Trilogie sparse yet charming
Bright and flavourful menu offers delightful range of tastes
It’s all dumplings, all the time, from the all-women team in the kitchen at Trilogie. Cute and feminine, unexpectedly so for this northern stretch of St-Laurent Blvd. near Highway 40, it could be the setting for a sweet film about a family-run restaurant — the Chinese dumplings equivalent of what Tampopo was to Japanese ramen. Opened this winter, the business is run by Anita Feng, a graphic design student, along with her sister, mother and aunt; together, the generations have roots in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, as well as Beijing. Their combined efforts have created an eatery that is sparsely smart, or smartly sparse: Just a few dishes on the menu, just serving lunch on weekdays, just a few seats, just a few personal touches to make it special.
The space itself takes a Pinterest approach to decor. It’s left to everyday objects — small things like a little floral tray over here, an enamel bowl over there, a vintage Thermos on a shelf — to become pieces to be considered for lines and design. Under a high ceiling, overhead lights are suspended from lowered junction boxes for some kind of a dainty industrial effect; front windows catch the sunshine reflected off the snowbanks outside. The room is minimalist (my boldly patterned scarf and fur hat looked like an art installation when hung on a hook on the wall) and it’s also a bit cold (I took my coat off said hook and slung it around my shoulders to keep warm), but it’s unquestionably charming.
So limited is the selection that the two of us on a lunch hour were able to order almost everything from the regular menu. First up was a Chinese mushroom salad; I was expecting to nibble on shiitakes under another name, but the fungus of choice was wood ear (Feng’s father has a grocery store in Chinatown, which supplies some ingredients here). Great crunchiness, they’re gelatinous in the best way, presented here under a battery of sesame seeds, big sprigs of cilantro and hot chilies. This was a favourite of mine for the uncomplicated way the effect was largely left up to texture, and for the latent heat of chilies lazing in after swallowing to add some interest.
My chef friend was more taken with the cucumber salad, which was definitely eyebrow raising. Lengths of crushed Lebanese cukes were tossed in a gently hot black vinegar-sesame oil dressing, with dried Szechuan chilies and the faintest mentholated prickle of Szechuan peppercorns, topped with a sort of Asian méli-mélo of oven-roasted peanuts coated five spice. A highcontrast combo well suited to eating with doughy dumplings.
Trilogie’s spring rolls were basic and fresh packages of shredded veggies, nothing more, but costing nothing more than $4. What was a total delight for both of us was an order of Hunan wontons in peanut sauce. The flippy-floppy dough forms, billowing over a loose nub of pork inside, were coated in a smooth, nutty-sweet, get-you- behind-the-molars sauce, set off with a sprinkling of spring onions on top.
On the main orders of dumplings, we scored two for three. The daily special of pork and corn mixed finely textured meat with little pops of sweet from the niblets. Those were quite good; even better were the umami, the name for the pork and Chinese cabbage and shrimp, perfectly browned for a little crustiness and studded with black and white sesame seeds and leaves of cilantro. The tilapia and baladi cucumber dumplings tasted as I’d anticipated, which is to say I didn’t quite get it, as much as the flavours of the fish and cuke were clean and fresh. The vegetarian option, which we didn’t try, is a filling of shiitake, vermicelli and tofu. Dumplings come with a choice of dipping sauces: that smooth and spiced peanut, a blend of sriracha, black vinegar and hoisin, another of tamari and sesame, and the very appealing black vinegar with house hot sauce.
In materials and colours, desserts echoed the dishes that had preceded them on the table. Most obviously, fried sweet potato dumplings, with a not-too-sweet purée on the interior, coconut and fresh mint on the side. The other was a sort of Asian-style Jell-O pudding, with a dark jelly of Chinese herbs chopped up and mixed into coconut cream with grated ginger on top — vaguely medicinal, but I liked it.
We visited at the tail end of Chinese New Year celebrations, and the team was ushering in the year of the goat with specials like fried sesame balls, little sticky rice balls in Asian pear and black tea soup, and lotus root salad; they were out of this last or I would have tried it.
There’s a certain simplicity and graciousness in Trilogie’s tiny room that carries the day; just as you feel it would be in any of these ladies’ homes.