DOLLARBOUFFE ON A ROLL IN BROSSARD
In an area that has become an under-the-radar destination for Chinese cuisine, this popular food-court spot stands out with regional Taishanese dishes that aren't often found on menus
A month before the pandemic shut down restaurants in Montreal, I watched chef Jin Song Zhu ladle ground rice batter onto a large metal tray greased with onion and garlic oil in a food court in Brossard. Tilting the pan to spread the batter thinly, he slid the tray into a steamer rack in a machine about as tall as he is. A minute later, he removed the tray. The rice batter had bubbled up, but it quickly collapsed and appeared translucent until he scraped it toward himself, a third at a time, into a wrinkled bundle. The result was an edible magic trick: three pieces of what looked like stuck-together rice noodles that stretched like stringy melted cheese when pulled with chopsticks.
Fast-forward 18 months into the pandemic and much has changed in the restaurant world, but Zhu is still the master behind these rice rolls at Dollarbouffe, the almost six-year-old Taishanese establishment in Brossard's Place Portobello. Customers order them stuffed with fried shrimp, beef, vegetables, chicken or in-house barbecue pork, then top them with a puddle of soy sauce or XO sauce, making for a deliciously salty hit with every pull and slurp. They're so much fun and so tasty, it's easy to forget to eat slowly so you can continue playing with your food.
I came to Dollarbouffe after reading a report that a disproportionately large number of Google searches for Chinese cuisine in Quebec originated in Brossard. All that means is that more people in the area were searching for information about Chinese food, from recipes for Ricardo's fondue chinoise to restaurants.
But while people from Brossard weren't necessarily searching for Chinese restaurants in Brossard, the area is an under-the-radar destination for Chinese cuisine, from dim sum banquet halls to all-youcan-eat places to strip-mall favourites. It even has a food-court gem specializing in regional Chinese cuisine: Dollarbouffe, with its rice rolls and long-simmered congee (a rice porridge peppered with beef, chicken, seafood or more exotic options) — homestyle dishes not often found in Montreal restaurants. I also wanted to profile a family-owned Chinese restaurant serving something unique, after hearing that Chinese restaurants in North America were struggling because of reports of a then-new virus that originated in China.
When Zhu opened Dollarbouffe in Place Portobello with his wife, Cao Xue Yun, in 2016, a handful of restaurants in the mall's food court had recently closed. But Zhu says Dollarbouffe started filling the food court with customers. Saint Cinnamon was about to leave, but signed a new lease. Mediterra also stuck around — its sign and Mediterranean menu now translated into Chinese — and a couple places have since opened, including the family-run Mexican spot Impactaco.
Martin Chan, a regular customer and family friend of the owners, said that before Dollarbouffe opened he had only eaten at the food court once in 39 years. “We used to go to Jean Coutu and Maxi, and the food court was always empty. There might be one or two customers,” he said. But after Dollarbouffe moved in, his parents started eating there almost every day. “It's actually helped other restaurants here. Us, too, we eat at the Mexican place.”
Zhu's decision to open here was a practical one. “I live just on the other side of Taschereau and I wanted to be close to my home and my two young children. I didn't think a lot of people would come,” he said. But the Asian and non-asian communities have been supportive, he added, and word spread.
Zhu came to Quebec with his parents in 1995, when he and his wife were engaged. Montreal was an affordable and safe city with cleaner air than China, he said.