nouvel An chinois ce dimanche matin de 8h à 11h. L’émission durera trois heures, et j’aurai de mon côté une dizaine de minutes vers 9h pour parler de ma célébration du Nouvel An avec mes amis ce vendredi à partir d’extraits sonores reconstitués. (voir détails … Continue reading “Spécial du Nouvel An chinois à RCV 102,3FM”

The Radio Centre-Ville Chinese team will present its annual Chinese New Year special program this Sunday morning from 8AM to 11AM. The show will last for three hours and I’ll be having some ten minutes to discuss how a zuk sing like me celebrates the Chinese New Year with friends from sound clips that I will have recorded. (see show details)

Écoutez l’émission / Listen to the program

8-9AM: [audio:http://media.montreal1023.net/full/2009/%E6%96%B0%E5%B9%B4200901250800.mp3]

9-10AM: [audio:http://media.montreal1023.net/full/2009/%E6%96%B0%E5%B9%B4200901250900.mp3]

10-11AM: [audio:http://media.montreal1023.net/full/2009/%E6%96%B0%E5%B9%B4200901251000.mp3]

Qian HE (Mandarin team Sunday host) and Yvonne LO (Cantonese team Wednesday host)

Joyside – Booze at Neptune’s Dawn

2009-01-20

1. Booze At Dawn 2. Neptune Child 3. Sister Lunatic — Semaine du 20 janvier 2009 / Week of January 20th, 2009 Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show. The band of the week is Joyside, a relatively … Continue reading “Joyside – Booze at Neptune’s Dawn”

1. Booze At Dawn
2. Neptune Child
3. Sister Lunatic

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Semaine du 20 janvier 2009 / Week of January 20th, 2009

Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show.

The band of the week is Joyside, a relatively well-known band among punk/rock bands on the Beijing scene. They are regulars at D-22 and have been in some documentaries about the phenomenon of Beijing rock of the post-Cui Jian era.

I don’t know what to think of them, except that they are like you would expect from any rock band in the world: they like booze, women, are loud and outspoken.

Orange Doll 橘娃娃

2009-01-13

1. 熱血的男孩 Hot-blooded boy 2. 水果糖 Fruit Candy (Live) 3. 逃到墾丁去 (Jumping to Kenting) — Semaine du 13 janvier 2009 / Week of January 13th, 2009 Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show. One of the bands that … Continue reading “Orange Doll 橘娃娃”

1. 熱血的男孩 Hot-blooded boy
2. 水果糖 Fruit Candy (Live)
3. 逃到墾丁去 (Jumping to Kenting)

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Semaine du 13 janvier 2009 / Week of January 13th, 2009

Listen live to Radio Centre-Ville in Montreal. My part plays every Tuesday nights at around 11PM as part of the Chinese Cantonese musical show.

One of the bands that marked my trip to Spring Scream 2008 in Kenting, Taiwan, was Orange Doll (blog). It was one of the small bands that I discovered on my first night there. Hailing from Kaohsiung, Orange Doll is a three-girl, one-boy band that plays this sort of indie pop rock that I like a lot, with soft vocals provided by front-woman Wama. Another band member, bassist Yuco, cites HK’s My Little Airport as one of the bands she likes.

Earlier in January 2009, they were part of a show at Taipei’s The Wall livehouse called Voices from the South (Chinese).